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−	== [[GnuCash]] on Microsoft Windows ==	+	= [[GnuCash]] on Microsoft Windows =
−	This page collects various notes about potentially compiling [[GnuCash]] on Microsoft Windows.	+	This page collects various notes about running [[GnuCash]] on Microsoft Windows.
−	Relevant recent gnucash-devel discussion:	+	=== Q: Which Windows versions are supported? ===
−	* https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-devel/2006-February/016646.html	+	;Answer: The [{{URL:www}}/download.phtml download page] shows, which Windows version is officially supported by which GnuCash version.
−	* https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-devel/2006-February/016647.html	+	:;Note: ''Windows 3/95/98/Me'' and ''Windows NT3.5/4.0'' have never been supported.
−	Status: It is possible to compile all prerequisites successfully. It remains an open question how to approach the full gnucash package next.	+	=== Q: Where is the binary installer? ===
		+	'''A:''' The latest versions can be downloaded from the [{{{{URL:www}}}}/download.phtml download] page on the GnuCash website. Anyone who cares about their data should use the '''released version''' found there.
		+	:People looking to test new features - at the risk of running into extra bugs - could try a '''test version''':
		+	:* As it is not so easy to build GnuCash under Windows, a daily build of the [{{URL:Build:Win}} stable branch] is made available as well to '''test''' bugfixes.
		+	:* To closely follow development on the ''future branch'', which contains new features - and bugs - there are the [[#Q:_Are_there_nightly_builds.3F|nightly builds]]. Expect data loss if you try these though!
−	== Prerequisites ==	+	=== Q: Is it possible to compile GnuCash on Windows? ===
		+	'''A:''' Yes. It's cumbersome, but possible. See the instructions in [[Building_on_Windows| Building on Windows]].
−	=== Mingw32 ===	+	=== Q: Are there nightly builds? ===
−	See http://www.mingw.org . All available as pre-compiled binaries.	+	'''A:''' We run nightly builds for the '''stable''' (former <q>maint</q>) and after implmenting its first feature the '''future''' (former <q>master</q>) branch, but it's configured so that it runs only if changes have been pushed since the last build and only if the build is successful; they do fail from time to time. You can find the last 6-12 month's worth of builds at
		+	{{BuildURL}}/builds/win32/
		+	or, more specifically, for [{{URL:Build:Win}}?C=M;O=D stable], on demand for [{{URL:Build:Win|future}}?C=M;O=D future], and [{{URL:Build:Win|build-logs}}?C=M;O=D logs for all builds].
−	Many other pre-compiled binaries are also available from http://gnuwin32.sf.net/ , for example:	+	The product of the nightly builds is a Windows installer that will ''replace your existing GnuCash installation''. The future branch ''really is unstable'': Be sure to have suitable backups and don't use it for your "production" books.
−	* pkgconfig
−	* libxml2
−	=== guile ===	+	=== Q: Anything else? ===
−	In guile-1.6.7 several tweaks were necessary to get it to compile.	+	To avoid making the installer file even bigger, some functionality is not available without further downloads and installations of software.
−	* File libguile.c line 479: replace "#elif defined(FIONREAD)" by "#elif 0"
−	* File libguile-ltdl/raw-ltdl.c lines 220, 222, 224: remove the LT_GLOBAL_DATA macro on each line
−	* Files srfi/Makefile, libguile-ltdl/Makefile, libguile/Makefile: Add "-no-undefined" argument to libxyz_LDFLAGS variables, see also [http://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/index.php?func=detailitem&item_id=15972]
−	* And finally set the env variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH to the actual load path, which is different from the one that was stored during compile due to mingw's path translation. Make e.g. <tt>export
−	GUILE_LOAD_PATH=c:/msys/1.0/local/share/guile/1.6/</tt>
−	One possible set of configure arguments looked like this:	+	==== Preferences in GnuCash 2.6 and more recent ====
		+	gconf has been replaced with another preferences system. On Windows you
		+	will find the preferences directly in the Windows Registry under the
		+	registry key
		+	HKEY_CURRENT_USER/software/GSettings/org/gnucash/
−	./configure --disable-elisp --disable-networking --disable-dependency-tracking --disable-libtool-lock --disable-linuxthreads -C --prefix=/usr/local LDFLAGS="-L/lib -L/mingw/lib -L/C/WINNT/system32 -lwsock32 -lregex"	+	==== Pdf name for invoices ====
−	For testing, first try to make sure "guile -v" will run and give you the version number. Then try a simple expression, like "guile  -c '%load-path'". However, so far I was unable to actually start the interactive interpreter (by simple "guile") because the readline library is unavailable. So running "guile" will give "ERROR: In procedure quasiquote: ERROR: Unbound variable: SIGBUS", but at least the code generation in g-wrap will work nevertheless.	+	This name is controlled by two hidden preferences:
