I closed PowerShell during setup. Do I need to reinstall?

Troubleshooting
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1

Adapted community discussion: Paraphrased and condensed from an anonymized public OpenClaw Discord support conversation from August 2026. Technical guidance was reviewed for OpenClaw 2026.9.3.

I accidentally closed PowerShell while OpenClaw was asking for an API key. When I tried the installer again, it said OpenClaw was already installed even though I had not finished configuring anything. Do I need to remove it and start over?

2

You probably completed installation and interrupted onboarding. There is no need to reinstall. Open a new PowerShell window and run:

openclaw.cmd --version
openclaw.cmd onboard

If setup still looks incomplete afterward, run openclaw.cmd doctor. Enter credentials only in OpenClaw’s protected prompt, never in a forum post.

3

PowerShell says the openclaw.ps1 file cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system.

4

That is a PowerShell execution-policy issue, not a failed OpenClaw installation. Use the Windows command launcher instead:

openclaw.cmd --version
openclaw.cmd onboard

If Windows cannot find it, run:

& "$env:APPDATA\npm\openclaw.cmd" onboard

This avoids broadening the machine’s PowerShell execution policy.

5

What keys do I press to do that?

6

Press the Windows key, type PowerShell, and press Enter. Type openclaw.cmd --version, press Enter, then type openclaw.cmd onboard and press Enter. During onboarding, use the arrow keys to choose an option and Enter to select it.

7

Okay, thanks.