Step by Step guide for Steem Mining in Windows (after August 15th Hard fork)

Here is a simple step by step guide on how to setup Windows mining for Steem power.

I'm going to try to explain this in a way to keep it as straight forward as possible to try to avoid most of the technical jargon that may loose some people. The following setup is what worked for me, but if someone has some pointers that can further help, please comment on this post because I'm far from an expert.

Step 1

Download the new miner software @bitcube put up.
https://github.com/btscube/steem/releases/tag/0.13.0-rc3

Step 2

Extract the [steem-0.13.0-rc3] folder from the zip file onto your computer. I choose to make it a folder on my 2nd drive and not under Program Files (to avoid admin permission issues that could happen on some computers).

Step 3

Install Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013 from Microsoft. (you may need to reboot after you install it)
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40784

Step 4

Go to the folder and run the steemd.exe file. The purpose of this first run is to have it setup the subfolders under the [witness_node_data_dir]. It will look something like this and you will see the folder [witness_node_data_dir] appear.
After that, you just hit the red X to shut it down.

Step 5

Open the [witness_node_data_dir] folder and find the config.ini file (note if extension are not turned on in your windows explorer then it will just show as config). Right click on the file and click on Open with and then select Notepad.

Step 6

Find the line in the config file called
# P2P nodes to connect to on startup (may specify multiple times)

Under this you need to remove # seed-node = to add the node site for the miner to connect to.
They need to be listed like this. The number you have is up to up but I'd put in around 7 or so.

seed-node = 212.117.213.186:2016
seed-node = seed.steemwitness.com:2001
seed-node = 104.199.157.70:2001
seed-node = 52.63.172.229:2001
seed-node = seed.steemed.net:2001
seed-node = 104.40.230.35:2001
seed-node = 52.62.24.225:2001

This site shows which nodes are up or down: https://status.steemnodes.com/

Here is what it looks like after editing this section.

Save the config file and move down the list to the next item to edit.

Step 7

Find the line in the config file called
# name of witness controlled by this node (e.g. initwitness )
Under this you need to remove # witness = and enter the following.
witness = "your-steemit-username"
This is the username you have for your Steemit account.

Save the config file and move down the list to the next item to edit.

Step 8

Find the line in the config file called
# name of miner and its private key (e.g. ["account","WIF PRIVATE KEY"] )
Under this you need to remove # miner = and enter the following.
miner = ["your-steemit-username","5123423412412342342341242341234"]
This is the username you have for your Steemit account and the WIF PRIVATE KEY is from your account.

Go to Wallet in Steemit and then click on Permissions. You will see the line called Active and to the far
right will be a button that says [Login to Show]

Once you login, the button will change to [Show Private Key] and you cope the Active private key to enter
in the code line above.

Save the config file and move down the list to the next item to edit.

Step 9

Find the line in the config file called
# Number of threads to use for proof of work mining
Under this you need to remove # mining-threads = and enter the following.
mining-threads = 2
You can try increasing this number to 4 if you have a computer that can handle the extra work load. I'm using my PC at the same time, so I've left it at 2.

Save the config file and close it. You are done editing it.

Step 10

Download this bat file to add to the [steem-0.13.0-rc3] folder.
This simple batch file will make running the replay much easier than going to Run CMD in Windows.
Download it here: http://bit.ly/2bhMuEx
Once you download it, you can right click on it to open it in Notepad to verify it is just a simple one line batch file that makes it simple to run the replay function to get the databases setup.

If you do want to run cmd, you right click on the Start menu and click Run. Enter cmd and then go to the folder you have steem installed with Dos commands. Then you run the following code.
steemd.exe --replay

Either way you run it, the process will take time to download the databases depending on your internet speed etc.
The database files will show under the following folder.
witness_node_data_dir\blockchain\database\block_num_to_block

The two files of block and index will show under this folder

Step 11

After you get the file downloaded, you can just run the steemd.exe file to start the mining. The command window will come up and it should start running lines like this.

Step 11

You can check if you are get reward by looking at your steemd.com site.
https://steemd.com/@your-steemit-username

You will start seeing pow2 entries like below.

I've asked around where it shows in the Steemit wallet but the answer seems to be it just increases your Steem Power by 1 each time (some technical person can confirm this in the comments hopefully).

Video Guide

This was done before the hard fork with the other mining software but it does help to visually see how to setup the config file.

References used:
https://steemit.com/steem/@tuck-fheman/how-to-mine-steem-in-windows
https://steemit.com/steemhelp/@steem-id/updated-steem-seed-node-list
https://steemit.com/steem/@bitcube/steem-windows-wallet-and-miner-v0-13-0

There were a number of other posts I read through early on to piece this altogether to somehow get it to make sense and work. I really hope this step by step guide is a little less technical and easy to follow.