About 10 minutes · What you'll have at the end: the Client installed, logged in, with your database in a folder you can find and back up.
Welcome to the DNAGedcom Academy! Over eight short lessons you'll go from a fresh install to seeing your DNA matches organized into family clusters. Everything happens on your computer, in your database — that's the whole point of DNAGedcom.
Grab the installer for your platform from the Downloads page, then follow the guide for your operating system — each one covers the security prompt your OS will show for a newly downloaded app:
Launch the Client and sign in with your DNAGedcom account — the same username and password you use on dnagedcom.com. Check Remember Me so you don't have to retype it. If the login fails, use the Forgot Password link on the login screen (it takes you back to the website).
This is the one setup step that saves people the most grief later, so we put it in Lesson 1.
Click the gear icon in the top-right corner (or the Change Settings button on the Home page) to open Settings, and set the database folder and name.
AppData\Local\DNAGedcom. Hidden folders don't show up in File Explorer, which makes your database hard to find for backups or moving to a new computer. Change it now to a visible folder — Documents\DNAGedcom works well for most people. See the Database page for details.Click Save. Done — every match, segment, and tree you gather from now on lives in that folder, fully under your control.
Before Lesson 2, take 60 seconds to orient yourself. The main menu across the top has four sections: Home, Gather (download data from testing services), Autosomal (clustering and analysis tools), and People (search and tree tools). In the top-right corner you'll find the DB status badge (green is good), the gear (Settings), and the logout door icon. The full tour is in Getting Started.
Documents\DNAGedcomNext up: the fun part. In Lesson 2 you'll pull your closest DNA matches into your own database in about 15 minutes.