System requirements
- OS: Windows 10 version 1809 (64-bit) or Windows 11
- Processor: Any 64-bit x86 CPU (Paddle AI runs faster on CPUs with AVX2 — most post-2013 machines)
- RAM: 4 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended for batch processing
- Disk: ~500 MB for the app + bundled OCR models
- .NET: .NET 8 desktop runtime (installer includes it)
- Internet: Required only for license activation and Searchable PDF (Azure). Everything else works offline.
Download and install
- Head to the download page and click Download Kaizen OCR.
- Save the installer (
KaizenOcrSetup.exe) anywhere on your machine. - Double-click to run. If Windows SmartScreen prompts, click More info → Run anyway — the installer is code-signed by Azure Trusted Signing / StepForward Solutions LLP.
- Accept the license, choose the install location (default is
C:\Program Files\Kaizen OCR), and click Install. - When installation finishes, launch Kaizen OCR from the Start menu or desktop shortcut.
First launch takes a few extra seconds. Kaizen OCR initialises its OCR engines and verifies bundled language data on first run — subsequent launches are much faster.
What gets installed
- The main Kaizen OCR application (
KaizenOcr.exe) - Tesseract trained data for 80+ languages
- Paddle AI models (auto-downloaded on first OCR run)
- An encrypted SQLCipher database for your local settings and (if you add one) your Azure key
- A small updater service that checks for new versions on launch
Uninstalling
Use Settings → Apps → Installed apps in Windows. Search for Kaizen OCR and choose Uninstall. The uninstaller removes the application but leaves your local settings database alone unless you also select the “remove user data” option when prompted.
Next: activate your license
If you've bought a Pro or Premium license, the next step is to activate it. The free tier is ready to use immediately with 7 operations per feature.