		+	* pdf-export/filename-format
		+	* pdf-export/filename-date-format
−	=== g-wrap ===	+	Both of them will reside in the registry under
−	See http://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/index.php?func=detailitem&item_id=15972	+	HKEY_CURRENT_USER/software/GSettings/org/gnucash/dialogs/general/report
−	Status: Compile is possible.	+	These won't be there by default (only values that deviate from the default
		+	value will be effectively in the registry). To change it you will first
		+	have to create a sub key named '''pdf-export''.
−	=== glib ===	+	Under this key you can create two string type keys named '''filename-format'''
−	http://www.gtk.org/download/ also has binary windows packages.	+	and '''filename-date-format'''.
−	=== qof ===	+	This is the definition of these two string keys:
−	See https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-devel/2006-February/016647.html	+	;filename-format
		+	:This setting chooses the file name for PDF export. This is a sprintf(3) string with three arguments: "%1$s" is the report name such as "Invoice". "%2$s" is the number of the report, which for an invoice report is the invoice number. "%3$s" is the date of the report, formatted according to the filename-date-format setting. (Note: Any characters that are not allowed in filenames, such as '/', will be replaced with underscores '_' in the resulting file name.)<br/>The default value is %1$s-%2$s-%3$s
−	Status: Compile is possible.	+	;filename-date-format
		+	:This setting chooses the way dates are used in the filename of PDF export. Possible values for this setting are "locale" to use the system locale setting, "ce" for Continental Europe style dates, "iso" for ISO 8601 standard dates , "uk" for United Kingdom style dates, and "us" for United States style dates.
−	== Gnucash ==	+	==== Finance::Quote ====
−	(Need instructions on how to tweak ./configure so that it doesn't complain about the missing gnome packages and so on.)	+	For the retrieval of [[Online Quotes]], you will need to install [{{URL:wp}}Perl Perl] and Finance::Quote (F::Q). See [[Online_Quotes#Installing_Perl_on_Windows|Installing Perl on Windows]].
		+
		+	= Notes =
		+	== Error messages, Trace file ==
		+	In the GnuCash application, all error messages are redirected to a ''trace file''. There will be one trace file for each time GnuCash is run. For a user named "myname" these files are located in the folder
		+	* <tt>c:\Documents and Settings\myname\Local Settings\Temp</tt> (Windows XP) or
		+	* <tt>C:\Users\myname\AppData\Local\Temp</tt> (Windows Vista/7).
		+	They are named
		+	* <tt>gnucash.trace.ABCDEF</tt> (GnuCash 2.2.9 and older) or
		+	* <tt>gnucash.trace.ABCDEF.log</tt> (GnuCash 2.4.0 and newer)
		+	where the ABCDEF part is changed randomly on each start of gnucash. See also [[Tracefile]].
		+
		+	If you experience crashes or unexpected behavior, check the latest of these files (or the one created when the problem started) and add all interesting-looking lines of that file to your error reports, at least the lines with the keywords <tt>WARN</tt>ing and <tt>CRIT</tt>ical warning.
		+
		+	See also [[Windows Debugging]].
		+
		+	== Determining the locale ==
		+	When asked for the locale, take a look at the Regional Settings in your Control Panel and report the values found for "Standard and Formats", "Location" and "Language for non-Unicode programs".
		+
		+	Also, use [{{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=450353 this  bug's] [{{BugURL}}/attachment.cgi?id=90557 attachment] to determine the locale as used internally by gettext.
		+
		+	= Problems, issues, comments =
		+	For any problem that occurs now, you should add a new section below.
		+
		+	== Issues with older versions of GnuCash ==
		+
		+	In an effort to keep the information somewhat manageable this page will only gather issues with the current stable version of GnuCash. For historical reference, the older issues will be moved to [[Windows/Old Issues|a separate page]].
		+
		+	If you experience issues with an older version of GnuCash, the first advice is normally to try again with the current stable version. There may however be situations where you need to revive an older version and in that case the information kept on the [[Windows/Old Issues|older issues page]] may be useful.
		+
		+	In addition, if you experience any of the older issues in the current stable release of GnuCash, please [[Bugzilla|file a bug report]] or ask about it on the [[Mailing Lists|user mailing list]].
		+
		+	== Known issues ==
		+	Here is a list of the most often mentioned Windows issues. If you experience this problem, please check the respective bugzilla reports for potential workarounds.
		+	* {{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=466512 Win32: Wrong permissions for .gnucash directory (was: Win32 GnuCash 2.2.1 Fails to Start/Install)
		+	* {{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=645273#c40 Reports features do not work
