Install the Windows Client

Applies to: Tableau Cloud

For Windows installations Tableau recommends installing the Bridge client on a dedicated machine behind your firewall so that it doesn’t compete with resources from other applications. Only one client can be installed on a machine.

Bridge client requirements

The following are the admin and access requirements for the Bridge client.

  • The Bridge client UI is required to perform interactive login to Tableau Cloud.
  • A User profile on the boot drive for storing the contents of My Tableau Bridge Repository.
  • The login user must be, or the equivalent of, the local admin of the machine to run Bridge client in Service mode.
  • Access to the OS vault specific to the current login user for storing:
    • Online server login tokens specific to the current login user of the Windows session.
    • Data connection credentials (simple login info) for Remote extract requests.

System recommendations

Bridge is available for the Windows operating system. You can also install the client on a virtual machine. For more information about which versions of Windows are supported and other recommendations, review Plan Your Bridge Deployment

Install Bridge

Follow the procedure below to install a Windows Bridge client. You don’t need a Tableau product key to install or use the client.

  1. Download the installer from the Downloads(Link opens in a new window) page on the Tableau website. We recommend downloading the latest version listed on the page to take advantage of the latest security and feature updates.

  2. Run the installer. You can install the client using a shared Windows service account.

    The account that is used to run the client is the account that is logged into Windows at the time of configuration.

    If the client is set up with an individual local user account, you can't change the account to a shared service account without reinstalling Bridge. To change the account, uninstall Bridge as the current user, sign into the shared service account, then reinstall and configure Bridge.

    For Service mode, the Windows user account must be a member of the local Administrators group on the machine. In addition, to refresh file-based data sources, the account must have domain access to the network shared drive where the file data is hosted.

  3. When prompted, accept the license agreement to continue.

  4. (Optional) Customize the installation by clicking Customize. You can change any of the following options:

    • Install location: You can specify a different location to install the client.
    • Create a desktop shortcut: Clear the check box if you don't want to automatically create a desktop shortcut for Bridge.
    • Create a Start menu shortcut: Clear the check box if you don't want to automatically add a shortcut for Bridge to the Start menu
    • Enable error reporting: If Bridge has a problem and closes unexpectedly, crash dump files and logs are generated and sent to Tableau. To turn off this option, clear this check box during installation. You can also turn off this option (or back on) in the client after installation. For more information, see Error reports.

  5. Click Install to begin the client installation.

After the client is installed, you can start the client by double-clicking the Bridge shortcut on your desktop or from Tableau Desktop (if it's installed on the same machine as Bridge).

About My Tableau Bridge Repository

As part of the Bridge installation, a folder called My Tableau Bridge Repository is created on the machine where the client is installed. This repository folder contains critical subfolders, such as Logs and Configuration, that Bridge needs to operate properly.

The repository folder is created under the Documents folder: \Users\<user>\Documents\My Tableau Bridge Repository.

Important: We strongly recommend that you don’t change the folder that Bridge uses as its repository.

Upgrade Bridge

Staying in sync with the latest version of Bridge ensures that you can take advantage of the latest features and fixes included with each new version of the Bridge client.

To upgrade the client, follow the procedure below.

  1. Log on to the machine where the client is installed.

  2. If you're running the client in Service mode, in the lower-left corner of the client, next to Mode, select Application. Changing to Application mode ensures that the Tableau Bridge service stops completely before the upgrade.

  3. Select Settings > Exit.

  4. Follow the steps listed in the Install Bridge section to install the client and complete the upgrade.

After installation is complete, the client will start as normal. If the client was running in Service mode before the upgrade process, switch back to Service mode.

Error reports

You can help improve Bridge by automatically sending error reports to Tableau. Error reports are composed of crash dump files that are sent to Tableau when the Bridge client has to close unexpectedly (crash). These files are used by Tableau to identify and address issues that can cause the client to close unexpectedly.

Important: Turn off this option if your data is subject to any privacy regulations.

What's in an error report

The encrypted package is made up of the following files: crash and core dump files and manifest files related to the crash.

The files can contain data that include:

  • Machine-specific information. For example: hardware, operating system, domain, and so on.

  • Snapshot of the memory contents at the time of the crash. For example: which data sources had extracts refreshed, which data sources had live queries, and so on.

  • Information that Bridge was processing at the time of the crash, including customer-identifiable information that might be used to correct the error. For example: who is using Bridge with which site, the name of the client that the user is signed in to, and so on.

