ConEmu Installation

In general, ConEmu installation is easy. Just unpack or install to any folder and run ConEmu.exe.

General installation routine

  • You may use either ConEmuSetup.*.exe installer or 7-Zip package ConEmuPack.*.7z, both contain identical binaries.
    • Run installer ConEmuSetup.*.exe and follow MSI installation wizard steps. Read more about installer below.
    • Or just unpack all files from ConEmuPack.*.7z to desired directory.
  • Note. ‘Far Manager plugins’ MSI feature installs plugins required to get most of Far Manager integration provided by ConEmu. These files located in plugins subfolder are not required if you don’t use Far Manager.
  • When installation or unpacking finishes run ConEmu.exe or ConEmu64.exe. ConEmu shows simplified configuration dialog on the first start where you may turn on portable mode.

Far Manager notes

In general, installation for using with Far Manager is the same as in general. With the only exception:

To simplify that ConEmu creates a Task for each Far Manager version found on your PC. If Far Manager was installed after ConEmu you may use Add/refresh default tasks feature.

The example command line for Far Manager installed in the C:\Tools\Far folder:

C:\Tools\Far\far.exe /w /p"%ConEmuDir%\Plugins\ConEmu;%FarHome%\Plugins"

If you install ConEmu in the same folder where far.exe is located, C:\Tools\Far for example, there will be no problem at all, ConEmu plugin will be (most probably) installed into C:\Tools\Far\plugins\ConEmu folder and will be loaded by far.exe automatically.

Otherwise you have to use /p switch as shown in the example above.

Far Manager macros for ConEmu

The subfolder ConEmu contains several useful macros for different Far Manager versions. For example, folder Far1_reg contains *.reg macros for old-school Far 1.75, and Far3_lua supplies *.lua macros for latest Far 3.0 branch.

Just browse them and choose what you want, each macro file has description in the header.

For example, ConEmu.ShiftEnter.* let you run application under cursor or typed command in the new ConEmu tab. Just press Alt+Enter to run tab in foreground and Shift+Enter to run in background.

How to use the desired macro.

  • *.lua macro files. Standard for Far 3.0 branch. Copy the file to the %FARPROFILE%\macros\scripts and run in Far prompt Macro:Load.
  • *.fml macro files. This requires ‘MacroLib’ plugin, please refer to its documentation.
  • *.reg macro files. Just double click the file to import its contents to Windows registry.

If your Far version does not know Macro:Load command, just restart the Far to reload macros list.

MSI installer

The installer ConEmuSetup.*.exe is a bundle for standard 32-bit and 64-bit MSI installers. There are not differences between them except of default installation folder on 64-bit OS.

Bitness Default folder on 64-bit OS
32-bit C:\Program Files (x86)\ConEmu
64-bit C:\Program Files\ConEmu

But you may choose any desired folder, and ConEmuSetup.*.exe shows if the version is already installed and where. The following screenshot depicts that 64-bit ConEmu version was installed in the C:\ConEmu folder.

Choose desired version

There are no differences between 32-bit and 64-bit packages, both contain all required files to run on any Windows.

Selected MSI installer is unpacked to %TEMP% folder and you’ll face usual MSI wizard. Just follow usual installation steps, selecting options and pressing ‘Next’ button.

Desktop icons

By default, the installer creates icons on the ‘Desktop’ and in the ‘Start menu’. And these icons will be recreated by MSI each time you update ConEmu. If you dislike the behavior, if you want to rename icons or remove them from ‘Desktop’, you shall:

  • Run the installer ConEmuSetup.*.exe changing installed features.

Change installed features

  • Uncheck ‘Desktop’ shortcuts creation.

Disable Desktop icon creation

  • Go to the end of MSI wizard process.

After that you may create you own personalized shortcuts on the Desktop.

MacType issues

If you are using MacType you can get crashes when starting any application from a shell started in ConEmu tab.

That is because MacType tries to hook ConEmuC.exe and ConEmuC64.exe processes. But ConEmuC is a console application and it does not draw any text on graphical canvas at all.

The workarounds

  • Use ‘Load with MacTray’ + ‘Standalong loading mode’ instead of ‘Registry’ or ‘Service’.
  • Or add ConEmuC.exe and ConEmuC64.exe to MacType exclusion list, if exclusion lists works for you.

Java issues

There is an Issue 1899 with Java version 7.x if it was installed in symlinked folder. You can get java exception like:

at sun.nio.fs.WindowsNativeDispatcher.GetFinalPathNameByHandle(Native Method)

The workaround. Use full (but not symlinked) paths in the %PATH% and %JAVA_HOME%. Also, Java 8.x seems like does not have that problem.

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