Open Source Release: Vi for Windows

 The PC/OpenSystems LLC Open Source team is pleased to announce our new release of Vi for Windows Server 2022/2025 Core and Desktop.  Vi 5.0.0-2026 is our take on the classic Vi editor for the Windows Server platform.  

You can download it from here

https://github.com/rjdohnert/Vi-For-Windows

You can view the user's guide here

https://github.com/rjdohnert/Vi-For-Windows/blob/main/vi-user-guide.md

Key Highlights

• Zero-Dependency Native Binary: Single self-contained executable (vi.exe & view.exe) powered by Windows Console Virtual Terminal Sequences with no external runtime dependencies beyond standard system libraries (user32.dll).
• Full Mouse & Scroll Wheel Support: SGR mouse reporting (:set mouse=a / :set nomouse) with click-to-position cursor in any mode, smooth split-window wheel scrolling, right-click Windows clipboard paste ("+p), and clickable top tabline switching.
• Extended Regular Expression Engine: Vim-compatible regex engine featuring precision match anchors (\zs, \ze), character classes (\d, \D, \w, \W, \s, \S), quantifiers (\+, \?, *), word boundaries (\<, \>), and character sets ([...], [^...]).
• Non-Blocking Async Background Grep: Multithreaded :grep <pattern> on background worker threads with an animated status bar spinner and auto-populated Quickfix list (:copen, :cnext, :cprev, :clist).
• Side-by-Side Diff Mode: Real-time LCS line comparison (vi -d file1 file2, :diffsplit <file>, :diffthis, :diffoff, :diffupdate) with gutter markers (+, -, !) and synchronized dual-window scrolling.

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Window, Tab & Workspace Management

• Multi-Window Viewport Splits: Horizontal and vertical splits (:split, :vsplit, :close, :only), directional navigation (Ctrl-W h/j/k/l), cycling (Ctrl-W w/p), and equal balancing (Ctrl-W =).
• Tab Pages: Multi-tab management (:tabnew, :tabclose, :tabnext / gt, :tabprev / gT, :tabonly) with an interactive top tabline.
• In-Memory Multi-Buffer Manager: Edit multiple files simultaneously (:ls, :b, :bn, :bp, :bd, :badd) with geometric buffer scaling ($O(N)$) for instant large server log loading.
• Workspace Session Persistence: Save and restore complete window layouts, buffers, tabs, and cursor positions (:mksession [path], :source <path>, vi -S [path]).
• Integrated Directory Explorer & Fuzzy Finder: Netrw-style directory browser (:Explore, :Sex, vi <dir>) and fast recursive in-memory file finder (:find <query>).
• CTags Symbol Navigation: Cross-file symbol jump (Ctrl-], :tag <sym>), tag stack pop (Ctrl-T, :pop), and stack inspection (:tags).

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Editing, Reliability & Shell Integration

• Complete Vi Grammar & Text Objects: Full [count][operator][count][motion] composition, inner/around text objects (iw, aw, quotes, and brackets/parentheses/braces), and Visual Block Mode (Ctrl-V / Ctrl-Q) with column insert/append (I, A).
• Indent-Based Code Folding: Collapse and expand code blocks (zc, zo, za, zR, zM, :set fdm=indent).
• Buffer-Word Autocompletion: Zero-dependency Ctrl-N / Ctrl-P keyword completion across all active buffers.
• Crash Recovery & Persistent Undo: Real-time swap journaling (.{filename}.swp, :recover) plus optional disk-persisted multi-session undo trees (.{filename}.un~, :set undofile).
• External Modification & Read-Only Protection: Automatic detection of external disk changes (:set autoread, :checktime) and Windows FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY enforcement ([RO] indicator, vi -R, view.exe).
• Windows Clipboard & Line Endings: Native clipboard bridge ("+y, "+p, "*y, "*p) and transparent CRLF / LF preservation.
• Interactive Subshell & Filter Pipes: Suspend or spawn a nested shell (:terminal, :sh) and pipe buffer ranges through external commands (:%!sort, :'<,'>!findstr ...).

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Appearance & Syntax Highlighting

• 5 Built-In Color Schemes: :colorscheme <dark|light|monokai|gruvbox|classic> (alias :colo).
• 23 Languages & Formats Supported:
  • Systems & Compiled: C/C++, Rust, Go, Zig, Swift, Objective-C, Java, COBOL, Fortran, Pascal, Basic
  • Web & Scripting: JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, PowerShell, Batch/CMD, Shell (sh/bash/zsh)
  • Data, Config & Markup: TOML, SQL (ANSI & T-SQL), XML/HTML/SVG, YAML, INI/Registry/INF, JSON, Markdown

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Installation & CLI Quick Start

• Per-User Install: .\install.ps1 (installs vi.exe and view.exe to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\vi)
• System-Wide / Server Core Install: .\install.ps1 -AllUsers (installs to %ProgramFiles%\vi for all users, SSH, and WinRM sessions)
• Explorer Context Menu: .\install.ps1 -ContextMenu (adds "Open with Vi" to Windows File Explorer)