Installing ICD-API as a Windows service

Windows services are programs that operate in the background. It is possible to install the ICD-API as a Windows service.

Prerequisites

  • The binary files provided for Windows are x64 binaries and requires an x64 Windows installation
  • By installing this package you agree with our license agreement

Steps for Installing the ICD-API as a Windows service

  • Download the ICD-API as Windows service version 2.6.0 installation package
  • Start the installer by double clicking on the downloaded file icdapi-setup-2.6.0.msi
  • Follow the instructions on the screen.
  • If you select the saveAnalytics option, the software that is installed can send data to WHO on the searches made in order to improve search capability of ICD-11 tools. The data that is sent does not contain any ids or IP addresses.

Checking the Installation

  • By default the API is installed at port 8382 so you should be able to access the API from http://localhost:8382/icd/... from the same computer.
    IMPORTANT! Please note that in earlier releases we were using port 6382 which has changed to 8382 in this release.

  • Since we deploy an instance of the Coding Tool together with the API, visiting the URL http://localhost:8382/ct should open up the ICD-11 Coding Tool.
  • Similarly, visiting the URL http://localhost:8382/browse should open up the ICD-11 Browser.

Configuration

By default the API runs at port 8382. You could change it by editing the file appsettings.json at the line that has : "urls": "http://*:8382"
This file should be located at the installation directory; the API is installed at C:\Program Files\ICD-API by default
Please note that for editing the file appsettings.json, you must to open it as an administrator user.

By default the API runs with the latest version of the ICD-11. To change this you may edit the appsettings.json file and change the "include" field.

IMPORTANT! You need to restart the service after making any changes to the appsettings.json file. Windows services could be stopped, started or restarted from the Services app

Using different language versions

  • "include": "2026-01_en" means 2026-01 version of ICD-11 in English (default)
  • "include": "2026-01_tr" means 2026-01 version of ICD-11 in Turkish
  • "include": "2026-01_ar-en" means 2026-01 version of ICD-11 in Arabic and English

You can load English together with any of the other ICD‑11 languages listed at the supported classifications.

In addition to the standard single‑language and dual‑language combinations, we can generate custom language combinations based on requests. Currently we have the following language combinations:

  • "include": "2026-01_en-es-pt" means 2026-01 version of ICD-11 in English, Spanish, and Portuguese
  • "include": "2026-01_en-es-fr" means 2026-01 version of ICD-11 in English, Spanish, and French

If you require a custom combination of languages listed at the supported classifications, we can generate a tailored version. Please send your request to icd@who.int with the subject "ICD-API"

Using an older release

  • "include": "2025-01_en" means 2025-01 version of ICD-11 in English

Available versions and languages of ICD-11 are listed at the supported classifications. ICD-10 is not supported in this release.

Enabling DORIS

DORIS (Underlying cause of death detection) functionality is not enabled by default.
You may enable the DORIS endpoints using the "enableDoris": true parameter. For more information about DORIS support see the release notes.

Updating the ICD-API

To update the ICD-API that is installed as a Windows service, you just need to download the new version of the installation package (.msi file) and run it.