		+
		+	== Windows 7 64-bit - GnuCash fails to run ==
		+
		+	This is with GnuCash 2.4.3:
		+
		+	Starting GnuCash shows the splash screen and the tip of the day for a brief instant and then it disappears.  To fix the problem, I did:
		+
		+	# Right-click on the GnuCash icon and select 'Run as Administrator'
		+	# GnuCash starts up as expected
		+	# Close GnuCash
		+
		+	After doing the above once, I can start GnuCash normally and it starts up properly.
		+
		+	Hopefully this helps someone. --[[User:Sketch|Sketch]] 05:05, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
		+
		+	== Font problems ==
		+
		+	After upgrading to 2.2.1, people have reported font-related issues:
		+
		+	* The tick/check mark in the Reconcile window may look like a "nondescript squiggle"
		+	* Register windows may open with all transactions scrolled out of sight (upwards)
		+	* Languages other than English show characters as a box of four zeros "0 0 0 0".
		+
		+	The reason appears to be that GnuCash is now referring to Windows to determine what fonts to use,
		+	and in both these cases is using the one specified for "Message Box", which defaults to Tahoma 8.
		+
		+	Changing to Tahoma 10 fixed both of these for me.
		+
		+	The procedure on WinXP is:
		+	# Start -> Control panel or My Computer -> Control panel
		+	# Appearance and Themes -> Display (or, if using the "Classic View", Display)
		+	# Appearance
		+	# Advanced
		+	# Select "Message Box" from the drop-down
		+	# Change as required (e.g. set to Tacoma 10 point)
		+	# OK
		+	# Apply
		+
		+	[[User:Fred|Fred]] 10:30, 22 August 2007 (EDT)
		+	:Is this still necessary when using GnuCash 2.2.2? [[User:Andi5|andi5]]
		+
		+	I ([[User:piyo|piyo]]) confirmed that the above procedure is necessary for viewing Japanese on Windows XP with GnuCash 2.2.3 (2008-01-08):
		+	* Confirmed that working fonts are '''Arial UI Unicode''', '''FixSys''', '''System''', '''Tahoma''' (including 8!), '''Terminal'''. Also for Japanese, '''MS P Gothic''', '''MS P Mincho''', '''MS UI Gothic''', '''MS Gothic''', '''MS Mincho fonts''' are working.
		+	* Confirmed that non-working fonts are '''Lucida Sans Unicode''' and '''Microsoft Sans Serif'''.
		+	--[[User:Piyo|Piyo]] 23:23, 5 February 2008 (EST)
		+
		+	== Program hangs constantly ==
		+
		+	(GnuCash 2.4)
		+
		+	According to [{{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=677829 this bug report] GnuCash can become unstable with some themes. The original reporter didn't remember which themes caused issues, but had no problems when using the "Unity" theme.
		+
		+	--[[User:GJanssens|GJanssens]] 18 October 2013
		+
		+	== Gnucash fails to start with Failed to contact configuration server ==
		+
		+	(GnuCash 2.4)
		+
		+	Copied from [{{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=708989 this bug report]:
		+
		+	I installed GnuCash on Windows 7 and at one point I received the following error message
		+
		+	Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need
		+	to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a
		+	system crash. See https://projects-old.gnome.org/gconf/ for information.
		+	(Details -  1: IOR file
		+	'C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp\gconfd-Username/lock/ior' not opened
		+	successfully, no gconfd located: No such file or directory 2: IOR file
		+	'C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp\gconfd-Username/lock/ior' not opened
		+	successfully, no gconfd located: No such file or directory)
		+
		+	I do not know what caused this error message.
		+
		+	Uninstalling GnuCash, removing an empty gnucash folder in C:\Program Files
		+	(x86)\, and reinstalling Gnucash does not restore GnuCash. I.e., same error
		+	message was produced.
		+
		+	Cleaning up the windows registry did not help either.
		+
		+	What did work was to remove the folder
		+	C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp\gconfd-Username/
		+	which did not contain the subdirectory + file lock/ior that is mentioned in the
		+	error message.
		+
		+	The folder AppData is hidden (for Windows 7) and needs to be explicitly typed
		+	in the folder browser.
		+
		+	And also note that 'Username' should be replaced with your real username in the path (it's in there two times).
		+
		+	--[[User:GJanssens|GJanssens]] 18 October 2013
		+	== Windows 11: GnuCash installer quits without doing anything ==
		+	When launching <code>gnucash-setup.exe</code> Windows 10 and Windows 11 usually complain that GnuCash is from an unknown developer and will put up a scary dialog but if you accept the risk it will run the installer after the usual User Authorization Escalation dialog. We've had a [https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=799299 report] that Windows 11 might silently fail to do anything. If that happens to you right-click on <code>gnucash-setup.exe</code> and select Properties from the context menu, then click Unblock and Save. You should be able to launch the installer normally.

