---
title: Windows
icon: windows
description: Set up WinFsp on Windows for MIRAGE FUSE mounts (Python, experimental).
---

## FUSE on Windows

Windows has no native FUSE. MIRAGE's Python FUSE mounts run on
[WinFsp](https://winfsp.dev/), a maintained Windows file system driver with a
FUSE-compatible layer. Support is **experimental**: the FUSE integration
battery passes in CI on `windows-latest`, but Windows is not yet a fully
supported platform. The TypeScript SDK has no Windows FUSE support at all
(its binding only targets macOS and Linux).

### Install WinFsp

Requires Windows 10 (1809+) or Windows 11.

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="winget">
    ```powershell
    winget install -e --id WinFsp.WinFsp
    ```
  </Tab>
  <Tab title="Chocolatey">
    ```powershell
    choco install winfsp -y
    ```
  </Tab>
  <Tab title="Installer">
    Download the MSI from the [WinFsp releases page](https://winfsp.dev/rel/)
    and run it.
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

No reboot or driver-signing steps are needed (unlike macFUSE on macOS).

### Verify

```powershell
pip install "mirage-ai[fuse]"
python -c "import mfusepy; print('WinFsp FUSE loaded')"
```

`mfusepy` locates `winfsp-x64.dll` through the registry; if the import
succeeds, the driver is reachable.

## Windows-specific behavior

MIRAGE handles the WinFsp conventions automatically, but three behaviors
differ from macOS/Linux and are worth knowing:

- **Unmount happens at process exit.** There is no `fusermount` on Windows;
  WinFsp releases the mount when the process serving it exits. Closing the
  workspace does not actively unmount.
- **Ownership is a mount-level mapping.** All files appear owned by the user
  who mounted the filesystem (WinFsp's `uid=-1,gid=-1` mapping). Per-file
  POSIX owners from backends are not represented.
- **`stat` opens a handle.** Windows cannot query file attributes without
  opening the file, so size-unknown API-backed files fetch their content on
  the first per-file `stat` and immediately report the real size — where
  macOS/Linux report 0 until first open. Directory listings stay cheap on
  all platforms.

Unlike macOS, multiple FUSE mounts per process work on Windows.

See the [FUSE support matrix](/home/setup/fuse) for the full OS and language
overview.
