Install and first launch

Public release coming

The download link will be added when the public version is released.

Install

1. Unzip the download wherever you like, for example D:\CoCo-Image-Studio. Keep the path short, and don’t put it in a synced folder such as OneDrive or Dropbox.

2. Double-click CoCo Image Studio.exe. The first time, Windows may show “Windows protected your PC”: choose “More info”, then “Run anyway”. CoCo’s launcher has no paid code-signing certificate, so Windows doesn’t recognise it yet; it won’t ask again.

3. The first run asks which install you want; type 1 or 2:

   • 1 Full (about 4 GB once installed, needs an NVIDIA graphics card): every feature.
   • 2 Light (about 1 GB once installed): the gallery, explore, compare, recombine, output, the library, and the prompts and tags on the generate page (write a prompt in CoCo, then generate it elsewhere). It can’t generate images, and refine and training are preview only. Explore runs on the CPU, so no graphics card is needed.

   If no NVIDIA graphics card is found, Light is recommended. It then asks whether to add a CoCo shortcut to the desktop and the Start menu; type Y or N.

4. It then sets up its own environment and downloads the packages it needs (PyTorch and others). On a fast connection that takes ten to twenty minutes.

5. When it’s done, CoCo opens in your browser at http://127.0.0.1:7789.

The CoCo folder holds only CoCo Image Studio.exe and a data folder (plus the README and LICENSE). Your images, models, settings and CoCo’s program are all inside data; to open CoCo, use CoCo Image Studio.exe. You can also pin it to the taskbar.

You don’t need to install Python: the first run downloads the official Python 3.11.9 (about 17 MB) into the data folder. Any Python already on your computer isn’t affected.

Switching from light to full

In ⚙ Settings → Other, press “Switch to full install” (the same button is on the generate, refine and training pages), then close and reopen CoCo; it installs the rest automatically. A full install can’t be switched back to light.

Every time after that

Double-click CoCo Image Studio.exe or the desktop shortcut. It refreshes the library index, then opens CoCo.

To quit CoCo, close the black console window. Closing only the browser tab leaves CoCo running in the background.

Will it touch my existing setup?

No. Python, PyTorch and every package live inside the data folder (data\python\, data\venv\), separate from the Python and other programs already installed on your system. You can move or rename the whole CoCo folder without reinstalling; recreate the shortcut afterwards. Models CoCo downloads also stay inside the data folder instead of piling up in your user folder on drive C.

Uninstall

Delete the CoCo folder.

Caution

That also deletes data\outputs\ (your generated images) and data\models\ (any models kept inside CoCo). Move out anything you want to keep first.

If something goes wrong

• “is not recognized as an internal command”: make sure the whole archive was unzipped. CoCo Image Studio.exe should sit next to the data folder, which holds CoCo.bat and the core, server, web and tools folders.
• “cannot see your GPU”: reinstalling won’t help. Update your NVIDIA driver to 580 or newer, then check that the card looks normal in Device Manager.

For anything else, see Troubleshooting.