How To Install and Configure Vi / Vim Editor on Windows OS

by Ramesh Natarajan on December 18, 2009

Question: On UNIX / Linux platform, I’ve used Vi or Vim editors and I’m very comfortable with it. I would like to use Vim editor on Windows OS also. How do I install and configure Vim editor for Windows platform ( Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 )?

Answer: Follow the steps mentioned below to install and configure the gVim editor on Windows platform.

1. Download Vim for Windows

Go to Vim Download page and click on “PC: MS-DOS and MS-Windows”. Click on the ‘gvim72.exe, which is a Self-installing executable.

(or) Download gvim72.exe directly.

2. Install gVim

After downloading click on gVim72.exe, which will install gVim on your Windows as shown below.

gVim for Windows - Setup Confirmation

Fig: Vim Installation Confirmation

Vim editor for Windows 7 - Accept License Agreement

Fig: Vim 7.2 License Agreement

Vim for Windows XP - Select Installation Options

Fig: Vim Installation Option. (Make sure to select “Full” from the drop-down list)

Vim for Windows Vista - Installation Location Selection

Fig: gVim Installation location ( directory should end with vim )

Vi for Windows - Installation complete

Fig: gVim Installation Progress and Completion

3. Configure gVim

  • On UNIX platform Vim configuration file is called .vimrc
  • On Windows platform the vim configuration file is called _vimrc
  • _vimrc file is located under $HOME/_vimrc. For example: C:\Documents and Settings\ramesh\_vimrc
  • Please note there is a _ (underscore) before vimrc on Windows platform

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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Andreas January 22, 2010 at 7:04 am

After this you have to change the settings in “mswin.vim” to use commands you learned to use in your unix-box:
” CTRL-V and SHIFT-Insert are Paste
” (my change) map “+gP
map “+gP

” (my change) cmap +
cmap +

” Use CTRL-Q to do what CTRL-V used to do
” (my change) noremap

regards from austria

2 Andreas January 22, 2010 at 8:36 am

sorry the < > went away so here a new try:

” CTRL-V and SHIFT-Insert are Paste
” SHIFT-Insert might be a good idea,
” but we need CTRL-V for “visual block” so:
” (my change as comment) map <C-V> “+gP
map <S-Insert> “+gP

” (my change) cmap <C-V> <C-R>+
cmap <S-Insert> <C-R>+

” Use CTRL-Q to do what CTRL-V used to do
” not needed for unix-like users so:
” (my change) noremap <C-Q> <C-V>

3 vaibhav mahimkar April 14, 2010 at 1:49 pm

vim download page seems to have broken links. Found portable gvim from softpedia

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Windows-Portable-Applications-GVim-Portable-Download-50508.html

-Vaibhav

4 je June 17, 2011 at 4:57 am

yep, download link won’t load. go to http://ftp.vim.org/vim/ instead and select OS folders. you can download the installer directly inside each of the folder :)

5 V October 18, 2011 at 12:17 am

Thanks vaibhav for softpedia links

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