Portable Emacs for Windows

An editor you can take with you.

ed keeps an Emacs launcher and a practical configuration in one repository. Run it in the folder where you are already working, with the same tracked configuration on each Windows machine you use.

C:\work\project> ed

Install ed Browse the source

Emacs displaying a Markdown note with a heading, numbered steps, a quotation, and a checklist in a light theme. — An ordinary Markdown file on disk, opened with the configuration that ships in the repository.

01 / What it changes

Less setup to reconstruct.

The setup stays visible: The launcher and Emacs configuration live beside one another. Downloaded archives, the portable runtime, packages, and generated state stay out of the tracked source.
It opens where you are: Run ed in a directory, or pass it a file. A directory starts an Emacs shell there; a file opens directly.
It remains Emacs: ed adds a light theme, completion, file modes for everyday work, Magit, and a toggled terminal pane. Emacs key bindings remain, and a language server never starts unless you request it.

02 / At work

Writing and code share the same room.

Notes, scripts, source, and data files can share one session without turning every buffer into an IDE.

A PowerShell script open in Emacs with line numbers and syntax highlighting. — PowerShell syntax and line numbers.

A Kusto Query Language query open in the custom ed KQL mode. — A small KQL mode highlights comments, keywords, strings, and numbers.

Markdown · Emacs Lisp · C# · Scala · PowerShell · JSON · YAML · KQL

The Emacs shell showing the current project directory and the main Git branch. — With no file argument, ed starts Eshell in the directory from which it was launched. The same shell can be toggled below any buffer.

03 / Try it

Clone, add one command, open a folder.

Clone the repository on Windows and run the PATH helper from its root:

git clone https://github.com/dzharii/ed-is-my-portable-emacs.git
cd ed-is-my-portable-emacs
add-to-path.cmd

The helper shows the current-user PATH change and asks before writing it. Open a new terminal, move to a project, and run:

ed

If no usable Emacs is available, ed explains the GNU Emacs 30.2 download and asks before starting it. Declining starts no download and installs nothing.

Get the source on GitHub Read the installation notes