1 Copyright (C) 2001-2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 This README.W32 file describes how to set up and run a precompiled
7 distribution of GNU Emacs for Windows. You can find the precompiled
8 distribution on the ftp.gnu.org server and its mirrors:
10 ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/
12 This server contains other distributions, including the full Emacs
13 source distribution, as well as older releases of Emacs for Windows.
15 Information on how to compile Emacs from sources on Windows is in
16 the files README and INSTALL in the nt/ sub-directory of the
17 top-level Emacs directory in the source distribution. If you
18 received this file as part of the Emacs source distribution, and are
19 looking for information on how to build Emacs on MS-Windows, please
20 read those 2 files and not this one.
24 The binary distribution has these top-level directories:
32 To install Emacs, simply unpack the binary package into a directory
33 of your choice. To complete the installation process, you can
34 optionally run the program addpm.exe in the bin subdirectory. This
35 will put an icon for Emacs in the Start Menu under
36 "Start -> Programs -> Gnu Emacs".
38 Some users have reported that the Start Menu item is not created for
39 them. If this happens, just create your own shortcut to runemacs.exe,
40 eg. by dragging it on to the desktop or the Start button.
42 Note that running addpm is now an optional step; Emacs is able to
43 locate all of its files without needing any information to be set in
44 the environment or the registry, although such settings will still
45 be obeyed if present. This is convenient for running Emacs on a
46 machine which disallows registry changes, or on which software
47 should not be installed. For instance, you can now run Emacs
48 directly from a CD or USB flash drive without copying or installing
49 anything on the machine itself.
51 * Prerequisites for Windows 9X
53 To run Emacs on Windows 9X (Windows 95/98/Me), you will need to have
54 the Microsoft Layer for Unicode (MSLU) installed. It can be
55 downloaded from the Microsoft site, and comes in a form of a single
56 dynamic library called UNICOWS.DLL. If this library is not
57 accessible to Emacs, it will pop up a dialog saying that it cannot
58 find the library, and will refuse to start up.
62 To run Emacs, simply select Emacs from the Start Menu, or invoke
63 runemacs.exe directly from Explorer or from a command prompt. This
64 will start Emacs in its default GUI mode, ready to use. If you have
65 never used Emacs before, you should follow the tutorial at this
66 point (select Emacs Tutorial from the Help menu), since Emacs is
67 quite different from ordinary Windows applications in many respects.
69 If you want to use Emacs in tty or character mode within a command
70 window, you can start it by typing "emacs -nw" at the command prompt.
71 (Obviously, you need to ensure that the Emacs bin subdirectory is in
72 your PATH first, or specify the path to emacs.exe.) The -nw
73 (non-windowed) mode of operation is most useful if you have a telnet
74 server on your machine, allowing you to run Emacs remotely.
78 Emacs comes with the following executable files in the bin directory.
80 + emacs.exe - The main Emacs executable. As this is designed to run
81 as both a text-mode application (emacs -nw) and as a GUI application,
82 it will pop up a command prompt window if run directly from Explorer.
84 + runemacs.exe - A wrapper for running Emacs as a GUI application
85 without popping up a command prompt window. If you create a
86 desktop shortcut for invoking Emacs, make it point to this
87 executable, not to emacs.exe.
89 + emacsclient.exe - A command-line client program that can
90 communicate with a running Emacs process. See the `Emacs Server'
91 node of the Emacs manual.
93 + emacsclientw.exe - A version of emacsclient that does not open
94 a command-line window.
96 + addpm.exe - A basic installer that creates Start Menu icons for Emacs.
97 Running this is optional.
99 + ctags.exe, etags.exe - Tools for generating tag files. See the
100 `Tags' node of the Emacs manual.
102 + ebrowse.exe - A tool for generating C++ browse information. See the
105 Several helper programs are in a version-specific subdirectory of
106 the libexec directory:
108 + cmdproxy.exe - Used internally by Emacs to work around problems with
109 the native shells in various versions of Windows.
111 + ddeclient.exe - A tool for interacting with DDE servers. To be
112 invoked as "ddeclient SERVER [TOPIC]", where SERVER is the DDE
113 server name, and sends each line of its standard input to the DDE
114 server using the DdeClientTransaction API. This program is
115 supposed to be invoked via the 'call-process-region' Emacs
118 + hexl.exe - A tool for producing hex dumps of binary files. See the
119 `Editing Binary Files' node of the Emacs manual.
121 + movemail.exe - A helper application for safely moving mail from
122 a mail spool or POP server to a local user mailbox. See the
123 `Movemail' node of the Emacs manual.
125 + profile.exe - A helper program that generates periodic events for
126 profiling Emacs Lisp code.
128 + update-game-score.exe - A utility for updating the score files of
133 Emacs has built in support for XBM and PPM/PGM/PBM images, and the
134 libXpm library is bundled, providing XPM support (required for color
135 toolbar icons and splash screen). Source for libXpm should be available
136 from the same place from which you got this binary distribution.
