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HOW-TO

Managing PC2

If you installed PC2 with the Desktop Launcher on your own computer, you can run, stop, and check on it without ever opening a terminal. This page covers the day-to-day controls.

If you're running PC2 on a VPS or you installed it manually from the command line, the equivalent commands (pm2 status, systemctl restart pc2-node, log locations, the config file, the health endpoint) are documented in PC2 Operations.

Start and stop​

In the Desktop Launcher window:

  • Start — click the Start button. A green status indicator means PC2 is running and reachable.
  • Stop — click Stop. The indicator turns red.
  • Restart — click Stop, wait for red, then Start. (Or use the Restart menu item if your launcher version has one.)

A yellow indicator means PC2 is starting up or shutting down — wait a few seconds for it to settle.

Check on logs​

Open the Logs panel inside the Desktop Launcher. You'll see live output from the PC2 process — useful when something isn't working and the support team asks "what does the log say?"

Update​

PC2 ships with a built-in auto-update flow — see Auto Updates for how that works.

Health check​

To confirm PC2 is reachable, open your browser to:

http://localhost:4200/health

You should see a small JSON payload starting with "status":"ok". If you don't, see Troubleshooting.

Change a setting​

Most settings live in PC2 itself: open the PC2 web UI, go to Settings, and adjust from there. For settings that aren't exposed in the UI (like the HTTP port or owner wallet lock), see PC2 Operations → Configuration.

Backups​

Backups happen from inside PC2 — see Backup and Restore.

When you outgrow the Launcher​

If you eventually move PC2 to a VPS or want to run it as a system service, you'll want the operator's reference: PC2 Operations. That page documents PM2, systemd, log rotation, the config file format, and the health endpoint in full.