1*os_win32.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Jul 20 2 3 4 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by George Reilly 5 6 7 *win32* *Win32* *MS-Windows* 8This file documents the idiosyncrasies of the Win32 version of Vim. 9 10The Win32 version of Vim works on Windows NT, 95, 98, ME, XP, Vista and 11Windows 7. There are both console and GUI versions. 12 13The 32 bit version also runs on 64 bit MS-Windows systems. 14 15There is GUI version for use in the Win32s subsystem in Windows 3.1[1]. You 16can also use the 32-bit DOS version of Vim instead. See |os_msdos.txt|. 17 181. Known problems |win32-problems| 192. Startup |win32-startup| 203. Restore screen contents |win32-restore| 214. Using the mouse |win32-mouse| 225. Running under Windows 3.1 |win32-win3.1| 236. Win32 mini FAQ |win32-faq| 24 25Additionally, there are a number of common Win32 and DOS items: 26File locations |dos-locations| 27Using backslashes |dos-backslash| 28Standard mappings |dos-standard-mappings| 29Screen output and colors |dos-colors| 30File formats |dos-file-formats| 31:cd command |dos-:cd| 32Interrupting |dos-CTRL-Break| 33Temp files |dos-temp-files| 34Shell option default |dos-shell| 35 36Win32 GUI |gui-w32| 37 38Credits: 39The Win32 version was written by George V. Reilly <george@reilly.org>. 40The original Windows NT port was done by Roger Knobbe <RogerK@wonderware.com>. 41The GUI version was made by George V. Reilly and Robert Webb. 42 43For compiling see "src/INSTALLpc.txt". *win32-compiling* 44 45============================================================================== 461. Known problems *windows95* *win32-problems* 47 48There are a few known problems with running in a console on Windows 95. As 49far as we know, this is the same in Windows 98 and Windows ME. 50 51Comments from somebody working at Microsoft: "Win95 console support has always 52been and will always be flaky". 531. Dead key support doesn't work. 542. Resizing the window with ":set columns=nn lines=nn" works, but executing 55 external commands MAY CAUSE THE SYSTEM TO HANG OR CRASH. 563. Screen updating is slow, unless you change 'columns' or 'lines' to a 57 non-DOS value. But then the second problem applies! 58 59If this bothers you, use the 32 bit MS-DOS version or the Win32 GUI version. 60 61When doing file name completion, Vim also finds matches for the short file 62name. But Vim will still find and use the corresponding long file name. For 63example, if you have the long file name "this_is_a_test" with the short file 64name "this_i~1", the command ":e *1" will start editing "this_is_a_test". 65 66============================================================================== 672. Startup *win32-startup* 68 69Current directory *win32-curdir* 70 71If Vim is started with a single file name argument, and it has a full path 72(starts with "x:\"), Vim assumes it was started from the file explorer and 73will set the current directory to where that file is. To avoid this when 74typing a command to start Vim, use a forward slash instead of a backslash. 75Example: > 76 77 vim c:\text\files\foo.txt 78 79Will change to the "C:\text\files" directory. > 80 81 vim c:/text\files\foo.txt 82 83Will use the current directory. 84 85 86Term option *win32-term* 87 88The only kind of terminal type that the Win32 version of Vim understands is 89"win32", which is built-in. If you set 'term' to anything else, you will 90probably get very strange behavior from Vim. Therefore Vim does not obtain 91the default value of 'term' from the environment variable "TERM". 92 93$PATH *win32-PATH* 94 95The directory of the Vim executable is appended to $PATH. This is mostly to 96make "!xxd' work, as it is in the Tools menu. And it also means that when 97executable() returns 1 the executable can actually be executed. 