138 Emacs can also support some other image formats with appropriate
139 libraries. These libraries are all available on the following sites:
141 1. http://sourceforge.net/projects/ezwinports/files/
142 -- up-to-date builds, self-contained archives, only for 32-bit Emacs
143 2. Libraries from the MSYS2 project on ftp.gnu.org:
144 http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/emacs-NN-i686-deps.zip (32-bit)
145 http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/emacs-NN-x86_64-deps.zip (64-bit)
146 where NN is the Emacs version to which the libraries correspond.
147 3. The MSYS2 project -- for 64-bit Emacs:
148 http://msys2.github.io/
149 https://sourceforge.net/projects/msys2/files/REPOS/MINGW/x86_64/
150 4. GnuWin32 project -- very old 32-bit builds, not recommended
152 The libraries to download are mentioned below. Some libraries
153 depend on others that need to be downloaded separately from the same
154 site; please consult the download instructions on each site for the
155 details. In general, the ezwinports site mentioned above has all
156 the dependencies bundled in the same zip archive, so installing from
157 there is the easiest. For MSYS2 builds, we recommend that you
158 install and use the 'pacman' utility (available from the MSYS2
159 site), see the instructions below -- it will automatically install
160 all the dependencies.
162 Emacs will find these libraries if the directory they are installed
163 in is on the PATH or in the same directory where you have emacs.exe.
164 Here are some specific comments about each image type:
166 PNG: requires the PNG reference library 1.4 or later, which will
167 be named libpngNN.dll or libpngNN-NN.dll. LibPNG requires zlib,
168 which should come from the same source as you got libpng.
169 Starting with Emacs 23.3, the precompiled Emacs binaries are
170 built with libpng 1.4.x and later, and are incompatible with
171 earlier versions of libpng DLLs. So if you have libpng 1.2.x,
172 the PNG support will not work, and you will have to download
175 JPEG: requires the Independent JPEG Group's libjpeg 6b or later,
176 which will be called jpeg62.dll, libjpeg.dll, jpeg-62.dll or jpeg.dll.
178 TIFF: requires libTIFF 3.0 or later, which will be called libtiffN.dll
179 or libtiff-N.dll or libtiff.dll.
181 GIF: requires libungif or giflib 4.1 or later, which will be
182 called libgif-6.dll, giflib4.dll, libungif4.dll or libungif.dll.
184 SVG: requires librsvg 2.x whose DLL will be called
185 librsvg-2-2.dll. SVG also requires several dependency DLLs,
186 such as Pango, Cairo, and Glib, all of them found on the
187 above-mentioned sites. If you download from the ezwinports
188 site, you need only librsvg-2.nn.mm-x-w32-bin.zip, it comes with
189 all the other dependencies bundled.
191 If you have image support DLLs under different names, customize the
192 value of `dynamic-library-alist'.
196 GnuTLS provides SSL/TLS network support for Emacs (https, imaps and
199 In order to support GnuTLS at runtime, Emacs must be able to find
200 the relevant DLLs during startup; failure to do so is not an error,
201 but GnuTLS won't be available to the running session.
203 You can get pre-built binaries (including any dependency DLLs) at
204 http://sourceforge.net/projects/ezwinports/files/ and on
205 http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/
209 libxml2 provides HTML parsing support for Emacs, which is necessary
210 to use the built-in eww browser.
212 In order to support libxml2 at runtime, a libxml2-enabled Emacs must
213 be able to find the relevant DLLs during startup; failure to do so
214 is not an error, but libxml2 features won't be available to the
217 You can get pre-built binaries (including any required DLL and the
218 header files) at http://sourceforge.net/projects/ezwinports/files/ and
219 http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/
223 zlib provides support for decompressing text, which is necessary for
224 the zlib-decompress-region primitive.
226 Prebuilt binaries of zlib DLL (for 32-bit builds of Emacs) are
227 available from the ezwinports site and on ftp.gnu.org; see above for
228 the URLs. For the 64-bit DLL, see the instructions below for
229 installing from MSYS2 site.
231 (This library is also a prerequisite for several image libraries, so
232 you may already have it; look for zlib1.dll or libz-1.dll.)
234 * Installing 64-bit optional libraries from the MSYS2 site
236 We recommend that you use the 'pacman' utility to download the
237 libraries you need and all of their dependencies. If you don't have
238 'pacman' installed, proceed as follows:
240 . Install the MSYS2 64-bit (x86_64) installer, named
241 msys2-x86_64-YYYYMMDD.exe (where "YYYYMMDD" is the release date,
242 like 20160205) from http://msys2.github.io/.
