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298 lines
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298 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
Copyright (C) 2001-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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See the end of the file for license conditions.
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Emacs for Windows
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This README.W32 file describes how to set up and run a precompiled
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distribution of GNU Emacs for Windows. You can find the precompiled
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distribution on the ftp.gnu.org server and its mirrors:
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ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/
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This server contains other distributions, including the full Emacs
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source distribution and a barebin distribution which can be installed
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over it, as well as older releases of Emacs for Windows.
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Information on how to compile Emacs from sources on Windows is in
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the files README and INSTALL in this directory. If you received
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this file as part of the Emacs source distribution, please read
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those 2 files and not this one.
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Answers to frequently asked questions, and further information about
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this port of GNU Emacs and related software packages can be found via
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http:
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http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/
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* Preliminaries
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Along with this file should be six subdirectories (bin, etc, info,
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lisp, leim, site-lisp). If you have downloaded the barebin
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distribution, then it will contain only the bin directory and the
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built in documentation in etc/DOC-X, the rest of the subdirectories
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are in the src distribution, which the barebin distribution is
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designed to be used with.
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* Setting up Emacs
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To install Emacs, simply unpack all the files into a directory of
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your choice, but note that you might encounter minor problems if
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there is a space anywhere in the directory name. To complete the
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installation process, you can optionally run the program addpm.exe
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in the bin subdirectory. This will put an icon for Emacs in the
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Start Menu under "Start -> Programs -> Gnu Emacs".
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Some users have reported that the Start Menu item is not created for
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them. If this happens, just create your own shortcut to runemacs.exe,
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eg. by dragging it on to the desktop or the Start button.
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Note that running addpm is now an optional step; Emacs is able to
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locate all of its files without needing any information to be set in
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the environment or the registry, although such settings will still
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be obeyed if present. This is convenient for running Emacs on a
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machine which disallows registry changes, or on which software
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should not be installed. For instance, you can now run Emacs
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directly from a CD or USB flash drive without copying or installing
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anything on the machine itself.
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* Prerequisites for Windows 9X
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To run Emacs on Windows 9X (Windows 95/98/Me), you will need to have
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the Microsoft Layer for Unicode (MSLU) installed. It can be
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downloaded from the Microsoft site, and comes in a form of a single
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dynamic library called UNICOWS.DLL. If this library is not
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accessible to Emacs, it will pop up a dialog saying that it cannot
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find the library, and will refuse to start up a GUI session.
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(However, it is still possible to use Emacs in text mode, even
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without UNICOWS.DLL, by invoking it as "emacs -nw", see below.)
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* Starting Emacs
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To run Emacs, simply select Emacs from the Start Menu, or invoke
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runemacs.exe directly from Explorer or from a command prompt. This
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will start Emacs in its default GUI mode, ready to use. If you have
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never used Emacs before, you should follow the tutorial at this
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point (select Emacs Tutorial from the Help menu), since Emacs is
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quite different from ordinary Windows applications in many respects.
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If you want to use Emacs in tty or character mode within a command
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window, you can start it by typing "emacs -nw" at the command prompt.
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(Obviously, you need to ensure that the Emacs bin subdirectory is in
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your PATH first, or specify the path to emacs.exe.) The -nw
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(non-windowed) mode of operation is most useful if you have a telnet
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server on your machine, allowing you to run Emacs remotely.
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* EXE files included
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Emacs comes with the following executable files in the bin directory.
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+ emacs.exe - The main Emacs executable. As this is designed to run
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as both a text-mode application (emacs -nw) and as a GUI application,
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it will pop up a command prompt window if run directly from Explorer.
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+ runemacs.exe - A wrapper for running Emacs as a GUI application
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without popping up a command prompt window. If you create a
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desktop shortcut for invoking Emacs, make it point to this
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executable, not to emacs.exe.
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+ emacsclient.exe - A command-line client program that can
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communicate with a running Emacs process. See the `Emacs Server'
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node of the Emacs manual.
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+ emacsclientw.exe - A version of emacsclient that does not open
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a command-line window.
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+ addpm.exe - A basic installer that creates Start Menu icons for Emacs.
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Running this is optional.
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+ cmdproxy.exe - Used internally by Emacs to work around problems with
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the native shells in various versions of Windows.
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+ ctags.exe, etags.exe - Tools for generating tag files. See the
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`Tags' node of the Emacs manual.
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+ ebrowse.exe - A tool for generating C++ browse information. See the
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`Ebrowse' manual.
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+ ddeclient.exe - A tool for interacting with DDE servers.
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+ hexl.exe - A tool for producing hex dumps of binary files. See the
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`Editing Binary Files' node of the Emacs manual.
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+ movemail.exe - A helper application for safely moving mail from
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a mail spool or POP server to a local user mailbox. See the
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`Movemail' node of the Emacs manual.
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* Image support
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Emacs has built in support for XBM and PPM/PGM/PBM images, and the
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libXpm library is bundled, providing XPM support (required for color
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toolbar icons and splash screen). Source for libXpm should be available
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on the same place as you got this binary distribution from.
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Emacs can also support some other image formats with appropriate
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libraries. These libraries are all available as part of GTK
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download for Windows (http://www.gtk.org/download/win32.php), or
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from the GnuWin32 project. Emacs will find them if the directory
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they are installed in is on the PATH.
