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shariff's avatar
Level 50

Laravel Herd In windows

Hello

I've just started using Laravel Herd on my Windows 11. But I can't seem to find the Herd interface (GUI) or settings that lets me switch between PHP versions. Even though Herd is running in the background according to the task manager, the actual application window doesn't show up. I'm not sure if I'm missing something.

Thanks for the help

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8 replies
LaryAI's avatar
Level 58

It sounds like you're having trouble accessing the Laravel Herd GUI on your Windows 11 system. Laravel Herd is designed to run as a system tray application, so it might not open in a window like traditional applications. Here's what you can do to access the Laravel Herd interface:

  1. Look for the Laravel Herd icon in your system tray. The system tray is usually located at the bottom right corner of your screen, near the clock. You might need to click on the small upward arrow (often called the "show hidden icons" button) to reveal more icons.

  2. Once you find the Laravel Herd icon, click on it to open the Laravel Herd menu. From there, you should be able to access the GUI and settings.

  3. If you can't find the icon, try restarting Laravel Herd. You can do this by ending the task in the Task Manager and then starting Laravel Herd again.

  4. If Laravel Herd still doesn't show up, it might not be starting correctly. Try running Laravel Herd as an administrator by right-clicking on the Laravel Herd executable and selecting "Run as administrator."

  5. If none of the above steps work, you may need to reinstall Laravel Herd to ensure that it's installed correctly.

Here's a small example of how you might run Laravel Herd from the command line, which could give you more information if it's failing to start properly:

# Navigate to the directory where Laravel Herd is installed
cd "path\to\laravel\herd"

# Run Laravel Herd
start herd.exe

Replace "path\to\laravel\herd" with the actual path to your Laravel Herd installation directory.

If you continue to have issues, consider reaching out to the Laravel Herd community or checking the official documentation for further troubleshooting steps.

1 like
shariff's avatar
Level 50

@laryai After running the command start herd.exe I'm the getting the following errors

[DEP0128] DeprecationWarning: Invalid 'main' field in 'C:\Program Files\Herd\resources\app.asar\node_modules\ini-api\package.json' of './dist/index.js'. Please either fix that or report it to the module author
(Use `herd --trace-deprecation ...` to show where the warning was created)
FATAL ERROR: Error::ThrowAsJavaScriptException napi_throw
 1: 00007FF75F688506 node::SetTracingController+86134
 2: 00007FF75F688644 node::OnFatalError+276
 3: 00007FF75FE56B20 napi_fatal_error+144
 4: 00007FFD06DF19D7
 5: 00007FFD06DF1DA6
 6: 00007FFD06E0ADC9
 7: 00007FF75FE59603 node_api_get_module_file_name+1987
 8: 00007FF75FD6CA3C uv_dlerror+71276
 9: 00007FF75FD6C893 uv_dlerror+70851
10: 00007FF75FE7FA34 uv_fs_poll_getpath+1444
11: 00007FF75F70B2D0 uv_run+1888
12: 00007FF75F70AD6B uv_run+507
13: 00007FF75F6D741C node::loader::ModuleWrap::Initialize+164380
14: 00007FF75F6D7D42 node::loader::ModuleWrap::Initialize+166722
15: 00007FF75F70340A node::FreeEnvironment+186
16: 00007FF75D83FE95 v8::Extension::auto_enable+981
17: 00007FF75D78BCD6 std::__Cr::vector<v8::CpuProfileDeoptFrame,std::__Cr::allocator<v8::CpuProfileDeoptFrame> >::__alloc+75606
18: 00007FF75E784254 uv_fs_get_path+118644
19: 00007FF75E785EEE uv_fs_get_path+125966
20: 00007FF75E7810C0 uv_fs_get_path+105952
21: 00007FF75D94D582 v8::internal::StrongRootAllocatorBase::StrongRootAllocatorBase+541458
22: 00007FF75D94E924 v8::internal::StrongRootAllocatorBase::StrongRootAllocatorBase+546484
23: 00007FF75D94E6A4 v8::internal::StrongRootAllocatorBase::StrongRootAllocatorBase+545844
24: 00007FF75D94A9E0 v8::internal::StrongRootAllocatorBase::StrongRootAllocatorBase+530288
25: 00007FF75D94AB5D v8::internal::StrongRootAllocatorBase::StrongRootAllocatorBase+530669
26: 00007FF75D68CBC5 std::__Cr::vector<v8::CpuProfileDeoptInfo,std::__Cr::allocator<v8::CpuProfileDeoptInfo> >::vector<v8::CpuProfileDeoptInfo,std::__Cr::allocator<v8::CpuProfileDeoptInfo> >+60933
27: 00007FF761D28642 Cr_z_adler32+4755858
28: 00007FFD4AD4257D BaseThreadInitThunk+29
29: 00007FFD4B8AAA58 RtlUserThreadStart+40

1 like
gych's avatar

If you can't get things working with Herd. Check Laragon, its free and in my opinion the best local development tool for Windows.

shariff's avatar
Level 50

@gych Thanks for the suggestion! I'll definitely give Laragon a try. I'm curious, does Laragon allow for switching between different versions of PHP and Node.js?

gych's avatar

@shariff Yes it does, it gives you a lot of options with great community support.

1 like
shariff's avatar
Level 50

Not yet. Many users are encountering the same issues https://github.com/beyondcode/herd-community/issues/525.

mraiyuuu's avatar

@shariff I had the same issue, try accessing Herd from system tray Icon. This worked for me. The system tray Icon is located to the right of your taskbar.

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