Precompiled Distributions of
Emacs for Windows
- Version 23.1
+ Version 24.1
- July 29, 2009
+ January 1, 2011
This directory contains precompiled distributions for GNU Emacs on
Windows (versions before Windows 95 and NT4 are not supported).
Free Software Foundation; the precompiled distributions are provided
here for convenience since the majority of Windows users are not
accustomed to compiling programs themselves. Corresponding source
- can be found in the parent directory in emacs-23.1.tar.gz.
+ can be found in the parent directory in emacs-24.1.tar.gz.
If you have access to the World Wide Web, I would recommend pointing
your favorite web browser to the following document (if you haven't
If you want to redistribute any of the precompiled distributions of
Emacs, be careful to check the implications of the GPL. For instance,
- if you put the emacs-23.1-bin-i386.tar.gz file from this directory on
+ if you put the emacs-24.1-bin-i386.tar.gz file from this directory on
an Internet site, you must arrange to distribute the source files of
- the SAME version (i.e. ../emacs-23.1.tar.gz).
+ the SAME version (i.e. ../emacs-24.1.tar.gz).
Making a link to our copy of the source is NOT sufficient, since we
might upgrade to a new version while you are still distributing the
* Files in this directory
- + emacs-23.1-bin-i386.zip
- Windows binaries of Emacs-23.1, with all lisp code and documentation
+ + emacs-24.1-bin-i386.zip
+ Windows binaries of Emacs-24.1, with all lisp code and documentation
included.
Download this file if you want a single installation package, and
If you need the C source code at a later date, it will be safe to
unpack the source distribution on top of this installation.
- + emacs-23.1-barebin-i386.zip
- Windows binaries of Emacs-23.1, without lisp code or documentation.
+ + emacs-24.1-barebin-i386.zip
+ Windows binaries of Emacs-24.1, without lisp code or documentation.
Download this file if you already have the source distribution.
a basic Makefile for compiling with mingw32 and a .def file for
generating a DLL with the appropriate exports in addition to the
source code to provide the subset of functionality Emacs uses from
- libXpm. This corresponds to the libXpm.dll in emacs-23.1-bin-i386.zip
- and emacs-23.1-barebin-i386.zip.
+ libXpm. This corresponds to the libXpm.dll in emacs-24.1-bin-i386.zip
+ and emacs-24.1-barebin-i386.zip.
+
+* Prerequisites for running Emacs on Windows 9X
+
+ Using Emacs in GUI mode on Windows 95/98/Me requires the UNICOWS.DLL
+ dynamic library, which provides MSLU, the Microsoft Unicode Layer
+ for Windows 9X. You can freely download it from the Microsoft site.
* Image support
- Emacs 23.1 contains support for images, however for most image formats
+ Emacs 24.1 contains support for images, however for most image formats
supporting libraries are required. This distribution has been tested
with the libraries that are distributed with GTK for Windows, and the
libraries found at http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/. The following image
Distributions for non-x86 platforms are no longer supplied. Older
platforms supported by Windows NT no longer seem to be in demand,
and Emacs is yet to be ported to 64 bit Windows platforms. If you
- are willing to help port Emacs 23 to 64 bit versions of Windows,
+ are willing to help port Emacs 24 to 64 bit versions of Windows,
your contribution will be welcome on the emacs-devel mailing list.
* Unpacking distributions
This document serves as an FAQ and a source for further information
about the Windows port and related software packages. Note that as
most of the information in that FAQ is for earlier versions, so some
- information may not be relevant to Emacs-23.1.
+ information may not be relevant to Emacs-24.1.
In addition to the FAQ, there is a mailing list for discussing issues
related to the Windows port of Emacs. For information about the
directly from a CD or USB flash drive without copying or installing
anything on the machine itself.
+* Prerequisites for Windows 9X
+
+ To run Emacs on Windows 9X (Windows 95/98/Me), you will need to have
+ the Microsoft Layer for Unicode (MSLU) installed. It can be
+ downloaded from the Microsoft site, and comes in a form of a single
+ dynamic library called UNICOWS.DLL. If this library is not
+ accessible to Emacs, it will pop up a dialog saying that it cannot
+ find the library, and will refuse to start up a GUI session.
+ (However, it is still possible to use Emacs in text mode, even
+ without UNICOWS.DLL, by invoking it as "emacs -nw", see below.)
+
* Starting Emacs
To run Emacs, simply select Emacs from the Start Menu, or invoke
it will pop up a command prompt window if run directly from Explorer.
+ runemacs.exe - A wrapper for running Emacs as a GUI application
- without popping up a command prompt window.
+ without popping up a command prompt window. If you create a
+ desktop shortcut for invoking Emacs, make it point to this
+ executable, not to emacs.exe.
+ emacsclient.exe - A command-line client program that can
communicate with a running Emacs process. See the `Emacs Server'
+ ddeclient.exe - A tool for interacting with DDE servers.
- + hexl.exe - A tool for converting files to hex dumps. See the
+ + hexl.exe - A tool for producing hex dumps of binary files. See the
`Editing Binary Files' node of the Emacs manual.
+ movemail.exe - A helper application for safely moving mail from
truncated to abbrevli.elc, your distribution has been corrupted
while unpacking and Emacs will not start.
+ * On Windows 9X, make sure you have the UNICOWS.DLL library either
+ in the same directory where you have emacs.exe or in the
+ directory where system-wide DLLs are kept.
+
If you believe you have unpacked the distributions correctly and are
still encountering problems, see the section on Further Information
below.