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PNG: requires the PNG reference library 1.4 or later, which will
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be named libpng14.dll or libpng14-14.dll. LibPNG requires zlib,
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which should come from the same source as you got libpng.
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Starting with Emacs 23.3, the precompiled Emacs binaries are
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built with libpng 1.4.x and later, and are incompatible with
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earlier versions of libpng DLLs. So if you have libpng 1.2.x,
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the PNG support will not work, and you will have to download
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newer versions.
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JPEG: requires the Independent JPEG Group's libjpeg 6b or later,
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which will be called jpeg62.dll, libjpeg.dll, jpeg-62.dll or jpeg.dll.
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TIFF: requires libTIFF 3.0 or later, which will be called libtiff3.dll
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or libtiff.dll.
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GIF: requires libungif or giflib 4.1 or later, which will be
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called giflib4.dll, libungif4.dll or libungif.dll.
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If you have image support DLLs under different names, customize the
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value of `dynamic-library-alist'.
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In addition, Emacs can be compiled to support SVG. This precompiled
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distribution has not been compiled that way, since the SVG library
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or one or more of its extensive dependencies appear to be
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unreliable under Windows. See nt/INSTALL in the src distribution if
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you wish to compile Emacs with SVG support.
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* GnuTLS support
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In order to support GnuTLS at runtime, Emacs must be able to find
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the relevant DLLs during startup; failure to do so is not an error,
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but GnuTLS won't be available to the running session.
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You can get pre-built binaries (including any required DLL and the
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header files) at http://sourceforge.net/projects/ezwinports/files/.
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* Uninstalling Emacs
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If you should need to uninstall Emacs, simply delete all the files
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and subdirectories from the directory where it was unpacked (Emacs
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does not install or update any files in system directories or
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anywhere else). If you ran the addpm.exe program to create the
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registry entries and the Start menu icon, then you can remove the
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registry entries using regedit. All of the settings are written
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under the Software\GNU\Emacs key in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, or if you
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didn't have administrator privileges when you installed, the same
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key in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Just delete the whole Software\GNU\Emacs
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key.
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The Start menu entry can be removed by right-clicking on the Task bar
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and selecting Properties, then using the Remove option on the Start
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Menu Programs page. (If you installed under an account with
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administrator privileges, then you need to click the Advanced button
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and look for the Gnu Emacs menu item under All Users.)
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* Troubleshooting
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Unpacking the distributions
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If you encounter trouble trying to run Emacs, there are a number of
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possible causes. Check the following for indications that the
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distribution was not corrupted by the tools used to unpack it:
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* Be sure to disable CR/LF translation or the executables will
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be unusable. Older versions of WinZipNT would enable this
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translation by default. If you are using WinZipNT, disable it.
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(I don't have WinZipNT myself, and I do not know the specific
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commands necessary to disable it.)
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* Check that filenames were not truncated to 8.3. For example,
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there should be a file lisp\abbrevlist.elc; if this has been
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truncated to abbrevli.elc, your distribution has been corrupted
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while unpacking and Emacs will not start.
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* On Windows 9X, make sure you have the UNICOWS.DLL library either
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in the same directory where you have emacs.exe or in the
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directory where system-wide DLLs are kept.
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If you believe you have unpacked the distributions correctly and are
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still encountering problems, see the section on Further Information
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below.
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Virus scanners
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Some virus scanners interfere with Emacs' use of subprocesses. If you
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are unable to use subprocesses and you use Dr. Solomon's WinGuard or
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McAfee's Vshield, turn off "Scan all files" (WinGuard) or "boot sector
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scanning" (McAfee exclusion properties).
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* Further information
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If you have access to the World Wide Web, I would recommend pointing
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your favorite web browser to the following document (if you haven't
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already):
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http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/
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This document serves as an FAQ and a source for further information
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about the Windows port and related software packages.
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In addition to the FAQ, there is a mailing list for discussing issues
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related to the Windows port of Emacs. For information about the
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list, see this Web page:
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http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows
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To ask questions on the mailing list, send email to
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help-emacs-windows@gnu.org. (You don't need to subscribe for that.)
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To subscribe to the list or unsubscribe from it, fill the form you
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find at http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows as
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explained there.
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Another valuable source of information and help which should not be
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overlooked is the various Usenet news groups dedicated to Emacs.
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These are particularly good for help with general issues which aren't
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specific to the Windows port of Emacs. The main news groups to use
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for seeking help are:
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gnu.emacs.help
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comp.emacs
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There are also fairly regular postings and announcements of new or
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updated Emacs packages on this group:
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gnu.emacs.sources
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* Reporting bugs
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If you encounter a bug in this port of Emacs, we would like to hear
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about it. First check the FAQ on the web page above to see if the bug
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is already known and if there are any workarounds. Then check whether
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the bug has something to do with code in your .emacs file, e.g. by
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invoking Emacs with the "-Q" option.
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If you decide that it is a bug in Emacs, use the built in bug
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reporting facility to report it (from the menu; Help -> Send Bug Report).
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If you have not yet configured Emacs for mail, then when you press
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C-c C-c to send the report, it will ask you to paste the text of the
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report into your mail client. If the bug is related to subprocesses,
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also specify which shell you are using (e.g., include the values of
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`shell-file-name' and `explicit-shell-file-name' in your message).
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Enjoy!
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This file is part of GNU Emacs.
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GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
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it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
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(at your option) any later version.
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GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
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but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
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GNU General Public License for more details.
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You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
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along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
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