98 99============================================================================== 1003. Restore screen contents *win32-restore* 101 102When 'restorescreen' is set (which is the default), Vim will restore the 103original contents of the console when exiting or when executing external 104commands. If you don't want this, use ":set nors". |'restorescreen'| 105 106============================================================================== 1074. Using the mouse *win32-mouse* 108 109The Win32 version of Vim supports using the mouse. If you have a two-button 110mouse, the middle button can be emulated by pressing both left and right 111buttons simultaneously - but note that in the Win32 GUI, if you have the right 112mouse button pop-up menu enabled (see 'mouse'), you should err on the side of 113pressing the left button first. |mouse-using| 114 115When the mouse doesn't work, try disabling the "Quick Edit Mode" feature of 116the console. 117 118============================================================================== 1195. Running under Windows 3.1 *win32-win3.1* 120 121 *win32s* *windows-3.1* 122There is a special version of Gvim that runs under Windows 3.1 and 3.11. You 123need the gvim.exe that was compiled with Visual C++ 4.1. 124 125To run the Win32 version under Windows 3.1, you need to install Win32s. You 126might have it already from another Win32 application which you have installed. 127If Vim doesn't seem to be running properly, get the latest version: 1.30c. 128You can find it at: 129 130 http://support.microsoft.com/download/support/mslfiles/pw1118.exe 131 132(Microsoft moved it again, we don't know where it is now :-( ). 133 134The reason for having two versions of gvim.exe is that the Win32s version was 135compiled with VC++ 4.1. This is the last version of VC++ that supports Win32s 136programs. VC++ 5.0 is better, so that one was used for the Win32 version. 137Apart from that, there is no difference between the programs. If you are in a 138mixed environment, you can use the gvim.exe for Win32s on both. 139 140The Win32s version works the same way as the Win32 version under 95/NT. When 141running under Win32s the following differences apply: 142- You cannot use long file names, because Windows 3.1 doesn't support them! 143- When executing an external command, it doesn't return an exit code. After 144 doing ":make" you have to do ":cn" yourself. 145 146============================================================================== 1476. Win32 mini FAQ *win32-faq* 148 149Q. Why does the Win32 version of Vim update the screen so slowly on Windows 95? 150A. The support for Win32 console mode applications is very buggy in Win95. 151 For some unknown reason, the screen updates very slowly when Vim is run at 152 one of the standard resolutions (80x25, 80x43, or 80x50) and the 16-bit DOS 153 version updates the screen much more quickly than the Win32 version. 154 However, if the screen is set to some other resolution, such as by ":set 155 columns=100" or ":set lines=40", screen updating becomes about as fast as 156 it is with the 16-bit version. 157 158 WARNING: Changing 'columns' may make Windows 95 crash while updating the 159 window (complaints --> Microsoft). Since this mostly works, this has not 160 been disabled, but be careful with changing 'columns'. 161 162 Changing the screen resolution makes updates faster, but it brings 163 additional problems. External commands (e.g., ":!dir") can cause Vim to 164 freeze when the screen is set to a non-standard resolution, particularly 165 when 'columns' is not equal to 80. It is not possible for Vim to reliably 166 set the screen resolution back to the value it had upon startup before 167 running external commands, so if you change the number of 'lines' or 168 'columns', be very, very careful. In fact, Vim will not allow you to 169 execute external commands when 'columns' is not equal to 80, because it is 170 so likely to freeze up afterwards. 171 172 None of the above applies on Windows NT. Screen updates are fast, no 173 matter how many 'lines' or 'columns' the window has, and external commands 174 do not cause Vim to freeze. 175 176Q. So if the Win32 version updates the screen so slowly on Windows 95 and the 177 16-bit DOS version updates the screen quickly, why would I want to run the 178 Win32 version? 