How to install Stable Diffusion on Windows (AUTOMATIC1111)

System Requirements

Operating System: Windows 10 or higher.
GPU: Dedicated Nvidia video card with at least 4 GB VRAM. Integrated GPUs are not supported. If your PC doesn’t meet these requirements, consider alternatives like Think Diffusion or Google Colab, or installation on Mac with Apple Silicon M1/M2【61†source】.

Installing AUTOMATIC1111 on Windows

Step 1: Install Python

Use Python 3.10.6 (do not use newer versions like Python 3.11).
Option 1: Install Python from the Microsoft Store.

Option 2: Use the 64-bit Windows installer from the Python website (make sure to select “Add Python 3.10 to PATH”).
After installation, verify Python’s proper installation by opening Command Prompt and typing “python”. You should see Python 3.10【52†source】.

Step 2: Install Git

Download and install Git from this link. Follow the instructions to complete the installation【53†source】.

Step 3: Clone the Web Interface

Open Command Prompt and navigate to your user folder with cd %userprofile%.
Clone the AUTOMATIC1111 repository with git clone https://github.com/AUTOMATIC1111/stable-diffusion-webui.git.
A folder named stable-diffusion-webui will be created in your user directory【54†source】.

Step 4: Download the Model File

Navigate to the stable-diffusion-webui folder, then to the subfolder models/Stable-diffusion.
Download the Stable Diffusion v1.5 model file from Hugging Face and place it in this folder【55†source】.

Step 5: Run the Web Interface

Return to the stable-diffusion-webui folder.

Find and launch the webui-user.bat file.
After installation, you’ll see a local URL message (http://127.0.0.1:7860).
Open this URL in your browser to access the AUTOMATIC1111 web interface【56†source】.

Additional Options

VRAM Optimization: If you have a GPU with less VRAM, you can use the --medvram or --lowvram options to reduce VRAM requirements but with a performance trade-off【69†source】.
Performance Optimization: Use methods like --xformers or --opt-sdp-attention to boost performance. Edit the webui-user.bat file and add these options to the set COMMANDLINE_ARGS= line【70†source】.

Alternate Installation Method (Windows 10/11 NVIDIA GPU)

Download sd.webui.zip from here.

Extract the zip file to your desired location.
Run update.bat to update to the latest web interface version.
Launch run.bat to start the web interface. On the first launch, it will download numerous files【67†source】.

This guide should provide a complete overview to install and configure AUTOMATIC1111 on Windows. Ensure to follow each step carefully and refer to the linked resources for further details or troubleshooting during the installation process.