====== Running Geany on Windows ======

This site is about how to run Geany on Windows and what is different from other platforms.

===== GTK+ runtime for Windows =====

To run Geany under Windows you may need to install the GTK+ runtime libraries, depending how you installed Geany. If you use the [[http://www.geany.org/Download/Releases|official full installer]], a recent GTK+ runtime is included and you don't need any additional software.

If not using the full installer, you need to install a GTK+ runtime environment.
The best way is to use the [[http://msys2.github.io/|MSYS2]] project which provides all necessary dependencies to build and run Geany on Windows coupled with a comfortable package manager.

Information on how to build Geany from source yourself on Windows can be found on [[howtos/win32/msys2]]


(The Geany Windows executable can be downloaded from the [[http://www.geany.org/Download/Releases|Geany website]].)

===== Windows build differences =====

Some features are missing:
  * embedded terminal emulation (VTE, as far as we know there is nothing equal for Windows)


===== Windows developer tools =====

Geany does not include any developer tools such as compilers or interpreters, as we want to keep it lightweight. You will need to install these separately.

==== Grep ====
Grep is needed for "Find in Files" functionality.
  * version 2.4.2 via [[http://unxutils.sf.net|UnxUtils]] - The present recommendation in the Geany manual.
  * version 2.5.4 via [[http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/grep.htm|GnuWin]] - Confirmed to work on Windows 7, with Geany 1.22. Allows use of the valuable --exclude-dir option.

==== Other ====
For the below, download the 'Automated MinGW Installer' program from [[https://osdn.net/projects/mingw/|Minimal GNU for Windows]], as it is harder to install each tool separately:
  * gcc
  * g++ (g++ requires gcc)
  * make


{{tag>howto windows runtime}}