Installing
A one-off step the first time you open it.
Oriel isn’t yet signed with an Apple or Microsoft developer certificate (because certificates add significant extra cost), so the first time you open it your computer will warn that it can’t check who made it. You’ll see this warning for any app without a certificate. Follow the steps below once, and after that Oriel opens normally.
Mac
- Open the downloaded Oriel.dmg file.
- Drag Oriel into the Applications folder, then eject the disk image.
- Open Oriel from Applications. A message will say that Apple could not verify it. Click Done.
- Open System Settings, choose Privacy & Security, and scroll down to Security.
- Next to the message saying Oriel was blocked, click Open Anyway, then enter your Mac password.
- Open Oriel again, and click Open when asked.
If your Mac says Oriel “is damaged and can’t be opened”: the app isn’t damaged. macOS shows this for some downloaded apps that have no certificate. Open Terminal (in Applications → Utilities), paste this line and press Return, then open Oriel as usual:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Oriel.app
Windows
- Your browser may warn that the file isn’t commonly downloaded. In Edge, click … next to the download, choose Keep, then Show more → Keep anyway. In Chrome, choose Keep.
- Open the downloaded Oriel-setup.exe.
- If a blue box says Windows protected your PC, click More info, then Run anyway.
- Follow the installer’s steps. Oriel then appears in the Start menu.
If Windows blocks Oriel with no option to run it: your PC may have Smart App Control switched on, or your organisation may control which apps you can install. On a university or work computer, ask your IT team to allow Oriel.
Stuck? Ask an AI chatbot, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot, for help. Tell it which step you reached and what you can see on screen.
Installed? Follow the quick start to set up your first project and code your first passage.
Checking your download (optional)
To confirm your download arrived intact, compare its SHA-256 checksum with the one shown here. On a Mac, run shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/Oriel.dmg in Terminal. On Windows, run Get-FileHash .\Oriel-setup.exe in PowerShell from your Downloads folder.
- Mac
- Windows
Terms of use
Oriel is currently in beta. Until the full release, you’re more likely to meet bugs, and more serious ones, including bugs that could affect your projects. Oriel backs up your projects automatically, but until it has been tested with many different types of project in real-world use, data loss is still theoretically possible.
Oriel is provided free of charge, “as is”, without warranty of any kind. You download, install and use it at your own risk. To the fullest extent the law allows, Justin Aunger is not responsible for any loss of data, or any other loss or damage, that results from downloading, installing or using Oriel. Keep your own backups of your research data and projects.
Feature updates and bug fixes are planned, but they are not guaranteed, and Oriel may change or stop being available at any time.
Nothing here limits any liability that cannot be limited by law.