---

Latest revision as of 21:51, 3 May 2024

GnuCash on Microsoft Windows

This page collects various notes about running GnuCash on Microsoft Windows.

Q: Which Windows versions are supported?

Answer

The download page shows, which Windows version is officially supported by which GnuCash version.

Note

Windows 3/95/98/Me and Windows NT3.5/4.0 have never been supported.

Q: Where is the binary installer?

A: The latest versions can be downloaded from the [{{{{URL:www}}}}/download.phtml download] page on the GnuCash website. Anyone who cares about their data should use the released version found there.

People looking to test new features - at the risk of running into extra bugs - could try a test version:

• As it is not so easy to build GnuCash under Windows, a daily build of the stable branch is made available as well to test bugfixes.
• To closely follow development on the future branch, which contains new features - and bugs - there are the nightly builds. Expect data loss if you try these though!

Q: Is it possible to compile GnuCash on Windows?

A: Yes. It's cumbersome, but possible. See the instructions in Building on Windows.

Q: Are there nightly builds?

A: We run nightly builds for the stable (former maint) and after implmenting its first feature the future (former master) branch, but it's configured so that it runs only if changes have been pushed since the last build and only if the build is successful; they do fail from time to time. You can find the last 6-12 month's worth of builds at

https://code.gnucash.org/builds/win32/

or, more specifically, for stable, on demand for future, and logs for all builds.

The product of the nightly builds is a Windows installer that will replace your existing GnuCash installation. The future branch really is unstable: Be sure to have suitable backups and don't use it for your "production" books.

Q: Anything else?

To avoid making the installer file even bigger, some functionality is not available without further downloads and installations of software.

Preferences in GnuCash 2.6 and more recent

gconf has been replaced with another preferences system. On Windows you will find the preferences directly in the Windows Registry under the registry key

 HKEY_CURRENT_USER/software/GSettings/org/gnucash/

Pdf name for invoices

This name is controlled by two hidden preferences:

• pdf-export/filename-format
• pdf-export/filename-date-format

Both of them will reside in the registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER/software/GSettings/org/gnucash/dialogs/general/report

These won't be there by default (only values that deviate from the default value will be effectively in the registry). To change it you will first have to create a sub key named 'pdf-export.

Under this key you can create two string type keys named filename-format and filename-date-format.

This is the definition of these two string keys:

filename-format

This setting chooses the file name for PDF export. This is a sprintf(3) string with three arguments: "%1$s" is the report name such as "Invoice". "%2$s" is the number of the report, which for an invoice report is the invoice number. "%3$s" is the date of the report, formatted according to the filename-date-format setting. (Note: Any characters that are not allowed in filenames, such as '/', will be replaced with underscores '_' in the resulting file name.)
The default value is %1$s-%2$s-%3$s

filename-date-format

This setting chooses the way dates are used in the filename of PDF export. Possible values for this setting are "locale" to use the system locale setting, "ce" for Continental Europe style dates, "iso" for ISO 8601 standard dates , "uk" for United Kingdom style dates, and "us" for United States style dates.

Finance::Quote

For the retrieval of Online Quotes, you will need to install Perl and Finance::Quote (F::Q). See Installing Perl on Windows.

Notes

Error messages, Trace file

In the GnuCash application, all error messages are redirected to a trace file. There will be one trace file for each time GnuCash is run. For a user named "myname" these files are located in the folder

• c:\Documents and Settings\myname\Local Settings\Temp (Windows XP) or
• C:\Users\myname\AppData\Local\Temp (Windows Vista/7).

They are named

• gnucash.trace.ABCDEF (GnuCash 2.2.9 and older) or
• gnucash.trace.ABCDEF.log (GnuCash 2.4.0 and newer)

where the ABCDEF part is changed randomly on each start of gnucash. See also Tracefile.

If you experience crashes or unexpected behavior, check the latest of these files (or the one created when the problem started) and add all interesting-looking lines of that file to your error reports, at least the lines with the keywords WARNing and CRITical warning.

See also Windows Debugging.

Determining the locale

When asked for the locale, take a look at the Regional Settings in your Control Panel and report the values found for "Standard and Formats", "Location" and "Language for non-Unicode programs".

Also, use this bug's attachment to determine the locale as used internally by gettext.

