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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 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, e.g.:

GTK+ runtime for Windows 2000 and newer: http://downloads.sourceforge.net/gtk-win/gtk2-runtime-2.16.1-2009-04-21-ash.exe

  • GTK+ 2.16 is the most stable at the time of writing - if you have a higher version you should check the release notes to see if there are problems e.g. with theming.
  • Since Geany 0.16, GTK+ >= 2.8 is required, which in turn requires at least Windows 2000 or newer. The official Windows builds of Geany are built against GTK+ 2.16, so

to use them you also need GTK+ 2.16 or newer.

(The Geany Windows executable can be downloaded from the Geany website.)

Windows build differences

Some features are missing:

  • build support (implemented but might be still buggy)
  • embedded terminal emulation (VTE, as far as I know there is nothing equal for Windows)

The Build system support on Windows has been improved in the past but it is still not as good as on other platforms. Currently, build commands are executed synchronous on Windows, that is, whil the command is being executed, Geany won't respond to user interactions and its user interface won't redraw, i.e. it seems to be freezed. Once the executed command has finished, the Geany main window becomes responsive again.

FYI, the original announcement for the Geany 0.7 Windows build (mostly outdated): http://lists.uvena.de/pipermail/geany/2006-June/000134.html

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 any development tools yourself. Some links:

  • grep (needed for Find in Files) - use UnxUtils.
  • gcc, g++, make - use Minimal GNU for Windows. You should download the 'Automated MinGW Installer' program, as it is harder to install each tool separately. Note that for g++ you also need to install gcc.
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