I previously wrote a guide on how to mount and unmount rclone in Linux, in this guide, I’ll walk you through on how to do the same on a windows system.
Step 1: Download Rclone
First, go to rclone download page
Click on Windows download, if you are using a 64-bit machine go for 64, if 32, go for 32-bit:
Extract it in a folder named rclone in your user program file, e.g on a 64-bit system, extract under: C:\Program Files\rclone
On a 32-bit system, use: C:\Program Files (x86)\rclone
Step 2: Add Rclone To Windows Environmental Variable
The next thing we need to do is to include rclone in the path environmental variable, this way, whenever you run it in the command line, it knows you are referencing rclone.
To do this, hit the Windows key + X simultaneously, and select 'Control Panel'
Once you are in the Control Panel page, choose 'System', then click 'Advanced System Setting' on the left side.
Click Environment Variable, Now find the path environmental variable, select it, and click on Edit:
Now add rclone location at the end, if you added rclone to C:\Program Files\rclone, then you just add this: ;C:\Program Files\rclone
Note: Make sure you start with a semicolon.
Click Ok, and make sure you close all the remaining dialog by clicking ok
Step 3: Mount Storage With Rclone
To run rclone mount on Windows, you will first need to download and install WinFsp.
WinFsp is an open-source Windows File System Proxy which makes it easy to write user-space file systems for Windows. It provides a FUSE emulation layer which rclone uses combination with cgofuse.
Click Download WinFsp Installer:
Once, you've downloaded it, install it the way you would install a normal windows program.
Now you could mount or use rclone the normal way.
Optional: Use Rclone Mount As a Windows Service
If you don't want to run rclone command every time you start up windows, you can run it as a windows service using nssm.
Download the latest release of nssm:
Extract it, and copy nssm.exe to rclone directory. Open up your command line using CTRL + X, and selecting the command prompt, change your directory into the rclone directory using cd C:\Program Files\rclone if that's where you copied rclone to.
Now run nssm install rclone
In the Application tab use:
Path: C:\rclone\rclone.exe
Startup Directory: C:\rclone
Arguments: mount remotename: F: --vfs-cache-mode writes --config "C:\Program Files\rclone\rclone.conf"
Service name: Rclone
In the Details Tab Use:
Display name: Rclone Mount Remotename
Description: Automatically mount the remote name using rclone.
Now click on 'Install Service' and run 'nssm start rclone'
This would start every time you restart your Windows system, hope this helps, let me know if you have any question.