You have a laptop at home, a desktop at the office and a server somewhere else, and you want them to reach each other without setting up a proxy. Tailscale is built for that job. It is a WireGuard-based mesh VPN that links your computers and other devices directly.
Linking devices without a proxy
Tailscale connects machines securely without proxies. Each device joins the mesh and talks to the others over WireGuard. Its tags point to the same idea: mesh, network, VPN and WireGuard.
The release also includes Tailscale SSH, Tailscale Serve and tsnet, so the client covers more than plain tunnelling.
Before you install version 1.104.5
The Windows build is 109.5 MB and free, under the BSD-3-Clause licence. It was released on November 3, 2026. The package ID is Tailscale.Tailscale.
Check the publisher's site, tailscale.com, for system requirements. If you want a different kind of VPN, alternatives include WireGuard, OpenVPN and Cloudflare One Client.
What's new in 1.104.5
This release fixes connectivity stalls affecting Tailscale SSH, Tailscale Serve and tsnet on lossy networks. It also fixes a Windows .exe installer issue that could lead to privilege escalation at install time, and existing installations do not need to be reinstalled.
Tailscale pros and cons
Pros
- Free, with a BSD-3-Clause licence
- WireGuard-based mesh connects devices without proxies
- Installer privilege escalation issue fixed in this release
- SSH sessions no longer drop when a check mode approval expires
- Download comes from the official host pkgs.tailscale.com
Cons
- The 109.5 MB package is fairly large for a network client
- Few visual previews to judge the interface before installing
- System requirements are published only on the publisher's site
Is Tailscale safe?
Tailscale Inc. publishes this Windows build of its WireGuard based mesh VPN, and the code is licensed BSD-3-Clause. Version 1.104.5 fixes an issue in the Windows .exe installer that could lead to privilege escalation at install time, and existing installations do not need to be reinstalled.
How to install Tailscale
- Press the download button to get the official file.
- Run the installer you saved and confirm the Windows security prompt if the publisher matches.
- Follow the setup steps, then start Tailscale from the Start menu.
