People have successfully installed emacs on Windows 95, 98, 2K, NT, ME, and XP using the instructions below.

Follow these steps to download Emacs for windows. There is no room for creativity here; you must follow the directions exactly. Please read every single word in this document.

1. Pick the drive and a folder in which you want to install Emacs. I'll assume that it is C:\emacs, but you can choose a different one. If you choose a different drive or a different folder, you'll need to adapt the directions below accordingly.

2. Create an empty folder C:\emacs. At the DOS prompt in the C: drive, type mkdir emacs.

3. Download emacs-20.7-bin-i386.tar.gz to C:\emacs\emacs.tar.gz by right-clicking on the link. It is about 8.7 megabytes. Make sure the entire file was downloaded without any network errors. Use Save Link As... or Save Target As... The browser will save the file using the name that appears in the underlined link. You'll need to rename it to emacs.tar.gz with Windows Explorer.

4. Download gunzip-1.2.4-i386.exe to C:\emacs\gunzip.exe by right-clicking on the link. Use Save Link As... or Save Target As... The browser will save the file using the name that appears in the underlined link. You'll need to rename it to gunzip.exe with Windows Explorer.

5. Download tar-1.11.2-i386.exe to C:\emacs\tar.exe by right-clicking on the link. Use Save Link As... or Save Target As... The browser will save the file using the name that appears in the underlined link. You'll need to rename it to tar.exe with Windows Explorer.

   At this point, you should have the following three files in the C:\emacs\ folder: emacs.tar.gz, gunzip.exe, and tar.exe. Check to be sure.

6. Open up a DOS window (Start > Programs > Command Prompt) and go to the C:\emacs folder by using the cd command. Then type this to the DOS prompt:

   gunzip -c -d emacs.tar.gz | tar xvf -
   

   You may see messages from tar about not being able to change the modification time on directories, and from gunzip complaining about a broken pipe. These messages are harmless and you can ignore them. Be sure that you are in the C:\emacs folder. Be sure to type the command exactly. That character between gz and tar is a vertical bar; on most keyboards it is the key just below the backspace key.

7. Download _emacs to C:\emacs\_emacs by right-clicking on the link. Use Save Link As... or Save Target As... The browser will probably save the file as _emacs.html or _emacs.txt. You'll need to rename it to _emacs with Windows Explorer.

8. Depending on the operating system that you use, choose one of the following paths:
   • 95 or 98: edit your autoexec.bat file and add this line:

     set HOME=C:\emacs\
            

     You will probably find autoexec.bat on your C: drive. Edit it with Notepad. You can't edit it by double clicking on it. Start Notepad and then open it with the File menu.
   • 2K, ME, or XP: add HOME as an environment variable. Follow Start > Settings > Control Panel > System. Then select Advanced followd by Environment Variables. Then, add HOME as a user variable with the value C:\emacs\.
   • NT: It works like 98 with the autoexec.bat file. I suspect it would work like 2K as well, but I have not tried it that way myself.
9. Restart your machine.

10. At this point, you might want to create an icon on your desktop for the Emacs that you just installed. Go to the C:\emacs\emacs-20.7\bin folder using Windows Explorer. There you will find a file named runemacs.exe. Create a shortcut to the desktop so that you can use it to run Emacs from the desktop. Now, you should be in business! If it doesn't work, you made a mistake in one of the steps above. Double and triple check.

11. After you create the shortcut, you might want to change the default 'Start in' directory. Change it to whatever you like through the Properties menu of the icon.

12. If you want to clean up a little, you may delete emacs.tar.gz, gunzip.exe, and tar.exe at this point. You still need _emacs and emacs-20.7 in the C:\emacs folder though.

13. To learn how to use Emacs, try Emacs Tutorial that you can find under the Help menu in the Emacs window.

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