179A. Firstly, the Win32 version isn't that slow, especially when the screen is 180 set to some non-standard number of 'lines' or 'columns'. Secondly, the 181 16-bit DOS version has some severe limitations: It can't do big changes and 182 it doesn't know about long file names. The Win32 version doesn't have these 183 limitations and it's faster overall (the same is true for the 32-bit DJGPP 184 DOS version of Vim). The Win32 version is smarter about handling the 185 screen, the mouse, and the keyboard than the DJGPP version is. 186 187Q. And what about the 16-bit DOS version versus the Win32 version on NT? 188A. There are no good reasons to run the 16-bit DOS version on NT. The Win32 189 version updates the screen just as fast as the 16-bit version does when 190 running on NT. All of the above disadvantages apply. Finally, DOS 191 applications can take a long time to start up and will run more slowly. On 192 non-Intel NT platforms, the DOS version is almost unusably slow, because it 193 runs on top of an 80x86 emulator. 194 195Q. How do I change the font? 196A. In the GUI version, you can use the 'guifont' option. Example: > 197 :set guifont=Lucida_Console:h15:cDEFAULT 198< In the console version, you need to set the font of the console itself. 199 You cannot do this from within Vim. 200 201Q. When I change the size of the console window with ':set lines=xx' or 202 similar, the font changes! (Win95) 203A. You have the console font set to 'Auto' in Vim's (or your MS-DOS prompt's) 204 properties. This makes W95 guess (badly!) what font is best. Set an explicit 205 font instead. 206 207Q. Why can't I paste into Vim when running Windows 95? 208A. In the properties dialog box for the MS-DOS window, go to "MS-DOS 209 Prompt/Misc/Fast pasting" and make sure that it is NOT checked. You should 210 also do ":set paste" in Vim to avoid unexpected effects. |'paste'| 211 212Q. How do I type dead keys on Windows 95, in the console version? 213 (A dead key is an accent key, such as acute, grave, or umlaut, that doesn't 214 produce a character by itself, but when followed by another key, produces 215 an accented character, such as a-acute, e-grave, u-umlaut, n-tilde, and so 216 on. Very useful for most European languages. English-language keyboard 217 layouts don't use dead keys, as far as we know.) 218A. You don't. The console mode input routines simply do not work correctly in 219 Windows 95, and I have not been able to work around them. In the words 220 of a senior developer at Microsoft: 221 Win95 console support has always been and will always be flaky. 222 223 The flakiness is unavoidable because we are stuck between the world of 224 MS-DOS keyboard TSRs like KEYB (which wants to cook the data; 225 important for international) and the world of Win32. 226 227 So keys that don't "exist" in MS-DOS land (like dead keys) have a 228 very tenuous existence in Win32 console land. Keys that act 229 differently between MS-DOS land and Win32 console land (like 230 capslock) will act flaky. 231 232 Don't even _mention_ the problems with multiple language keyboard 233 layouts... 234 235 You may be able to fashion some sort of workaround with the digraphs 236 mechanism. |digraphs| 237 238 The best solution is to use the Win32 GUI version gvim.exe. Alternatively, 239 you can try one of the DOS versions of Vim where dead keys reportedly do 240 work. 241 242Q. How do I type dead keys on Windows NT? 243A. Dead keys work on NT 3.51. Just type them as you would in any other 244 application. 245 On NT 4.0, you need to make sure that the default locale (set in the 246 Keyboard part of the Control Panel) is the same as the currently active 247 locale. Otherwise the NT code will get confused and crash! This is a NT 248 4.0 problem, not really a Vim problem. 249 250Q. I'm using Vim to edit a symbolically linked file on a Unix NFS file server. 251 When I write the file, Vim does not "write through" the symlink. Instead, 252 it deletes the symbolic link and creates a new file in its place. Why? 253A. On Unix, Vim is prepared for links (symbolic or hard). A backup copy of 254 the original file is made and then the original file is overwritten. This 255 assures that all properties of the file remain the same. On non-Unix 256 systems, the original file is renamed and a new file is written. Only the 257 protection bits are set like the original file. However, this doesn't work 258 properly when working on an NFS-mounted file system where links and other 259 things exist. The only way to fix this in the current version is not 260 making a backup file, by ":set nobackup nowritebackup" |'writebackup'| 261 262Q. I'm using Vim to edit a file on a Unix file server through Samba. When I 263 write the file, the owner of the file is changed. Why? 264A. When writing a file Vim renames the original file, this is a backup (in 265 case writing the file fails halfway). Then the file is written as a new 266 file. Samba then gives it the default owner for the file system, which may 267 differ from the original owner. 