# Building Zed for Windows

> The following commands may be executed in any shell.

## Repository

Clone down the [Zed repository](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed).

## Dependencies

- Install [rustup](https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install)

- 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.)
- 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.
  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.
- 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/)
- 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`.

If you can't compile Zed, make sure that you have at least the following components installed in case of a Visual Studio installation:

```json
{
  "version": "1.0",
  "components": [
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.CoreEditor",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.CoreEditor",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.WebToolsExtensions.CMake",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.CMake.Project",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows11SDK.26100",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Runtimes.x86.x64.Spectre"
  ],
  "extensions": []
}
```

Or if in case of just Build Tools, the following components:

```json
{
  "version": "1.0",
  "components": [
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Roslyn.Compiler",
    "Microsoft.Component.MSBuild",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.CoreBuildTools",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.MSBuildTools",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows10SDK",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.CoreBuildTools",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Redist.14.Latest",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows11SDK.26100",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.CMake.Project",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.TextTemplating",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.CoreIde",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.NativeDesktop.Core",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.VCTools",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Runtimes.x86.x64.Spectre"
  ],
  "extensions": []
}
```

The list can be obtained as follows:

- Open the Visual Studio Installer
- Click on `More` in the `Installed` tab
- Click on `Export configuration`

## Backend dependencies

> This section is still in development. The instructions are not yet complete.

If you are developing collaborative features of Zed, you'll need to install the dependencies of zed's `collab` server:

- Install [Postgres](https://www.postgresql.org/download/windows/)
- Install [Livekit](https://github.com/livekit/livekit), optionally you can add the `livekit-server` binary to your `PATH`.

Alternatively, if you have [Docker](https://www.docker.com/) installed you can bring up all the `collab` dependencies using Docker Compose: