Download the Folding@home software application
To join the Folding@home public distributed computing effort, simply click on a download link below appropriate for your computer's operating system. To help with the installation and running of Folding@home, we provide both installation guides (book icon) and FAQs (question mark icon). Please review these for help in deciding what type of client to run and in choosing a user name if any (certain characters are reserved):
- How do I choose a username?
- How do I start or join a Team?
- What are the different types of clients?
- High performance clients (GPU, SMP/multicore)
- Older clients (for Windows 98/ME, older Power PC machines)
List of available clients
Recommended software (based on information furnished by your browser)
| Operating system | Version # | Click to download | Installation instructions | License info (legal stuff) | MD5-sum |
| Windows | |||||
| Windows XP/2003/Vista System tray client installer with viewer | 6.20 | 
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| 60456ba01cad6693e113bdf3b7e6afa9 Released: 2008-08-01 |
| Windows XP/2003/Vista Console client only zip file (with Windows-service-install option). Uninstall any existing FAH services made with pre 6.20 clients before updating. | 6.20 |
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| 1d3bd6b87286aa9cff3d9a8b91f7dae5 Released: 2008-08-01 |
| Linux | |||||
| Linux (x86) and BSD *combined uniprocessor and SMP client* (64-bit required for SMP) | 6.02 | 
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| 112b3d66909050f1bb990993a1464cb9 Released: 2008-07-02 |
| Macintosh | |||||
| Mac OS X 10.4+ Intel/PPC Universal Installer w/console (SMP on Intel only) | 6.20 | 
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| 5168272f9e8ab6cf96162693f89cc782 Released: 2008-07-31 |
| Mac OS X (Intel) SMP OS X 10.4+ | 6.02 console only | 
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| 69877148fe40621ecffcf222866b91da Released: 2008-07-02 |
| PLAYSTATION3 | |||||
| Playstation 3 | 1.3.1 | 
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| N/A |
- How do I choose a username?
- How do I start or join a Team?
- What are the different types of clients?
- High performance clients (GPU, SMP/multicore)
- Older clients (for Windows 98/ME, older Power PC machines)
How do I choose a username?
To check if a name is already being used, use this search tool.
Type your name above (where it says "YourName") to see if that user name is already being used. You can also choose not to have a username and just donate your CPU time anonymously (user name = anonymous).
You can choose any name you like, as long as it contains only letters or numbers (to insert a space, you can use the underscore "_" character). If you choose your email address as your username, we will NOT print your full email address. Instead, just the part before the @ sign will be used in any stats listing, etc.
How do I start or join a Team?
There are many teams already folding for the project. One of those teams may have lead you here. To join that team, simply enter their team # in to the client setup when you install the client. Or you can start a new team using the Create a Team page linked from the Stats page.
What are the different types of clients?
The Console client runs in the background and is launched from a terminal window (command line i.e. DOS window), to which they output text messages about the simulation's progress. The graphical clients (former GUI or current System Tray) run in the background and has a graphics window interface that allows you to see the protein being simulated. The v4.x Screensaver client runs like other screensavers, except that it also runs our calculation in the background. However, a separate Screensaver version is being phased out, and that feature has been rolled in to the graphical clients. High Performance and Beta clients are detailed at the bottom of this page.
Beta clients. We often release clients early for donors to beta test. These beta versions likely have some rough edges, but we expect that they should work reasonably well for all donors. See the respective installation instructions for more details of known bugs for each of the beta versions.
As in the use of any beta software, please make sure to back up your hard drive before installing. DO NOT not run a beta client if you or your machines cannot tolerate even the slightest instability or problems. Beta clients and servers performance may vary significantly from standard FAH clients during the development process, including but not limited to work unit shortages, server downtime for upgrades, and Points Per Day that differs a little or a lot from the developmental benchmark level.
High performance clients (GPU, SMP/multicore)
High Performance clients. In addition to the clients that run in the background on typical computers, we also offer high performance clients, such as the GPU, SMP, and PS3 clients. These clients use more system resources, but are also much more productive. Please consider the use of these clients carefully. See the respective GPU, GPU2, SMP, and PS3 FAQs for more information.
For expert Folding@home donors interested in running beta version client software for Windows, please go to our High Performance Windows Clients page.
Older clients (for Windows 98/ME, older Power PC machines)
We have kept a few older clients available for download in order to handle older machines or Operating Systems. We do not recommend these clients for more recent computers. Please go to our older client download page for older clients and more information.
For More Information, Please See:
Last Updated on August 27, 2008, at 11:04 AM