1# Building Zed for Windows
  2
  3> The following commands may be executed in any shell.
  4
  5## Repository
  6
  7Clone down the [Zed repository](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed).
  8
  9## Dependencies
 10
 11- Install [rustup](https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install)
 12
 13- Install either [Visual Studio](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/) with the optional components `MSVC v*** - VS YYYY C++ x64/x86 build tools` and `MSVC v*** - VS YYYY C++ x64/x86 Spectre-mitigated libs (latest)` (`v***` is your VS version and `YYYY` is year when your VS was released. Pay attention to the architecture and change it to yours if needed.)
 14- Or, if you prefer to have a slimmer installer of only the MSVC compiler tools, you can install the [build tools](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/visual-cpp-build-tools/) (+libs as above) and the "Desktop development with C++" workload.
 15  But beware this installation is not automatically picked up by rustup. You must initialize your environment variables by first launching the "developer" shell (cmd/powershell) this installation places in the start menu or in Windows Terminal and then compile.
 16- Install Windows 11 or 10 SDK depending on your system, but ensure that at least `Windows 10 SDK version 2104 (10.0.20348.0)` is installed on your machine. You can download it from the [Windows SDK Archive](https://developer.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/windows-sdk/)
 17- Install [CMake](https://cmake.org/download) (required by [a dependency](https://docs.rs/wasmtime-c-api-impl/latest/wasmtime_c_api/)). Or you can install it through Visual Studio Installer, then manually add the `bin` directory to your `PATH`, for example: `C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\CMake\CMake\bin`.
 18
 19If you can't compile Zed, make sure that you have at least the following components installed in case of a Visual Studio installation:
 20
 21```json
 22{
 23  "version": "1.0",
 24  "components": [
 25    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.CoreEditor",
 26    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.CoreEditor",
 27    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64",
 28    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.WebToolsExtensions.CMake",
 29    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.CMake.Project",
 30    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows11SDK.26100",
 31    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Runtimes.x86.x64.Spectre"
 32  ],
 33  "extensions": []
 34}
 35```
 36
 37Or if in case of just Build Tools, the following components:
 38
 39```json
 40{
 41  "version": "1.0",
 42  "components": [
 43    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Roslyn.Compiler",
 44    "Microsoft.Component.MSBuild",
 45    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.CoreBuildTools",
 46    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.MSBuildTools",
 47    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows10SDK",
 48    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.CoreBuildTools",
 49    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64",
 50    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Redist.14.Latest",
 51    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows11SDK.26100",
 52    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.CMake.Project",
 53    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.TextTemplating",
 54    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.CoreIde",
 55    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.NativeDesktop.Core",
 56    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.VCTools",
 57    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Runtimes.x86.x64.Spectre"
 58  ],
 59  "extensions": []
 60}
 61```
 62
 63The list can be obtained as follows:
 64
 65- Open the Visual Studio Installer
 66- Click on `More` in the `Installed` tab
 67- Click on `Export configuration`
 68
 69### Backend Dependencies (optional) {#backend-dependencies}
 70
 71If you are looking to develop Zed collaboration features using a local collabortation server, please see: [Local Collaboration](./local-collaboration.md) docs.
 72
 73### Notes
 74
 75You should modify the `pg_hba.conf` file in the `data` directory to use `trust` instead of `scram-sha-256` for the `host` method. Otherwise, the connection will fail with the error `password authentication failed`. The `pg_hba.conf` file typically locates at `C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\17\data\pg_hba.conf`. After the modification, the file should look like this:
 76
 77```conf
 78# IPv4 local connections:
 79host    all             all             127.0.0.1/32            trust
 80# IPv6 local connections:
 81host    all             all             ::1/128                 trust
 82```
 83
 84Also, if you are using a non-latin Windows version, you must modify the`lc_messages` parameter in the `postgresql.conf` file in the `data` directory to `English_United States.1252` (or whatever UTF8-compatible encoding you have). Otherwise, the database will panic. The `postgresql.conf` file should look like this:
 85
 86```conf
 87# lc_messages = 'Chinese (Simplified)_China.936' # locale for system error message strings
 88lc_messages = 'English_United States.1252'
 89```
 90
 91After this, you should restart the `postgresql` service. Press the `win` key + `R` to launch the `Run` window. Type the `services.msc` and hit the `OK` button to open the Services Manager. Then, find the `postgresql-x64-XX` service, right-click on it, and select `Restart`.
 92
 93## Building from source
 94
 95Once you have the dependencies installed, you can build Zed using [Cargo](https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/).
 96
 97For a debug build:
 98
 99```sh
100cargo run
101```
102
103For a release build:
104
105```sh
106cargo run --release
107```
108
109And to run the tests:
110
111```sh
112cargo test --workspace
113```
114
115## Installing from msys2
116
117Zed does not support unofficial MSYS2 Zed packages built for Mingw-w64. Please report any issues you may have with [mingw-w64-zed](https://packages.msys2.org/base/mingw-w64-zed) to [msys2/MINGW-packages/issues](https://github.com/msys2/MINGW-packages/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+zed).
118
119## Troubleshooting
120
121### Setting `RUSTFLAGS` env var breaks builds
122
123If you set the `RUSTFLAGS` env var, it will override the `rustflags` settings in `.cargo/config.toml` which is required to properly build Zed.
