Windows? Use WinClaw. — While the Claw Family Booms, We're Here for the Rest of Us
The Claw ecosystem is on fire but the 75% of desktop users who run Windows have been forgotten. Today, AC-AIBot officially becomes WinClaw.
The Claw ecosystem is on fire. OpenClaw hit 180K GitHub stars. NanoClaw went all-in on minimalist security. MiniClaw took the lightweight path. Geeks are having the time of their lives. But one group has been collectively forgotten — the 75% of desktop users who run Windows. Today, WinClaw changes that.
I. The Claw Family: An AI Assistant Arms Race
In late 2025, OpenClaw (the "lobster") burst onto the scene. An AI assistant that actually does things — not just chatting, but controlling your computer, managing files, sending emails, browsing the web. GitHub stars hit 180K in two months. Karpathy bought a Mac Mini just to tinker with it. Sam Altman recruited the founder into OpenAI.
OpenClaw — 180K GitHub stars, the OG of the Claw family
Then the "lobsters" started multiplying:
NanoClaw — Just 500 lines of code. You can read the entire source in 8 minutes. Creator Gavriel Cohen's reasoning was simple: "I can't sleep well running software I don't understand with access to my life." So he replaced OpenClaw's application-level permissions with kernel-level container isolation. 7,000+ GitHub stars in its first week.
NanoClaw — The 500-line, security-first AI assistant
MiniClaw — For users who want to leverage existing Claude/ChatGPT subscriptions without extra costs. A lightweight Telegram bridge.
MicroClaw — Rewritten in Rust, supporting 11 chat platforms. The hardcore option for performance enthusiasts.
MimiClaw — The most extreme of them all. Runs on a $5 ESP32 chip. Written in C. Draws just 0.5W of power.
Every single one is cool. Every single one represents the power of open source and the hacker spirit.
But every single one shares the same blind spot.
II. The Forgotten 75%: Where Did Windows Users Go?
Let's look at how these Claws are installed:
| Product | Installation | Target User |
|---|---|---|
| OpenClaw | npm install -g openclaw@latest, requires Node.js 22+ | Developers |
| NanoClaw | git clone + claude, requires Docker/Apple Containers | Technical users |
| MiniClaw | Python environment + uv package manager | Developers |
| MicroClaw | Rust compilation toolchain | Hardcore geeks |
| MimiClaw | ESP32 firmware flashing | Embedded tinkerers |
See the pattern?
Not a single one is built for normal people.
What is npm? What is Docker? What is git clone? For billions of Windows users worldwide, these words might as well be hieroglyphics.
And OpenClaw's official Windows installation guide? It says: "Use via WSL2 (Ubuntu)." Translation: first install Linux inside Windows, then install Node.js inside Linux, then install OpenClaw inside Node.js. Three layers of nesting, and each layer can break.
Here's what the community actually says:
"Spent two days getting it running. Posted a screenshot on social media. Then... nothing. I had no idea what to actually do with it."
"Just resolving Node.js version conflicts took me half a day."
"API costs of $200–750 per month? I'm just a regular office worker..."
The hacker spirit is great. But the ultimate goal of technology has never been to make people tinker — it's to free them from tinkering.
III. Our Original Vision: Making "No Tinkering Required" a Reality
The truth is, we were building this long before the Claw family exploded.
Our product was called AC-AIBot. It didn't have a 100K-star GitHub halo. It didn't spark "buy a Mac Mini" social currency. It didn't trend on Hacker News. It just quietly did one thing:
Let you pick up your phone, say one sentence, and have your computer do the work — then deliver the results right back to your hands.
That's it. And that simplicity? It's the hardest thing to achieve.
From day one, we made a decision that wasn't exactly "cool" but was absolutely deliberate: Windows only.
Why? Because the math is straightforward:
- 75% of global desktop users run Windows
- The people who need AI assistants are overwhelmingly not developers
- They don't install Node.js. They don't use terminals. They don't
git clone. - What they need is: double-click, install, open, use
That decision might not look "sexy" to the tech community. Mac has the aura. Linux has the religion. Windows... Windows is just the computer most people turn on every day.
But "the computer most people turn on every day" is exactly who we want to serve.
IV. Today, AC-AIBot Officially Becomes WinClaw
The new brand: WinClaw — Windows? Use WinClaw.
After months of focused work over the Lunar New Year, we're proud to announce:
AC-AIBot has been rebranded as WinClaw.
Windows? Use WinClaw.
Why "WinClaw"?
- Win = Windows — our home turf
- Claw = The lobster claw — a nod to the AI Agent category that OpenClaw pioneered
- WinClaw = The Claw for Windows — your AI computer butler
We're not here to compete with OpenClaw. OpenClaw is a Swiss Army knife for geeks. We're a universal remote for everyone. Same arena, different audience.
V. WinClaw vs. The Entire Claw Family: What's Different?
| Dimension | OpenClaw | NanoClaw | MiniClaw | WinClaw |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Installation | npm CLI | git clone + Docker | Python env | Double-click installer |
| Time to start | 30 min – 2 days | 15 min – hours | 10 min – 1 hour | 3 minutes |
| Primary platform | Mac/Linux first | macOS/Linux | Cross-platform | Windows first |
| Technical barrier | High (Node.js/terminal) | Medium-high (Docker) | Medium (Python) | Zero (double-click) |
| Target user | Developers/geeks | Security researchers | Technical users | Everyone |
| Cost | Free + $200–750/mo API | Free + API costs | Free + API/subscription | Completely free |
| Office suite | Requires custom Skills | None built-in | None built-in | Built-in Word/Excel/PPT |
| Browser automation | Requires setup | None | None | Built-in, one-click |
| Mobile remote control | Via WhatsApp/Telegram | Via WhatsApp | Via Telegram | Built-in Dashboard + voice |
| Tool marketplace | ClawHub community | None | None | 26+ built-in + marketplace |
| Chinese language support | Community translations | No official Chinese | No official Chinese | Native Chinese |
The one-liner:
OpenClaw is for people who enjoy tinkering. WinClaw is for people who'd rather not.
