Download and install Wireshark on Windows

Wireshark is free, open source (GPLv2) and supported by the Wireshark Foundation. The download page offers several releases and several Windows builds, and the installer asks about two capture drivers along the way. None of it is difficult once you know what each choice means, which is what this page is for.

Download Wireshark from the official siteOpens the official Wireshark download page. We host no files.

Stable, Old stable or Development?

The download page lists more than one release line. In September 2026 it showed:

Pick the Stable release. It receives the fixes, and it is what the User’s Guide and most colleagues will be describing.

x64, Arm64 or PortableApps

Under Stable Release you will find a Windows x64 Installer, a Windows Arm64 Installer and a Windows x64 PortableApps® package, alongside macOS and source downloads. To see which processor your PC has, open Settings > System > About and read System type.

Download from wireshark.org

1. Open the official page

   Type wireshark.org yourself or use the button above, then open Download. Unofficial download sites may bundle extra software, so skip search results that lead elsewhere.

2. Find the Stable Release block

   Check that it shows 4.6.8 or a newer stable number.

3. Click your build

   Choose x64, Arm64 or PortableApps as decided above and save the file. Leave the name as it is.

Verify the file

A signed installer lets you confirm two things: that the file came from the project and that nobody changed it after signing. Run the commands in PowerShell; replace the file name with the one you actually downloaded.

$f = "$env:USERPROFILE\Downloads\Wireshark-installer.exe"   # use your real file name
Get-AuthenticodeSignature $f | Format-List Status, SignerCertificate
Get-FileHash $f -Algorithm SHA256

The status should be Valid, with a signer name that clearly belongs to the Wireshark project rather than an unrelated company. The SHA-256 value is handy for your change log, and if you copy the installer to other PCs it should match on each one.

If the status is anything other than Valid, do not run the file. Delete it, download it again from wireshark.org and repeat the check; an interrupted download is the usual explanation.

The same check without a console: right-click the file, choose Properties, open Digital Signatures, select the signature and click Details. Windows should say the digital signature is OK.

Run the installer

1. Start setup and approve UAC

   Double-click the installer. The User Account Control prompt should show a verified publisher; approve it with an administrator account.

2. Keep the default components

   The default selection covers the Wireshark application and its documentation. The exact wording of the pages may differ slightly between versions.

3. Decide on Npcap

   Setup offers to install Npcap. Accept it unless a current version is already installed; see the next section.

4. Decide on USBPcap

   Tick it only if you need to capture USB traffic, for example when diagnosing a USB device on your own PC.

5. Finish

   Npcap runs its own small installer in the middle. When both are done, close setup and open Wireshark from the Start menu.

Npcap and USBPcap: what to tick

Wireshark itself reads and decodes packets; a capture driver is what hands it the packets from your network adapter. On Windows that driver is Npcap.

Once Npcap is in place, the interface list also shows an adapter for loopback traffic. It is useful when two programs on the same PC talk to each other, for example a local web service and your browser, because that traffic never reaches the physical network adapter. Most of the time, though, you will capture on the Ethernet or Wi-Fi adapter.

First launch: is capture working?

Wireshark opens on a welcome screen. The Capture section is the quickest health check of the whole install.

• Your Ethernet or Wi-Fi adapter is listed — Npcap is working.
• Its small traffic line moves — the adapter is seeing packets.
• Only remote capture entries appear — Npcap is missing; see Troubleshooting.

Double-click your adapter to start a first capture and click the red square to stop. The Wireshark guide picks up from here.

Updates and removal

Stable releases get regular maintenance updates. Every month or two, compare the version shown in Settings > Apps with the download page. To update, download the new Stable installer, verify it as above and run it; it normally upgrades the existing installation. Npcap can be updated separately from npcap.com.

To remove Wireshark, use Settings > Apps > Installed apps (Windows 11) or Apps & features (Windows 10). Npcap and USBPcap are listed as separate entries; remove them too if no other tool on the PC uses them. Capture files you saved stay where you put them, so delete old ones you no longer need.

Troubleshooting

For anything else, the Wireshark User’s Guide has a full chapter on installation.

Download Wireshark from the official siteOpens the official Wireshark download page. We host no files.