124
125Since these settings can vary from time to time, the build errors you receive may vary from linker errors, to other stranger errors.
126
127If you'd like to add extra rust flags, you may do 1 of the following in `.cargo/config.toml`:
128
129Add your flags in the build section
130
131```toml
132[build]
133rustflags = ["-C", "symbol-mangling-version=v0", "--cfg", "tokio_unstable"]
134```
135
136Add your flags in the windows target section
137
138```toml
139[target.'cfg(target_os = "windows")']
140rustflags = [
141    "--cfg",
142    "windows_slim_errors",
143    "-C",
144    "target-feature=+crt-static",
145]
146```
147
148Or, you can create a new `.cargo/config.toml` in the same folder as the Zed repo (see below). This is particularly useful if you are doing CI builds since you don't have to edit the original `.cargo/config.toml`.
149
150```
151upper_dir
152├── .cargo          // <-- Make this folder
153│   └── config.toml // <-- Make this file
154└── zed
155    ├── .cargo
156    │   └── config.toml
157    └── crates
158        ├── assistant
159        └── ...
160```
161
162In the new (above) `.cargo/config.toml`, if we wanted to add `--cfg gles` to our rustflags, it would look like this
163
164```toml
165[target.'cfg(all())']
166rustflags = ["--cfg", "gles"]
167```
168
169### Cargo errors claiming that a dependency is using unstable features
170
171Try `cargo clean` and `cargo build`.
172
173### `STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION`
174
175This error can happen if you are using the "rust-lld.exe" linker. Consider trying a different linker.
176
177If you are using a global config, consider moving the Zed repository to a nested directory and add a `.cargo/config.toml` with a custom linker config in the parent directory.
178
179See this issue for more information [#12041](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/issues/12041)
180
181### Invalid RC path selected
182
183Sometimes, depending on the security rules applied to your laptop, you may get the following error while compiling Zed:
184
185```
186error: failed to run custom build command for `zed(C:\Users\USER\src\zed\crates\zed)`
187
188Caused by:
189  process didn't exit successfully: `C:\Users\USER\src\zed\target\debug\build\zed-b24f1e9300107efc\build-script-build` (exit code: 1)
190  --- stdout
191  cargo:rerun-if-changed=../../.git/logs/HEAD
192  cargo:rustc-env=ZED_COMMIT_SHA=25e2e9c6727ba9b77415588cfa11fd969612adb7
193  cargo:rustc-link-arg=/stack:8388608
194  cargo:rerun-if-changed=resources/windows/app-icon.ico
195  package.metadata.winresource does not exist
196  Selected RC path: 'bin\x64\rc.exe'
197
198  --- stderr
199  The system cannot find the path specified. (os error 3)
200warning: build failed, waiting for other jobs to finish...
201```
202
203In order to fix this issue, you can manually set the `ZED_RC_TOOLKIT_PATH` environment variable to the RC toolkit path. Usually, you can set it to:
204`C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\<SDK_version>\x64`.
205
206See this [issue](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/issues/18393) for more information.
207
208### Build fails: Path too long
209
210You may receive an error like the following when building
211
212```
213error: failed to get `pet` as a dependency of package `languages v0.1.0 (D:\a\zed-windows-builds\zed-windows-builds\crates\languages)`
214
215Caused by:
216  failed to load source for dependency `pet`
217
218Caused by:
219  Unable to update https://github.com/microsoft/python-environment-tools.git?rev=ffcbf3f28c46633abd5448a52b1f396c322e0d6c#ffcbf3f2
220
221Caused by:
222  path too long: 'C:/Users/runneradmin/.cargo/git/checkouts/python-environment-tools-903993894b37a7d2/ffcbf3f/crates/pet-conda/tests/unix/conda_env_without_manager_but_found_in_history/some_other_location/conda_install/conda-meta/python-fastjsonschema-2.16.2-py310hca03da5_0.json'; class=Filesystem (30)
223```
224
225In order to solve this, you can enable longpath support for git and Windows.
226
227For git: `git config --system core.longpaths true`
228
229And for Windows with this PS command:
230
231```powershell
232New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem" -Name "LongPathsEnabled" -Value 1 -PropertyType DWORD -Force
233```
234
235For more information on this, please see [win32 docs](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/maximum-file-path-limitation?tabs=powershell)
236
237(note that you will need to restart your system after enabling longpath support)
238
239### Graphics issues
240
241#### Zed fails to launch
242
243Currently, Zed uses Vulkan as its graphics API on Windows. However, Vulkan isn't always the most reliable on Windows, so if Zed fails to launch, it's likely a Vulkan-related issue.
244
245You can check the Zed log at:
246`C:\Users\YOU\AppData\Local\Zed\logs\Zed.log`
247
248If you see messages like:
249
250- `Zed failed to open a window: NoSupportedDeviceFound`
251- `ERROR_INITIALIZATION_FAILED`
252- `GPU Crashed`
253- `ERROR_SURFACE_LOST_KHR`
254
255Then Vulkan might not be working properly on your system. In most cases, updating your GPU drivers may help resolve this.
256
257If there's nothing Vulkan-related in the logs and you happen to have Bandicam installed, try uninstalling it. Zed is currently not compatible with Bandicam.