---
title: Jekyll on Windows
permalink: /docs/installation/windows/
redirect_from:
  - /docs/windows/
---

While Windows is not an officially-supported platform, it can be used to run Jekyll with the proper tweaks. This page aims to
collect some of the general knowledge and lessons that have been unearthed by Windows users.

## Installing Jekyll

### Installation via RubyInstaller

The easiest way to run Jekyll is by using the [RubyInstaller](https://rubyinstaller.org/) for Windows.

RubyInstaller is a self-contained Windows-based installer that includes the Ruby language, an execution environment,
important documentation, and more.
We only cover RubyInstaller-2.4 and newer here, older versions need to
[install the Devkit](https://github.com/oneclick/rubyinstaller/wiki/Development-Kit) manually.

1. Download and Install a **Ruby+Devkit** version from [RubyInstaller Downloads](https://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/).
   Use default options for installation.
2. Run the `ridk install` step on the last stage of the installation wizard. This is needed for installing gems with native
   extensions. You can find additional information regarding this in the
   [RubyInstaller Documentation](https://github.com/oneclick/rubyinstaller2#using-the-installer-on-a-target-system)
3. Open a new command prompt window from the start menu, so that changes to the `PATH` environment variable becomes effective.
   Install Jekyll and Bundler via: `gem install jekyll bundler`
4. Check if Jekyll installed properly: `jekyll -v`

That's it, you're ready to use Jekyll!

### Installation via Bash on Windows 10

If you are using Windows 10 version 1607 or later, another option to run Jekyll is by
[installing](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/commandline/wsl/install_guide) the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

{: .note .info}
You must have [Windows Subsystem for Linux](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/commandline/wsl/about) enabled.

First let's make sure all our packages / repositories are up to date. Open a new Command Prompt instance, and type the following:

```sh
bash
```

Your Command Prompt instance should now be a Bash instance. Now we must update our repo lists and packages.

```sh
sudo apt-get update -y && sudo apt-get upgrade -y
```

Now we can install Ruby. To do this we will use a repository from [BrightBox](https://www.brightbox.com/docs/ruby/ubuntu/),
which hosts optimized versions of Ruby for Ubuntu.

```sh
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:brightbox/ruby-ng
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ruby2.5 ruby2.5-dev build-essential dh-autoreconf
```

Next let's update our Ruby gems:

```sh
gem update
```

Now all that is left to do is install Jekyll.

```sh
gem install jekyll bundler
```

(*Note: no `sudo` here.*)

Check if Jekyll installed properly by running:

```sh
jekyll -v
```

**And that's it!**

You can make sure time management is working properly by inspecting your `_posts` folder. You should see a markdown file
with the current date in the filename.

<div class="note info">
  <h5>Non-superuser account issues</h5>
  <p>If the `jekyll new` command prints the error "Your user account isn't allowed to install to the system RubyGems", see
  the "Running Jekyll as Non-Superuser" instructions in
  <a href="{{ '/docs/troubleshooting/#no-sudo' | relative_url }}">Troubleshooting</a>.</p>
</div>

{: .note .info}
Bash on Ubuntu on Windows is still under development, so you may run into issues.

## Encoding

If you use UTF-8 encoding, make sure that no `BOM` header characters exist in your files or very, very bad things will happen to
Jekyll. This is especially relevant when you're running Jekyll on Windows.

Additionally, you might need to change the code page of the console window to UTF-8 in case you get a
`Liquid Exception: Incompatible character encoding` error during the site generation process. It can be done with the following
command:

```sh
chcp 65001
```

## Time-Zone Management

Since Windows doesn't have a native source of zoneinfo data, the Ruby Interpreter would not understand IANA Timezones and hence
using them had the `TZ` environment variable default to UTC/GMT 00:00.

Though Windows users could alternatively define their blog's timezone by setting the key to use POSIX format of defining
timezones, it wasn't as user-friendly when it came to having the clock altered to changing DST-rules.

Jekyll now uses a rubygem to internally configure Timezone based on established
[IANA Timezone Database](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones).
While 'new' blogs created with Jekyll v3.4 and greater, will have the following added to their `Gemfile` by default, existing
sites *will* have to update their `Gemfile` (and installed) to enable development on Windows:

```ruby
# Windows does not include zoneinfo files, so bundle the tzinfo-data gem
gem 'tzinfo-data', platforms: [:mingw, :mswin, :x64_mingw, :jruby]
```

<div class="note warning">
  <h5>TZInfo 2.0 incompatibility</h5>
  <p>
    Version 2.0 of the TZInfo library has introduced a change in how timezone offsets are calculated.
    This will result in incorrect date and time for your posts when the site is built with Jekyll 3.x on Windows.
  </p>
  <p>
    We therefore recommend that you lock the Timezone library to version 1.2 and above by listing
    <code>gem 'tzinfo', '~> 1.2'</code> in your <code>Gemfile</code>.
  </p>
</div>

## Auto Regeneration

Jekyll uses the `listen` gem to watch for changes when the `--watch` switch is specified during a build or serve.
While `listen` has built-in support for UNIX systems, it may require an extra gem for compatibility with Windows.

Add the following to the `Gemfile` for your site if you have issues with auto-regeneration on Windows alone:

```ruby
gem 'wdm', '~> 0.1.1', :install_if => Gem.win_platform?
```

You have to use a [Ruby+Devkit](https://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/) version of the RubyInstaller and install
the MSYS2 build tools to successfully install the `wdm` gem.