This section of the Wiki details the first basic steps you need to undertake to get Mystic BBS running on your system of choice.

Head to mysticbbs.com to download a copy of the latest Mystic BBS software for your preferred operating system. You will need to choose between the current STABLE version of Mystic or the latest ALPHA version that is on offer.

The latest alpha release is for people who want to help test new features or run the a cutting edge version of Mystic BBS. Don't be surprised to see the alpha versions changing quite often during a development phase.

If you are running a current stable version of Mystic BBS and wish to upgrade to the latest alpha release - this is usually possible. Refer to the UPGRADE.TXT file contained in the Mystic BBS file archive.

TBC

—> Backup your current Mystic BBS system before you get started! ←–

• Decompress the file containing the Mystic installation software for the operating system of your choice. There is a useful walk-through on howtogeek.com that uses 7-zip as an extraction tool.

• Run the install file contained within the archive to start up the Mystic BBS Installation Utility.

• Review the Upgrade Information and read Whats New from the Installation Utility menu or find them as whatsnew.txt and upgrade.txt in the installation archive you decompressed.

• Select Install Mystic BBS from the Mystic BBS Installation Utility menu

• Update the paths (if you want to) for the Mystic system, data, text etc. files to reside in.

Hint 1: If you change the system directory the rest of the of directories will be updated also.

Hint 2: The the Installation Utility will not allow you to install over the top of an existing Mystic BBS installation.

If you are updating to a newer version chose a system directory like c:\mystictemp to force the installer to run and create all the system files you will want. Then copy the files from the newly created installation in to your 'live' Mystic BBS system (most likely in c:\mystic).

At this point you will have either a fresh installation of Mystic BBS sitting on your system or you would be following the upgrade instructions in upgrade.txt contained in the c:\mystic\docs directory.

If you are setting up a new Mystic system from scratch the next step is to create a user account for yourself and grant it system operator (sysop) privileges.