Problems, issues, comments

For any problem that occurs now, you should add a new section below.

Issues with older versions of GnuCash

In an effort to keep the information somewhat manageable this page will only gather issues with the current stable version of GnuCash. For historical reference, the older issues will be moved to a separate page.

If you experience issues with an older version of GnuCash, the first advice is normally to try again with the current stable version. There may however be situations where you need to revive an older version and in that case the information kept on the older issues page may be useful.

In addition, if you experience any of the older issues in the current stable release of GnuCash, please file a bug report or ask about it on the user mailing list.

Known issues

Here is a list of the most often mentioned Windows issues. If you experience this problem, please check the respective bugzilla reports for potential workarounds.

• https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=466512 Win32: Wrong permissions for .gnucash directory (was: Win32 GnuCash 2.2.1 Fails to Start/Install)
• https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=645273#c40 Reports features do not work

Windows 7 64-bit - GnuCash fails to run

This is with GnuCash 2.4.3:

Starting GnuCash shows the splash screen and the tip of the day for a brief instant and then it disappears. To fix the problem, I did:

1. Right-click on the GnuCash icon and select 'Run as Administrator'
2. GnuCash starts up as expected
3. Close GnuCash

After doing the above once, I can start GnuCash normally and it starts up properly.

Hopefully this helps someone. --Sketch 05:05, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Font problems

After upgrading to 2.2.1, people have reported font-related issues:

• The tick/check mark in the Reconcile window may look like a "nondescript squiggle"
• Register windows may open with all transactions scrolled out of sight (upwards)
• Languages other than English show characters as a box of four zeros "0 0 0 0".

The reason appears to be that GnuCash is now referring to Windows to determine what fonts to use, and in both these cases is using the one specified for "Message Box", which defaults to Tahoma 8.

Changing to Tahoma 10 fixed both of these for me.

The procedure on WinXP is:

1. Start -> Control panel or My Computer -> Control panel
2. Appearance and Themes -> Display (or, if using the "Classic View", Display)
3. Appearance
4. Advanced
5. Select "Message Box" from the drop-down
6. Change as required (e.g. set to Tacoma 10 point)
7. OK
8. Apply

Fred 10:30, 22 August 2007 (EDT)

Is this still necessary when using GnuCash 2.2.2? andi5

I (piyo) confirmed that the above procedure is necessary for viewing Japanese on Windows XP with GnuCash 2.2.3 (2008-01-08):

• Confirmed that working fonts are Arial UI Unicode, FixSys, System, Tahoma (including 8!), Terminal. Also for Japanese, MS P Gothic, MS P Mincho, MS UI Gothic, MS Gothic, MS Mincho fonts are working.
• Confirmed that non-working fonts are Lucida Sans Unicode and Microsoft Sans Serif.

--Piyo 23:23, 5 February 2008 (EST)

Program hangs constantly

(GnuCash 2.4)

According to this bug report GnuCash can become unstable with some themes. The original reporter didn't remember which themes caused issues, but had no problems when using the "Unity" theme.

--GJanssens 18 October 2013

Gnucash fails to start with Failed to contact configuration server

(GnuCash 2.4)

Copied from this bug report:

I installed GnuCash on Windows 7 and at one point I received the following error message

 Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need
 to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a
 system crash. See https://projects-old.gnome.org/gconf/ for information.
 (Details -  1: IOR file
 'C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp\gconfd-Username/lock/ior' not opened
 successfully, no gconfd located: No such file or directory 2: IOR file
 'C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp\gconfd-Username/lock/ior' not opened
 successfully, no gconfd located: No such file or directory)

I do not know what caused this error message.

Uninstalling GnuCash, removing an empty gnucash folder in C:\Program Files (x86)\, and reinstalling Gnucash does not restore GnuCash. I.e., same error message was produced.

Cleaning up the windows registry did not help either.

What did work was to remove the folder C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp\gconfd-Username/ which did not contain the subdirectory + file lock/ior that is mentioned in the error message.

The folder AppData is hidden (for Windows 7) and needs to be explicitly typed in the folder browser.

And also note that 'Username' should be replaced with your real username in the path (it's in there two times).

--GJanssens 18 October 2013

Windows 11: GnuCash installer quits without doing anything

When launching gnucash-setup.exe Windows 10 and Windows 11 usually complain that GnuCash is from an unknown developer and will put up a scary dialog but if you accept the risk it will run the installer after the usual User Authorization Escalation dialog. We've had a report that Windows 11 might silently fail to do anything. If that happens to you right-click on gnucash-setup.exe and select Properties from the context menu, then click Unblock and Save. You should be able to launch the installer normally.