For Windows

  1. Navigate to the Tor Browser download page.

  2. Download the Windows .exe file.

  3. (Recommended) Verify the file's signature.

  4. When the download is complete, double click the .exe file. Complete the installation wizard process.

For macOS

  1. Navigate to the Tor Browser download page.

  2. Download the macOS .dmg file.

  3. (Recommended) Verify the file's signature.

  4. When the download is complete, double click the .dmg file. Complete the installation wizard process.

For GNU/Linux

  1. Navigate to the Tor Browser download page.

  2. Download the GNU/Linux .tar.xz file.

  3. (Recommended) Verify the file's signature.

  4. Now follow either the graphical or the command-line method:

Graphical method

  • When the download is complete, extract the archive using an archive manager.

  • You'll need to tell your GNU/Linux that you want the ability to execute shell scripts. Navigate to the newly extracted Tor Browser directory. Right click on start-tor-browser.desktop, open Properties or Preferences and change the permission to allow executing file as program. Double-click the icon to start up Tor Browser for the first time.

Make the .desktop file executable in Linux

Note: On Ubuntu and some other distros if you try to launch start-tor-browser.desktop a text file might open up. To change this behavior and launch Tor Browser instead, follow this:

  • Launch "Files" (GNOME Files/Nautilus)
  • Click on Preferences.
  • Navigate to the 'Behavior' Tab.
  • Select "Run them" or "Ask what to do" under "Executable Text Files".
  • If you choose the latter click on "Run" after launching the start-tor-browser.desktop file.

Change behavior of executable text file to always run in Linux

Command-line method

  • When the download is complete, extract the archive with the command tar -xf [TB archive].

  • From inside the Tor Browser directory, you can launch Tor Browser by running:

    ‪./start-tor-browser.desktop

    Note: If this command fails to run, you probably need to make the file executable. From within this directory run: chmod +x start-tor-browser.desktop

Some additional flags that can be used with start-tor-browser.desktop from the command-line:

Flag Description
‪--register-app To register Tor Browser as a desktop application.
‪--verbose To display Tor and Firefox output in the terminal.
‪--log [file] To record Tor and Firefox output in file (default: tor-browser.log).
‪--detach To detach from terminal and run Tor Browser in the background.
‪--unregister-app To unregister Tor Browser as a desktop application.

See here on how to update Tor Browser.