diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5f090fc5e..8a6a1b0fd 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -62,7 +62,23 @@ The agent reaches the answer in fewer turns with less context, because the prior
 
 ## Quick start
 
-One command, all your agents:
+One command, all your agents.
+
+**macOS / Linux**
+
+```bash
+curl -fsSL https://deeplake.ai/hivemind.sh | sh
+```
+
+**Windows** — in PowerShell:
+
+```powershell
+irm https://deeplake.ai/hivemind.ps1 | iex
+```
+
+**Any platform, via npm** — for CI and Dockerfiles, or where policy blocks
+piping a downloaded script to a shell. Skips the checks the installers do, so
+Node 22+ and a writable npm prefix are on you:
 
 ```bash
 npm i -g @deeplake/hivemind && hivemind install
diff --git a/src/commands/auth.ts b/src/commands/auth.ts
index 0b9d09d52..5990c6524 100644
--- a/src/commands/auth.ts
+++ b/src/commands/auth.ts
@@ -3,9 +3,9 @@
  * and org/workspace management.
  */
 
-import { execSync } from "node:child_process";
 import { deeplakeClientHeader } from "../utils/client-header.js";
 import { hivemindInstallIDHeader } from "./install-id.js";
+import { openInBrowser } from "../dashboard/open.js";
 import {
   type Credentials,
   loadCredentials,
@@ -148,16 +148,23 @@ export async function pollForToken(deviceCode: string, apiUrl = DEFAULT_API_URL)
   throw new Error(`Token polling failed: HTTP ${resp.status}`);
 }
 
+/**
+ * Opens the device-flow URL, via the shared helper in dashboard/open.ts.
+ *
+ * This used to build its own shell string, and got Windows wrong in the one
+ * way open.ts already documents: `start "<url>"` under cmd.exe treats its
+ * first quoted argument as the WINDOW TITLE, so it opened a new console
+ * titled with the URL and never opened a browser. openCommandFor passes the
+ * empty title (`cmd /c start "" <url>`) that makes the URL an argument.
+ *
+ * The old version also could not report that honestly: `start "<url>"`
+ * *succeeds*, so execSync did not throw, so it returned true and the CLI
+ * printed "Browser opened. Waiting for sign in..." to someone staring at a
+ * shell. openInBrowser pre-checks the helper is on PATH and reports what it
+ * actually attempted.
+ */
 function openBrowser(url: string): boolean {
-  try {
-    const cmd = process.platform === "darwin" ? `open "${url}"`
-      : process.platform === "win32" ? `start "${url}"`
-      : `xdg-open "${url}" 2>/dev/null`;
-    execSync(cmd, { stdio: "ignore", timeout: 5000 });
-    return true;
-  } catch {
-    return false;
-  }
+  return openInBrowser(url).attempted;
 }
 
 export async function deviceFlowLogin(apiUrl = DEFAULT_API_URL, ref?: string): Promise<{ token: string; expiresIn: number }> {
diff --git a/tests/cli/auth-open-browser-windows.test.ts b/tests/cli/auth-open-browser-windows.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..56b94d890
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/cli/auth-open-browser-windows.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
+import { readFileSync } from "node:fs";
+import { join } from "node:path";
+import { openCommandFor } from "../../src/dashboard/open.js";
+
+const AUTH_SRC = readFileSync(
+  join(import.meta.dirname, "../../src/commands/auth.ts"),
+  "utf-8",
+);
+
+// The device-flow login opened a new console window instead of a browser on
+// Windows, for a reason this repo had already found and written down in
+// dashboard/open.ts: under cmd.exe, `start "<url>"` treats its first quoted
+// argument as the WINDOW TITLE. auth.ts had its own copy of the open logic and
+// never got the fix, so Windows users installed fine and then could not log in
+// — a drop-off indistinguishable from someone walking away.
+describe("device-flow login opens a browser on Windows", () => {
+  it("passes the empty title argument that makes the URL an argument", () => {
+    const { command, args } = openCommandFor("win32", "https://example.com/device?code=ABCD");
+
+    expect(command).toBe("cmd");
+    // The "" is the whole bug. Without it the URL becomes the window title.
+    expect(args).toEqual(["/c", "start", "", "https://example.com/device?code=ABCD"]);
+    expect(args[2]).toBe("");
+  });
+
+  // A unit test of openCommandFor cannot catch auth.ts keeping a second,
+  // divergent implementation — which is exactly how this shipped. Assert the
+  // caller actually routes through the shared helper.
+  it("auth.ts delegates to the shared helper instead of building its own command", () => {
+    // Match the import and the call, not the bare name: the explanation of this
+    // bug lives in a comment in auth.ts, so a substring check for
+    // "openInBrowser" would pass on a file that only talks about it.
+    expect(AUTH_SRC).toMatch(
+      /import\s*\{\s*openInBrowser\s*\}\s*from\s*["']\.\.\/dashboard\/open\.js["']/,
+    );
+    expect(AUTH_SRC).toMatch(/return\s+openInBrowser\(\s*url\s*\)\s*\.attempted/);
+    expect(AUTH_SRC).not.toMatch(/start\s+"\$\{url\}"/);
+    expect(AUTH_SRC).not.toMatch(/execSync\(\s*cmd/);
+  });
+});