Installing WinEdt

WinEdt 11 is a 64-bit application for Windows 11 and 10. WinEdt setup and default settings have been carefully prepared to make installation and integration with MiKTeX or TeX Live automatic.

Download and execute the setup file winedt11.exe. As long as you have downloaded a legitimate copy of WinEdt (e.g. from our website) you will receive a standard Windows User Account Control warning displaying WinEdt Inc. as the verified publisher of this product. It is now safe to proceed with the installation. The Installer Wizard will guide you through the process. For most users, the default options in the Wizard should be used. However, if you are creating a portable installation you should disable User Profile Creation: this way WinEdt will create a Local folder inside its install folder and this folder will contain all your custom settings.

During the installation you can also decide if you want this version of WinEdt associated with TeX files (and friends). The associations can also be made, removed, or repaired (on a selective basis) from WinEdt's Configuration Wizard. However, on Windows with UAC-enabled, this requires starting WinEdt with elevated privileges (which are already in effect during the installation).

If you let the installer start WinEdt for the first time then WinEdt is running with elevated privileges (inherited by the installer). That's OK if you want to perform any global customizations (e.g. fine-tune filetype associations through the Configuration Wizard, enter registration data for all users, or import your old settings). You may also want to pin WinEdt to the taskbar at this stage. However, after you are done you should restart WinEdt with normal privileges: it is neither recommended nor necessary to run WinEdt with elevated privileges!

After the installation is completed restart WinEdt and you are ready to go. The Options -> Preferences Dialog allows you to make fundamental choices about your preferred Wrapping, Unicode, and Backup strategy. Help in the Dialog is there to guide you )in necessary)...

Important: The default settings use Soft Wrapping and UTF-8 format for TeX Documents. If these are not your preferences you should make the changes before you start working on your documents (this can save you a lot of problems and confusion)!

Upgrading

Important: You should not be upgrading to WinEdt 11, if

If you don't fall in any of the above categories read the rest of the instructions and proceed accordingly...

Upgrading from an older version of WinEdt 11 is easy and free!

You don't have to uninstall the previous build of WinEdt 11 to upgrade to the latest version or build. You should not uninstall it if you want to preserve custom settings in your Application Data or Local folder.

Here are the steps that you should perform for smooth upgrading:

• Install the new version (over the old one).
• Execute Options -> Maintenance -> Upgrade Local... menu command (to merge your personal settings with the new defaults) and restart WinEdt.

When started from the installer WinEdt (and applications subsequently launched from it) run with elevated privileges and this affects their behavior. That's why a restart is required.

NOTE: You should never run WinEdt with elevated privileges and you should not make modifications to files in WinEdt's install folder! It is a very bad idea to do so (and you are doing something very wrong if you think you must do either of the above)! Consider yourself warned...

The "What's New?" section in WinEdt's Manual explains what has been changed or fixed for the latest build... Check it out!

WinEdt 11 is installed parallel to WinEdt 10 (or older) and you can continue to use an older version and possibly uninstall WinEdt 11 if you prefer the old version. WinEdt 11 can run simultaneously with any older version of the program. You should not attempt to install WinEdt 11 over the existing older version.

You cannot automatically import settings from older versions into WinEdt 11. Check What's New for some tips on how to proceed with upgrading from WinEdt 10 and manually importing some of your old settings.

Registration: If you are currently using an older version of WinEdt you can take advantage of the trial period and see if you want to use this version or if you prefer an older one. Should you opt for WinEdt 11 and already have a license for an older version of WinEdt, you will need to purchase a new license from www.winedt.com (see the Tables on the Registration page). Exceptions will be made (upon request) to users that have purchased a license or an upgrade within the last year and to users that make contributions, or help with the WinEdt project in some other way... This is your chance to get involved!

Uninstalling

If you use the Uninstall Command (e.g. from Windows Control Panel) to uninstall WinEdt then the folder where you installed WinEdt and WinEdt's Application Data folder (if you created a User Profile) will be removed (as they should!). Thus make sure that you don't place your documents in the same folder. By default, the root folder and application data folder are:

  {program files}\WinEdt Team\WinEdt 11
  {user application data}\WinEdt Team\WinEdt 11

These are certainly no places for your documents! However, should you decide to specify a custom folder during WinEdt's Installation keep the above warning in mind: uninstall will delete it!

