# Install

> Bring a Linux or Windows host onto Whisper Endpoint: the CLI, your key, the bound host identity, then the sensor service, in that order.

*Source: https://www.whisper.security/docs/endpoint/install*

---
Bringing a host up is four steps on either platform, and they are separate on purpose: the binary, your key, the host's identity, then the service. Leave the third out and the service installs, runs, and drops everything it collects.

A host that finished all four answers like this:

```bash
systemctl status whisper-sensor
```

```text
whisper-sensor: active (running)
```

Work through [Install on Linux](/docs/endpoint/install/linux) or [Install on Windows](/docs/endpoint/install/windows) from the top; each ends with the commands that prove the sensor is reporting. [Bind the host](/docs/endpoint/install/enroll) is worth reading on its own, because it decides whether anything the sensor collects ever leaves the machine, and because it is the reason root needs `sudo -E` rather than plain `sudo`.

[The sensor service](/docs/endpoint/install/service) is the reference for the verbs, the two units, the files each one writes, and the ceilings declared on the unit. [Upgrade and remove](/docs/endpoint/install/remove) covers a newer binary in place, taking the service off a host, and taking the host off altogether, which also gives up its address.