Run OpenFOAM 14 on Windows without WSL

Stokes can mesh and solve OpenFOAM cases natively on Windows. It uses FoamWin, a native Windows (MinGW) build of OpenFOAM Foundation 14, instead of running Linux through WSL. This page covers the engine part; the full install is in the Windows install guide.

What you need

Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.
FoamWin v14.0.0-win.5 or newer from https://github.com/dhanninacs/foamWin/releases/latest. That release includes cfMesh and the Scotch and METIS partitioners. Older builds fail on heat-transfer cases because they cannot load the limitTemperature constraint that Stokes writes.
Microsoft MPI, only if you want to run on more than one core.

1. Install FoamWin

Download OF14-win-setup.exe (installer) or OF14-win.zip (portable) and SHA256SUMS.txt from the release, and check the download against the checksum. Install with the setup program, or from the extracted ZIP:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\setup-openfoam14.ps1

The default location is %LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenFOAM-14-win. Check it with the bundled smoke test, which meshes and solves a small cavity case:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\of14-smoke-test.ps1

2. Point Stokes at FoamWin

Stokes finds FoamWin through one environment variable, the path of of14-env.ps1 in the FoamWin folder:

[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("STOKES_FOAMWIN_ENV", "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\OpenFOAM-14-win\of14-env.ps1", "User")

Open a new PowerShell window afterwards so the variable is set.

3. Parallel runs

Install Microsoft MPI (msmpisetup.exe from Microsoft’s MS-MPI download page). Then set Cores on the Mesh or Run card. Stokes decomposes the case, runs the requested number of ranks and reconstructs the results. blockMesh always runs on one core. Without MS-MPI, asking for more than one core fails with a clear message instead of silently running on one.

4. Run a case

Start Stokes (python -m stokes.app from the checkout), create a project, import a STEP file, set the boundaries and press Generate on the Mesh card, then Run. The usage tour walks a complete mixing-elbow case.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
Mesh or Run says the engine is not found	`STOKES_FOAMWIN_ENV` is unset or wrong: check `Test-Path $env:STOKES_FOAMWIN_ENV` and reopen the window.
`Unknown constraint type limitTemperature` in the solver log	FoamWin is older than v14.0.0-win.5. Install the latest release.
“Parallel mode requires … Microsoft MPI”	Install MS-MPI, or set Cores to 1.
Path-length warning when opening a project	Move the project to a short local path such as `C:\cfd`. Deep case files can hit Windows’ 260-character limit.

OPENFOAM® is a registered trade mark of OpenCFD Limited. Stokes and FoamWin are not approved or endorsed by OpenCFD Limited or the OpenFOAM Foundation.