System Requirements

For a more detailed account of M-Files technical details, refer to the M-Files Technical Data Sheet.

Operating system

M-Files is compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems. The 32-bit and 64-bit systems have separate installation programs.

The M-Files software can be installed on computers running one of the following operating systems:

Windows 10
Windows 8 and 8.1
Windows 7
Windows Vista
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2008

The operating system version can be either Workstation or Server.

Note: M-Files Desktop/Client 10.x and newer only work in Windows versions 8, 7 and Vista. Windows XP users can use M-Files 10.0 Server with 9.0 Client. M-Files 10.0 Client also requires Internet Explorer 9 or newer.

Note: It is not recommended to install M-Files Server on a computer that is also used as a Microsoft domain controller.

Mac and Linux users can access M-Files via M-Files Web.

Space requirements

For the M-Files Desktop installation, ensure that the target computer has at least 200 MB of free space. Ensure that the target computer also has at least 1 GB of free space if it is to run the M-Files Server installation. The space required by the document vault depends on the number and size of the documents and other objects to be stored.

Note: M-Files 2015 includes significant improvements to the vault database structure. This means that – especially with large document vaults – the update process might take substantially longer than usual. It is also recommended to ensure that the server computer has at least twice the amount of free space required by the metadata database file (fdb file for Firebird and mdf file for MS SQL Server databases). The database structure is updated automatically by the M-Files installer.

Microsoft SQL Server requirements

The following Microsoft SQL Server features need to be enabled if you wish to use Microsoft SQL Server as the M-Files database engine:

Instance features

Database Engine Services
Reporting Services, Native Mode (if reporting is used)

Shared features

Management Tools, Basic
Management Tools, Complete (if reporting is used)

Citrix XenApp

M-Files is compatible with the Citrix XenApp environment. Using M-Files via XenApp may, however, require special configurations. For more information, see M-Files and Citrix XenApp.