268 To avoid this set the 'backupcopy' option to "yes". Vim will then make a 269 copy of the file for the backup, and overwrite the original file. The 270 owner isn't changed then. 271 272Q. How do I get to see the output of ":make" while it's running? 273A. Basically what you need is to put a tee program that will copy its input 274 (the output from make) to both stdout and to the errorfile. You can find a 275 copy of tee (and a number of other GNU tools) at 276 http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net or http://unxutils.sourceforge.net 277 Alternatively, try the more recent Cygnus version of the GNU tools at 278 http://www.cygwin.com Other Unix-style tools for Win32 are listed at 279 http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Operating_Systems/Unix/Win32/ 280 When you do get a copy of tee, you'll need to add > 281 :set shellpipe=\|\ tee 282< to your _vimrc. 283 284Q. I'm storing files on a remote machine that works with VisionFS, and files 285 disappear! 286A. VisionFS can't handle certain dot (.) three letter extension file names. 287 SCO declares this behavior required for backwards compatibility with 16bit 288 DOS/Windows environments. The two commands below demonstrate the behavior: 289> 290 echo Hello > file.bat~ 291 dir > file.bat 292< 293 The result is that the "dir" command updates the "file.bat~" file, instead 294 of creating a new "file.bat" file. This same behavior is exhibited in Vim 295 when editing an existing file named "foo.bat" because the default behavior 296 of Vim is to create a temporary file with a '~' character appended to the 297 name. When the file is written, it winds up being deleted. 298 299 Solution: Add this command to your _vimrc file: > 300 :set backupext=.temporary 301 302Q. How do I change the blink rate of the cursor? 303A. You can't! This is a limitation of the NT console. NT 5.0 is reported to 304 be able to set the blink rate for all console windows at the same time. 305 306 *:!start* 307Q. How can I run an external command or program asynchronously? 308A. When using :! to run an external command, you can run it with "start": > 309 :!start winfile.exe<CR> 310< Using "start" stops Vim switching to another screen, opening a new console, 311 or waiting for the program to complete; it indicates that you are running a 312 program that does not affect the files you are editing. Programs begun 313 with :!start do not get passed Vim's open file handles, which means they do 314 not have to be closed before Vim. 315 To avoid this special treatment, use ":! start". 316 317Q. I'm using Win32s, and when I try to run an external command like "make", 318 Vim doesn't wait for it to finish! Help! 319A. The problem is that a 32-bit application (Vim) can't get notification from 320 Windows that a 16-bit application (your DOS session) has finished. Vim 321 includes a work-around for this, but you must set up your DOS commands to 322 run in a window, not full-screen. Unfortunately the default when you 323 install Windows is full-screen. To change this: 324 1) Start PIF editor (in the Main program group). 325 2) Open the file "_DEFAULT.PIF" in your Windows directory. 326 3) Changes the display option from "Full Screen" to "Windowed". 327 4) Save and exit. 328 329 To test, start Vim and type > 330 :!dir C:\<CR>". 331< You should see a DOS box window appear briefly with the directory listing. 332 333Q. I use Vim under Win32s and NT. In NT, I can define the console to default to 334 50 lines, so that I get a 80x50 shell when I ':sh'. Can I do the same in 335 W3.1x, or am I stuck with 80x25? 336A. Edit SYSTEM.INI and add 'ScreenLines=50' to the [NonWindowsApp] section. DOS 337 prompts and external DOS commands will now run in a 50-line window. 338 339 vim:tw=78:fo=tcq2:ts=8:ft=help:norl: 340