Day One for Windows: Getting Started

This guide provides an overview of what you can expect from Day One on Windows and how to get started.

Key Features

Day One offers a native Windows application available from the Microsoft Store. Day One for Windows shares many of the core features of the Day One web app, along with the following features:

• Local-First Storage: Your journal entries are initially saved directly on your Windows device. This ensures:
  • Fast performance
  • Offline access to your journal
  • A permanent record of your writing
• Limited-Time Free Access: Access to Day One on Windows is currently free for all users and does not count against your device limit.

Getting Started

1. Download Day One for Windows: You can download the Day One app from the Microsoft Store.
2. Sign In or Create an Account:
   • If you already have a Day One account, sign in using your existing credentials.
   • If you’re new to Day One, you can create a new account within the app.

App Version (Windows version numbers, 1.x versions, checking for updates)

Day One for Windows has two version numbers, and they look very different from each other. Both are normal.

• The Day One version – shown inside the app under File > Settings > Advanced. This uses year-based numbering, such as 2026.15.2, the same as Day One on other platforms.
• The Windows app version – shown on the Microsoft Store listing and in the Windows list of installed apps. This uses its own numbering that starts with 1, such as 1.0.4 or 1.1.0. It is the version of the Windows desktop app that hosts Day One.

A 1.x number on Windows does not mean your app is out of date. The Windows app has always used 1.x numbering and will never show a year-based number like 2026.x. If the Microsoft Store offers no update, you are already on the latest version.

Because Day One for Windows loads the Day One web app, journaling features stay up to date automatically – you do not need a Microsoft Store update to receive them.

Settings

The settings in the Windows app are equivalent to the web app’s settings. Please see this guide for more information.

Spell Check and Autocorrect

Day One for Windows has a built-in spell checker. Words it does not recognize are underlined in red as you type. Right-click an underlined word to see suggested corrections, or choose Add to Dictionary so that word is not flagged again.

Spell check is part of the Day One Windows app itself. It does not come from your Windows typing settings, and it does not come from a web browser, so there is nothing you need to turn on in Windows or in a browser to use it.

• There is no autocorrect on Windows. Day One underlines misspelled words but never changes them for you. Automatic correction as you type is not available in the Windows app.
• Spell check cannot currently be turned off. Turning off Highlight misspelled words or Autocorrect misspelled words in Windows Settings > Time & language > Typing does not affect Day One. We are aware of this limitation.
• There is no spell-check language setting in Day One. The spell checker uses the language Windows reports to the app, which may not match the language – or the regional variant – you are writing in. If you write in a language other than the one Windows is set to, correctly spelled words may be underlined.

Changing your keyboard layout in Windows does not change the spell-check language, and changing your Windows display language does not reliably change it either – for example, switching Windows to English (United Kingdom) may still leave British spellings underlined. If particular words are being flagged, right-click each one and choose Add to Dictionary; this works whichever dictionary is in use.

If you need to write in a specific language or regional variant, you can open Day One at dayone.me in a web browser instead. In a browser, spell check is provided by the browser, and most browsers let you choose which languages are checked – in Chrome, for example, under Settings > Languages > Spell check.

The spell-check dictionary is separate from the language Day One’s menus and buttons are displayed in. To change that, see Setting the “Preferred Language Order”.

Additional Resources

For a more detailed guide, please refer to the section on our Day One web app.