# Is it possible to start Elasticsearch in the foreground in Windows?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-possible-to-start-elasticsearch-in-the-foreground-in-windows/72327>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [January 20, 2017, 7:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-possible-to-start-elasticsearch-in-the-foreground-in-windows/72327 "2017-01-20T19:42:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![brigzzy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/brigzzy/32/10609_2.png) [@brigzzy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/brigzzy)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2017, 7:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-possible-to-start-elasticsearch-in-the-foreground-in-windows/72327/1 "2017-01-20T19:42:43Z")

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Hi all,

As the title asks, is it possible to start Elasticsearch in the foreground in Windows? I have Elasticsearch running as a service on a non standard port on my workstation, and I occasionally need to look into datasets from other servers. Can I start Elasticsearch with some command line parameters to specify a port to bind to, and a data folder/cluster name to use?

Everything I found in the docs involved installing Elasticsearch as a service, which I would like to avoid if possible.

Thank you!

Danny

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**Author:** ![jasontedor](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jasontedor/32/66992_2.png) [@jasontedor](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jasontedor)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2017, 7:54pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-possible-to-start-elasticsearch-in-the-foreground-in-windows/72327/2 "2017-01-20T19:54:35Z")

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Yes, you can. Just use the `bin/elasticsearch.bat` script that is provided with the archive distributions. The command line parameters you're looking for are covered in the docs (look for `network.host`, `http.port`, `transport.tcp.port`, `path.data`, and `cluster.name`).

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**Author:** ![brigzzy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/brigzzy/32/10609_2.png) [@brigzzy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/brigzzy)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2017, 8:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-possible-to-start-elasticsearch-in-the-foreground-in-windows/72327/3 "2017-01-20T20:15:59Z")

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Excellent, thanks @jasontedor for pointing me in the right direction!

Cheers!

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**Author:** ![jasontedor](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jasontedor/32/66992_2.png) [@jasontedor](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jasontedor)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2017, 9:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-possible-to-start-elasticsearch-in-the-foreground-in-windows/72327/4 "2017-01-20T21:29:30Z")

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You're very welcome.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 9:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-possible-to-start-elasticsearch-in-the-foreground-in-windows/72327/5 "2017-02-17T21:29:55Z")

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