Complete your first-run setup

Configure the essential settings and add the first website after activation.

Last checked 26 August 2026

TechDash does not use a separate setup wizard after activation. The main app opens immediately. Work through the settings below, add your first website, and confirm that its initial checks begin.

1. Review monitoring settings

Open Settings, then find the Monitoring card:

  • Concurrent Crawls is the number of pages TechDash can check at the same time. Keep the recommended value initially. The range is capped using this computer's CPU and available RAM. Lower it if the computer feels busy during crawls.
  • Open at login is On by default. It starts TechDash in the background after operating-system sign-in so monitoring can resume without opening the main window.
  • Chromium Path appears only if TechDash cannot find Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Chromium in the usual install locations. Leave it blank when those browsers are already installed.

On battery power or while the screen is locked, page checks stretch to about twice their configured interval. The saved frequency does not change. This behavior reduces load, so do not compensate by choosing a faster schedule.

2. Review privacy

In Settings, find the Privacy card. Send crash reports is On by default in packaged builds. After the desktop app itself crashes, TechDash can upload a crash report to help diagnose the failure. A report can include limited memory from the failed app component. The crawl database is not uploaded.

Set it to Off if you do not want future crash reports uploaded from this installation.

3. Configure notifications

Open Notifications:

  1. Under Desktop notifications, keep the control On if you want system banners.
  2. Select Send test and approve any macOS or Windows notification permission prompt.
  3. Review Notify when a check recovers. It is On by default and sends a follow-up when a notifiable failure returns to Good.
  4. Add Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Discord webhook URLs only if required, and use each Send test button.

Built-in Advisory incidents appear in Incidents but do not send desktop or webhook alerts. Warning and Critical incidents can notify. Per-page channel settings and ignored-check rules can further suppress a notification.

4. Add your first website

  1. Open Websites.
  2. Select Add website.
  3. Under Website, enter an origin or full path, such as example.com or example.com/blog. The field supplies https://.
  4. Under Check frequency, keep Daily unless a faster interval has a clear business need.
  5. Expand Advanced Settings only if the site needs HTTP Basic Authentication or a different user agent.
  6. Select Add website.

The expected confirmation names the hostname and says that TechDash is fetching the homepage. TechDash adds the entered source path as the first monitored page and opens Sources. During the first check, a same-site homepage redirect, such as an apex domain to www, can update the stored origin instead of opening a redirect incident.

5. Add important pages

On Sources, find candidate URLs from Google Search Console, Bulk URL Import, or links discovered as the homepage and later added pages are checked. Review Suggested Pages, then use Add selected or Add all. Nothing is monitored until you add it. Select Done or Skip when the first set is enough.

Start with pages where downtime, noindex, canonical, content, schema, or rendering changes would have a real business or search impact. After this first-run screen, add more URLs from Monitored Pages: one absolute same-host URL, Bulk Add, or Import from GSC.

Avoid adding every crawlable URL by default. Very frequent checks across thousands of URLs can create a backlog and affect computer performance.

6. Let baselines form

Many change checks store their first successful observation as a baseline. Existing titles, H1s, schema, page content, headers, and similar signals are learned rather than reported as changes. Later material differences are compared with that baseline. Immediate failures and expiry conditions may still open incidents on an early run.

Open Queue Status to confirm that scheduler queues and workers are present. On the website page, review Monitored Pages for last-check times and Site Resources for resource results. If checks remain stale, confirm that the computer is online, TechDash is running in the tray, and Pause all monitoring has not been selected.

Setup is complete when the website appears in Websites, its monitored page has a recent result or queued work, and the notification test behaves as expected.

If the first page remains unchecked after TechDash is online, unpaused, and running with no persistent page backlog, open Help & Support. Include the TechDash version, operating system, website hostname, page Enabled state and frequency, last-check text, tray status, license state without the key, and a screenshot of Queue Status.

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