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yazz.com
Asked: 2010-03-25 00:57:56 +0800 CST

What is the best way to run emacs under Windows?

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I tried using the GNU Emacs download, unzipped it and then clicked on emacs.exe, but got some obscure error.

Then I tried Cygwin emacs, but when I press ctrl x ctrl c to quit emacs it thinks I pressed ctrl x ctrl "g"!!! I checked all the key mapping and they work otherwise in Emacs.

Is there another version of emacs for windows that just works!

windows emacs

5 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I have used GNU emacs in windows without issues, at least version 22 and 23. Anyway, you can try XEmacs and see if you have better luck.

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  3. I personally prefer Emacs W32 http://www.ourcomments.org/Emacs/EmacsW32.html (Link is broken, you can view the archived version, or view the Reddit discussion for alternatives).

    It has some nice tie-ins with Windows and will also hook into Cygwin.

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  4. There is now a Chocolatey Emacs package (currently v24.5.0.20150611). If you've installed Chocolatey, open a DOS prompt as an Administrator:

    C:\> choco install -y emacs

    Then you can just run emacs whenever you want from the DOS prompt. Emacs binaries get installed to the chocolatey bin directory (C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin), which should already be in your path if you can run choco.

    Cygwin is not required.

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  5. If you set the environment variable CYGWIN=tty before launching Cygwin (e.g. from Windows' System Properties->Advanced->Environment Variables) your probem will be fixed and you will be able to kill (more?) Cygwin programs with Ctrl-C. However, it will break console IO for some Windows programs under Cygwin (and ability to kill them with Ctrl-C). I haven't found a way to solve both problems simultaneously.

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