Whatever custom location you might specify it should end with "\WinEdt". In particular, "\WinEdt" is not automatically appended to the specified location (as one might erroneously assume with possibly serious consequences should WinEdt be uninstalled and thus the destination folder erased)!

Installer

WinEdt uses a reputable open source installer: NSIS. The installer will make sure that WinEdt is installed with elevated privileges and thus placed in the proper (usually write-protected) folder inside Program Files. You should not attempt to manually place or modify files in WinEdt's install folder.

Generated installers and uninstallers accept a few options on the command line. These options give the user a bit more control over the installation process.

Common Options

/NCRC

Disables the CRC check.

/S

Runs the installer or uninstaller silently.

Installer-Specific Options

/D=

Sets the default installation directory. It must be the last parameter used in the command line and must not contain any quotes, even if the path contains spaces. Only absolute paths are supported.

Uninstaller-Specific Options

_?=

Sets the default uninstallation directory. It also stops the uninstaller from copying itself to the temporary directory and running from there. It must be the last parameter used in the command line and must not contain any quotes, even if the path contains spaces.

WinEdt-Specific Installer Options

WinEdt's installer implements a few extra command line switches that can come in handy for silent installation:

/ADMININSTALL=0/1

Set to 1 forces admin installation.

/PORTABLEINSTALL=0/1

Set to 1 forces portable installation (without user profiles).

/USERPROFILE=0/1

Set to 1 enables the creation of a user profile.

/STARTMENUICON=0/1

Set to 1 creates a Start menu shortcut.

/DESKTOPICON=0/1

Set to 1 creates a Desktop shortcut.

/ASSOCIATEFILES=0/1

Set to 1 creates a default set of icons and filetypes associations in Windows registry.

Note that the above options have no effect on non-silent installations. By default, all are enabled (set to 1) except for /ASSOCIATEFILES and /PORTABLEINSTALL.

Filetype association task can be (selectively) performed through WinEdt's Configuration Wizard. However, on Windows with UAC, this usually requires elevated privileges (to modify the proper registry entries). Network administrators can specify /ASSOCIATEFILES=1 if they want WinEdt to be associated with common TeX files during a silent installation (rather than leaving the task to users who may not have sufficient experience or privileges to succeed in doing so themselves).

WinEdt-Specific Uninstaller Options

WinEdt's uninstaller implements a few extra command line switches that can come in handy for silent uninstallation:

/USERPROFILE=0/1

Set to 1 deletes user profile folder.

/REGDATA=0/1

Set to 1 deletes WinEdt registration data from Windows registry.

Note that the above options have no effect on non-silent uninstallations. By default, /USERPROFILE is enabled (set to 1) while /REGDATA is disabled (set to 0).

   C:\WinEdt Team\WinEdt 11
   C:\Users\[user]\WinEdt Team\WinEdt 11
   ...

   %B\WinEdt Team\WinEdt 11\Local

They will not interfere with an older version of WinEdt. The instructions on Cloning WinEdt Configuration (below) apply if you want to import your current WinEdt 11 configuration into a portable installation.

To remove a portable installation simply delete the folder where it was installed...

Important: If you opt for Admin installation you must enable the user profile creation during installation (this is the default setting and should not be disabled unless you know what you are doing). WinEdt will not work properly if you install it without user profiles into a folder that is write-protected (like Program Files)! If you don't want user profiles choose the Private or Portable Installation. If you want to change anything in WinEdt's install folder later, you will have to run WinEdt as an administrator. This applies to changing the profile settings as well as entering registration data for all users!

Hint: To start WinEdt with administrative privileges right-click on its icon (link) and choose Run as Administrator from the context popup menu: only then can WinEdt write or modify global data (such as secure registration data for all users) in its Program Files folder. Elevated privileges are also required to create filetype associations on recent versions of Windows.

  C:\Program Files\WinEdt Team\WinEdt 11  (Readonly)
  C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Roaming\WinEdt Team\WinEdt 11

  C:\Users\[user]\WinEdt Team\WinEdt 11
  C:\Users\[user]\WinEdt Team\WinEdt 11\Local