244 . Run the installer, select the installation directory, make sure
245 "Run MSYS2 now" checkbox is checked, and click "Finish". A Bash
248 . Type into the Bash window the following command:
252 When asked whether to proceed with installation, type Y.
254 To install the optional libraries, start the MSYS2 Bash window and
255 type the following command:
259 where PACKAGES is the list of packages you want to install. The
260 full list is as follows:
262 mingw-w64-x86_64-xpm-nox mingw-w64-x86_64-libtiff mingw-w64-x86_64-giflib
263 mingw-w64-x86_64-libpng mingw-w64-x86_64-libjpeg-turbo
264 mingw-w64-x86_64-librsvg mingw-w64-x86_64-libxml2 mingw-w64-x86_64-gnutls
265 mingw-w64-x86_64-zlib
267 You can type any subset of this list. Once again, when asked
268 whether to proceed with installation, answer Y.
270 Alternatively, you could install the packages manually from this
273 https://sourceforge.net/projects/msys2/files/REPOS/MINGW/x86_64/
275 However, the packages there are not self-contained, so you will need
276 to download all their dependencies as well.
278 After the installation, if you will be installing Emacs in a
279 directory different from where the DLLs were installed, we recommend
280 to add the directory with DLLs to your PATH, so that Emacs will be
281 able to find those DLLs.
285 If you should need to uninstall Emacs, simply delete all the files
286 and subdirectories from the directory where it was unpacked (Emacs
287 does not install or update any files in system directories or
288 anywhere else). If you ran the addpm.exe program to create the
289 registry entries and the Start menu icon, then you can remove the
290 registry entries using regedit. All of the settings are written
291 under the Software\GNU\Emacs key in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, or if you
292 didn't have administrator privileges when you installed, the same
293 key in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Just delete the whole Software\GNU\Emacs
296 The Start menu entry can be removed by right-clicking on the Taskbar
297 and selecting Properties, then using the Remove option on the Start
298 Menu Programs page. (If you installed under an account with
299 administrator privileges, then you need to click the Advanced button
300 and look for the Gnu Emacs menu item under All Users.)
304 Unpacking the distributions
306 If you encounter trouble trying to run Emacs, there are a number of
307 possible causes. Check the following for indications that the
308 distribution was not corrupted by the tools used to unpack it:
310 * Be sure to disable CR/LF translation or the executables will
311 be unusable. Older versions of WinZipNT would enable this
312 translation by default. If you are using WinZipNT, disable it.
313 (I don't have WinZipNT myself, and I do not know the specific
314 commands necessary to disable it.)
316 * Check that filenames were not truncated to 8.3. For example,
317 there should be a file lisp\abbrevlist.elc; if this has been
318 truncated to abbrevli.elc, your distribution has been corrupted
319 while unpacking and Emacs will not start.
321 * On Windows 9X, make sure you have the UNICOWS.DLL library either
322 in the same directory where you have emacs.exe or in the
323 directory where system-wide DLLs are kept.
325 If you believe you have unpacked the distributions correctly and are
326 still encountering problems, see the section on Further Information
331 Some virus scanners interfere with Emacs' use of subprocesses. If you
332 are unable to use subprocesses and you use Dr. Solomon's WinGuard or
333 McAfee's Vshield, turn off "Scan all files" (WinGuard) or "boot sector
334 scanning" (McAfee exclusion properties).
336 * Further information
338 The Emacs User manual describes Windows-specific issues in the
339 appendix named "Emacs and Microsoft Windows/MS-DOS". You can read
340 it in Emacs by typing
342 C-h r g Microsoft Windows RET
344 This appendix is also available (as part of the entire manual) at
346 http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/emacs.html#Microsoft-Windows
348 In addition to the manual, there is a mailing list for discussing
349 issues related to the Windows port of Emacs. For information about
350 the list, see this Web page:
352 http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows
354 To ask questions on the mailing list, send email to
355 help-emacs-windows@gnu.org. (You don't need to subscribe for that.)
356 To subscribe to the list or unsubscribe from it, fill the form you
357 find at http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows as
360 Another valuable source of information and help which should not be
361 overlooked is the various Usenet news groups dedicated to Emacs.
362 These are particularly good for help with general issues which aren't
363 specific to the Windows port of Emacs. The main news groups to use
364 for seeking help are:
369 There are also fairly regular postings and announcements of new or
370 updated Emacs packages on this group:
376 If you encounter a bug in this port of Emacs, we would like to hear
377 about it. First check the FAQ on the web page above to see if the bug
378 is already known and if there are any workarounds. Then check whether
379 the bug has something to do with code in your .emacs file, e.g. by
380 invoking Emacs with the "-Q" option.
382 If you decide that it is a bug in Emacs, use the built in bug
383 reporting facility to report it (from the menu; Help -> Send Bug Report).
384 If you have not yet configured Emacs for mail, then when you press
385 C-c C-c to send the report, it will ask you to paste the text of the
386 report into your mail client. If the bug is related to subprocesses,
387 also specify which shell you are using (e.g., include the values of
388 `shell-file-name' and `explicit-shell-file-name' in your message).
393 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
395 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
396 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
397 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
398 (at your option) any later version.
400 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
401 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
402 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
403 GNU General Public License for more details.
405 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
406 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.