VI. What Can WinClaw Do? — Not a Demo. Your Daily Life.
A lot of people install an AI agent and then ask: "Now what?" That's not a tool problem — it's a habit problem. The use cases are everywhere once you start looking.
Here's what WinClaw handles in real daily workflows:
Smart Computer Management
"How much space is left on my C drive?" "Clean up system temp files." "Which process is eating all my memory?"
No Task Manager. No digging through settings panels. One sentence, WinClaw handles it.
Office Suite — One Step
"Turn this content into a PPT." "Generate an Excel spreadsheet with this sales data." "Convert this Markdown into a Word document."
Built-in tools: markdown2ppt, markdown2word, markdown2pdf, markdown2png for instant conversion, plus agent_ppt, agent_excel, agent_word for fine-tuning. From content to polished document without ever opening Office.
Browser Automation
"Open Google and search for the latest AI news." "Search Amazon for Bluetooth headphones." "Scrape this webpage and organize the content into a doc."
Built-in browser agent. AI operates your real browser — preserving your logins, cookies, and bookmarks.
Mobile Remote Control
On the subway? On the couch? Out for coffee? Pick up your phone, open WinClaw Dashboard, and give your computer orders by voice or text:
"Check today's emails for me." "Convert the report on my desktop to PDF and send it to me." "Clean up my Downloads folder."
Your phone is the remote. Your computer is the tireless workstation. AI is the courier in between who never takes a break.
Private Knowledge Base
Upload your documents, PDFs, and notes. WinClaw builds a private knowledge base using RAG technology. Ask it anything about your documents — precise retrieval, instant answers.
Tool Marketplace
26+ built-in tools not enough? Open the Tool Market and download more with one click: calendar management, weather queries, geolocation, Feishu spreadsheets... or upload your own custom tools.
VII. Why Windows? Why Now?
People ask: Why not Mac? Why not cross-platform?
The answer is simple: Because we want to do one thing exceptionally well first.
Mac users have OpenClaw. They have NanoClaw. They have an entire open-source community building for them. They're comfortable with terminals, they enjoy the tinkering, they thrive in that world.
But what about Windows users?
They're the office admin processing dozens of Excel files every day. They're the college student making a PPT for class every week. They're the small business owner doing everything themselves. They're your parents, for whom the computer is already complicated enough.
They don't need GitHub stars. They need a tool they can use with a double-click.
WinClaw was built for them.
And the timing couldn't be better. AI models are now powerful enough — DeepSeek, Doubao, and other models offer excellent quality at affordable prices. WinClaw lets you freely configure these models. Top-tier AI Agent capabilities at a fraction of the cost.
VIII. 3 Minutes. From Zero to Running.
Don't believe it? Let's time it:
Minute 1: Visit winclaw.cc, click "Free Download"
Minute 2: Double-click the installer, follow the wizard
Minute 3: Configure an AI model (DeepSeek or Doubao — free API key signup), start chatting
No terminal. No command line. No npm install. No git clone. No Docker.
Double-click. Install. Open. Use.
This isn't simplification. This is what we believe should be the default.
IX. From AC-AIBot to WinClaw: The Name Changed. The Mission Didn't.
A word about this rebrand.
AC-AIBot has been with us for a long time. But as the Claw family became synonymous with AI Agents, we decided it was time to embrace the ecosystem — not to follow a trend, but to make it clear that Claw doesn't belong only to geeks. It belongs to everyone.
WinClaw = The Claw for Windows.
The name is new. The mission hasn't changed:
The AI Agent era is here. But "the era is here" doesn't mean everyone should embrace it the same way.
The lobster is great. It represents the power of open source and the hacker spirit. But the ultimate goal of technology has never been to make people tinker — it's to set them free from tinkering.
What we're building is simple: give every person on Windows an AI-powered computer butler and life assistant for the new era.
Regardless of technical background. Regardless of age. Regardless of profession.
The Claw Family at a Glance
| OpenClaw | NanoClaw | MiniClaw | WinClaw | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One-liner | The OG open-source AI assistant | Minimalist, security-first assistant | Lightweight subscription bridge | The AI computer butler for Windows |
| GitHub stars | 180,000+ | 12,000+ | — | — |
| Codebase | 430,000+ lines | ~500 lines | ~500 lines | — |
| Biggest strength | Most features, largest ecosystem | Container isolation, fully auditable | Leverages existing subscriptions | Zero barrier, works out of the box |
| Biggest challenge | Complex, expensive, security concerns | Limited features | Limited features | Windows only (for now) |
Every Claw has its place. OpenClaw is a Swiss Army knife. NanoClaw is a scalpel. MiniClaw is a pocket knife.
WinClaw is a remote control — and everyone knows how to use a remote.
Get Your Claw
Website: https://winclaw.cc Docs: https://docs.winclaw.cc
Completely free. Local deployment. Privacy first.
Double-click to install. Three minutes to start.
Windows? Use WinClaw.
Give everyone an AI-powered computer butler for the new era.
No environment setup. No new hardware. No command line. Install it and use it. Use it and never go back. This time, AI is for everyone.