Re: Installing gvim on Windows with no admin rights

[Ben Fritz]

On Wednesday, July 25, 2012 9:06:55 AM UTC-5, His Nerdship wrote:
> I have just started a contract at my most anal company yet. They don't give admin rights on the PC (even to developers), so I can't install anything and I can't use RegEdit (even on the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive).
> I would really like to use Vim, but it is not on "The List" so I cannot install it legitimately. I have copied in the files, which kinda works, but the best use is through a proper installation which sets up the Registry keys etc. I have kludged together a small C++ program to mimic in HKEY_CURRENT_USER the Vim entries in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and thus use the right-click context menu item "Edit with Vim" in Windows Explorer (this works programatically, but not with RegEdit).
> Is there any way gvim can be installed by someone with no admin rights?
> Failing that, what other Registry entries can I kludge onto HKEY_CURRENT_USER? I would like the other context menu item "Edit with Existing Vim", for example.

I don't know about the "edit with Vim" registry entries. I don't use them much anymore because they don't work on my 64-bit system at work. But you can make use of the Windows "Send To" menu as a substitute for those:

http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Add_Vim_to_Windows_Send_To_menu

Using the --remote family of command switches, you can accomplish the same thing as all the "edit in Vim" entries without touching the registry at all.

For file associations, there is a location in HKEY_CURRENT_USER which can be used for those:

http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Windows_file_associations#User-specific_file_associations

I've installed Vim on multiple lab machines at work where I have no admin rights, by installing into C:\Vim instead of C:\Program Files\Vim, and using the user-specific file associations instead of global ones.

[John Beckett]

His Nerdship wrote:
> I would like the other context menu item

> "Edit with Existing Vim", for example.

I don't use that (ZTree is sensational if one is used to it),
but apart from "send to" you might find drag and drop to do the
job. Select one or more files in Windows Explorer and d&d to
gvim. If wanted, then use ':tab sball' to display each file in
its own tab.

John

[Choy Rim]

On Wednesday, July 25, 2012 10:06:55 AM UTC-4, His Nerdship wrote:
> Is there any way gvim can be installed by someone with no admin rights?

> Failing that, what other Registry entries can I kludge onto HKEY_CURRENT_USER? I would like the other context menu item "Edit with Existing Vim", for example.

I created a .reg file like the one below and opened it and it worked for me.
----
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\*\shell\vim]
@="Edit with &Vim"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\*\shell\vim\command]
@="C:\\some\\path\\vim\\vim74\\gvim.exe \"%1\""
----

I see that my response is late but this seems to be the only worthwhile place to post this workaround.