---
title: How to troubleshoot symbolic link issues on Windows
---
If you're using Cal.com self hosting instance on windows, you might be struggling with Prisma Environment variables not working. One of the reasons why this happens is because by default, symbolic links are disabled on windows OS.

To test the state of symbolic links configuration in your local repo, please run the following command from your root

```bash
git config --get core.symlinks
```

This should return **`false`**. If that is the case, you can follow one of the two following methods to enable symbolic links

### Enable symbolic links
Please make sure to open **gitbash** with elevated privileges (Admin) before running the following commands, or they may fail silently and just not work as expected.

### Create a new clone with symbolic links enabled (Recommended)

Please use the following steps to clone the repo with symbolic links:

<Steps> 
<Step title="Open your **`gitbash`** with elevated privileges (Admin) and run the following command:">

```bash
git clone -c core.symlinks=true https://github.com/calcom/cal.com.git
```
</Step>
<Step title="Complete the installation by following the post clone steps mentioned in **[Development Setup & Production Build](https://cal.com/docs/introduction/quick-start/self-hosting/installation#development-setup-and-production-build)**." />
</Steps>

### Enable symbolic links in your existing cloned repo

This is quite tricky, and not the recommended way of troubleshooting this issue. Please use the following steps to troubleshoot:

<Steps>
<Step title="Open your **`gitbash`** with elevated privileges (Admin), go to your Cal.com project root and run the following command:">

```
git config core.symlinks true
```
</Step>
<Step title="Now run the following command and confirm that it returns **`true`**">

```
git config --get core.symlinks
```
</Step>
<Step title="Next, simply remove the .env file located in **`packages/prisma/`**" />

<Step title="Finally, run the following command to restore the .env file but as a symbolic link">

```
git restore packages/prisma/.env
```
</Step>
</Steps>