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 [settings]
 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 [settings]
 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 collaboration 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> **Note:** Visual regression tests are currently macOS-only and require Screen Recording permission. See [Building Zed for macOS](./macos.md#visual-regression-tests) for details.
116
117## Installing from msys2
118
119Zed 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).
120
121Please refer to [MSYS2 documentation](https://www.msys2.org/docs/ides-editors/#zed) first.
122
123## Troubleshooting
124
125### Setting `RUSTFLAGS` env var breaks builds
126
127If you set the `RUSTFLAGS` env var, it will override the `rustflags` settings in `.cargo/config.toml` which is required to properly build Zed.
128
129Since these settings can vary from time to time, the build errors you receive may vary from linker errors, to other stranger errors.
130
131If you'd like to add extra rust flags, you may do 1 of the following in `.cargo/config.toml`:
132
133Add your flags in the build section
134
135```toml
136[build]
137rustflags = ["-C", "symbol-mangling-version=v0", "--cfg", "tokio_unstable"]
138```
139
140Add your flags in the windows target section
141
142```toml
143[target.'cfg(target_os = "windows")']
144rustflags = [
145    "--cfg",
146    "windows_slim_errors",
147    "-C",
148    "target-feature=+crt-static",
149]
150```
151
152Or, 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`.
153
154```
155upper_dir
156├── .cargo          // <-- Make this folder
157│   └── config.toml // <-- Make this file
158└── zed
159    ├── .cargo
160    │   └── config.toml
161    └── crates
162        ├── assistant
163        └── ...
164```
165
166In the new (above) `.cargo/config.toml`, if we wanted to add `--cfg gles` to our rustflags, it would look like this
167
168```toml
169[target.'cfg(all())']
170rustflags = ["--cfg", "gles"]
171```
172
173### Cargo errors claiming that a dependency is using unstable features
174
175Try `cargo clean` and `cargo build`.
176
177### `STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION`
178
179This error can happen if you are using the "rust-lld.exe" linker. Consider trying a different linker.
180
181If 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.
182
183See this issue for more information [#12041](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/issues/12041)
184
185### Invalid RC path selected
186
187Sometimes, depending on the security rules applied to your laptop, you may get the following error while compiling Zed:
188
189```
190error: failed to run custom build command for `zed(C:\Users\USER\src\zed\crates\zed)`
191
192Caused by:
193  process didn't exit successfully: `C:\Users\USER\src\zed\target\debug\build\zed-b24f1e9300107efc\build-script-build` (exit code: 1)
194  --- stdout
195  cargo:rerun-if-changed=../../.git/logs/HEAD
196  cargo:rustc-env=ZED_COMMIT_SHA=25e2e9c6727ba9b77415588cfa11fd969612adb7
197  cargo:rustc-link-arg=/stack:8388608
198  cargo:rerun-if-changed=resources/windows/app-icon.ico
199  package.metadata.winresource does not exist
200  Selected RC path: 'bin\x64\rc.exe'
201
202  --- stderr
203  The system cannot find the path specified. (os error 3)
204warning: build failed, waiting for other jobs to finish...
205```
206
207In 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:
208`C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\<SDK_version>\x64`.
209
210See this [issue](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/issues/18393) for more information.
211
212### Build fails: Path too long
213
214You may receive an error like the following when building
215
216```
217error: failed to get `pet` as a dependency of package `languages v0.1.0 (D:\a\zed-windows-builds\zed-windows-builds\crates\languages)`
218
219Caused by:
220  failed to load source for dependency `pet`
221
222Caused by:
223  Unable to update https://github.com/microsoft/python-environment-tools.git?rev=ffcbf3f28c46633abd5448a52b1f396c322e0d6c#ffcbf3f2
224
225Caused by:
226  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)
227```
228
229In order to solve this, you can enable longpath support for git and Windows.
230
231For git: `git config --system core.longpaths true`
232
233And for Windows with this PS command:
234
235```powershell
236New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem" -Name "LongPathsEnabled" -Value 1 -PropertyType DWORD -Force
237```
238
239For more information on this, please see [win32 docs](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/maximum-file-path-limitation?tabs=powershell)
240
241(note that you will need to restart your system after enabling longpath support)
242
243### Graphics issues
244
245#### Zed fails to launch
246
247Currently, 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.
248
249You can check the Zed log at:
250`C:\Users\YOU\AppData\Local\Zed\logs\Zed.log`
251
252If you see messages like:
253
254- `Zed failed to open a window: NoSupportedDeviceFound`
255- `ERROR_INITIALIZATION_FAILED`
256- `GPU Crashed`
257- `ERROR_SURFACE_LOST_KHR`
258
259Then Vulkan might not be working properly on your system. In most cases, updating your GPU drivers may help resolve this.
260
261If 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.