For more information about how Tableau treats sensitive information, see the Tableau privacy policy on the Tableau website.

Configure automatic error reporting

You can configure Bridge to send error reports automatically in one of two places: During the client installation process or after installation directly in the client.

Enable the automatic error reporting option during client installation

During installation, the option to automatically send error reports from the client is selected by default. However, you can remove the selection.

Disable the automatic error reporting option in the client

If you decided to use the default setting during the installation process and decide later on that you don't want to allow error reports to be sent automatically, you can modify the option from the client menu.

Install Bridge from the command line

You can install the Bridge client from the command line if you're a local administrator on the machine.

General command line syntax

The syntax for running the Bridge installer from the command line is the following:

tableauBridge<installer_name>.exe /option1 /option2 PROPERTY1 PROPERTY2

A few notes about the syntax:

  • The tableau<installer_name>.exe file is the client installer for the product and version you're installing.
  • The options specify how the installation process should run. For example, whether it should display output while installing and whether it should create log files.
  • The properties settings specify configuration settings that the installer should make during the installation process.

Example installer command

The following example shows an installer command with some options and property settings.

TableauBridge-20232.23.0611.2007-x64.exe/quiet /passive ACCEPTEULA=1

You must run the command from the directory where the .exe file is located or specify a full path to the location of the .exe file on the machine. Don’t run the installer from a shared directory on your network. Instead, download the .exe file to a directory on the machine where you want to install the client.

Installer options and properties

You can specify one or more options in the command line for the installer.

Installer options

A couple of notes about the options: 

  • Each option is prefixed with a slash (/).
  • Options must come before properties.
Option Description
quiet Run the installer without messages (status or installation progress) and without requiring user interaction. The client doesn't launch after installation is complete.
passive Run the installer and display dialog boxes and installation status. Doesn’t prompt the user for input. The client launches after installation is complete.
norestart Suppress any attempts to restart. By default, the installer prompts you before restart unless you run the installer in quiet mode.
log "logfile.txt" Log installation information to the specified path and file. Specify the path and file name, such as /log "c:\logs\logfile.txt". The default log file is the system %TEMP% directory.
repair Run the installer to repair an existing installation of Bridge.
h Help—lists options and properties for the installer.

Installer properties

You can also include one or more properties in the command line for the installer.

Some notes about the properties:

  • All of these properties can be used for the initial installation of the client. They can't be used to update any settings after initial installation.
  • Property names are case-sensitive.
  • There are no spaces on either side of the equal sign.
  • Each property set is delimited with a space.
  • Properties must go after options.
Property Description Value
ACCEPTEULA Accept the End User License Agreement (EULA). If you don't set this option to 1, Bridge can’t be installed using quiet mode. 1=Accept
0=Don't accept (default)
CRASHDUMP You can set this option to "1" to help improve Bridge by sending error reports to Tableau automatically when the client crashes. For more information, see Error reports. 1=Yes (default)
0=No
DESKTOPSHORTCUT Create a desktop shortcut. 1=Yes (default)
0=No
DRIVERDIR Specify an installation directory (other than the default) for the database drivers. This option creates the directory and creates an entry in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ registry. The default location for drivers is C:\Program Files\Tableau\Drivers. A path such as D:\Drivers
INSTALLDIR

Specify an installation directory other than the default.

If you specify a custom directory for the installation location and plan to install future releases to this same location, you must specify a version-specific subfolder to install to. Otherwise, you must uninstall the previous version first.

Side-by-side installations of multiple versions in the same subdirectory isn’t supported.

 A path such as D:\Software\Tableau Bridge.
SKIPAPPLICATIONLAUNCH You can set this option to "1" to prevent the new application from opening automatically when the installation process is complete. This option applies to manual installation. This option doesn't apply to quiet installations because Tableau Bridge doesn't open automatically when using that option. 1=Yes
0=No (default)
STARTMENUSHORTCUT Create a Tableau Bridge entry on the Windows Start menu. 1=Yes (default)
0=No

Uninstall Bridge

Although it's not necessary to uninstall previous versions of the Bridge client when installing a newer version, you can uninstall Bridge 2018.2 and later if you no longer need it on your machine.

The primary method for uninstalling the client is through the Windows Control Panel.

Alternatively, you can use the following procedure to uninstall Bridge from the command line.

  1. Open the Command Prompt as an administrator.

  2. In the location where the .exe was installed, run the following command:

    tableau<installer_name>.exe /uninstall /quiet

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