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Windows installer

Goal: install WuWeiDict on Windows without deciding where to put a file.

The installer is optional. It carries the same single wudict.exe you can download on its own; what it adds is a Start-menu entry, an uninstaller, and four choices you would otherwise make by hand.

You need 64-bit Windows on an x64 processor. The installer refuses to run on 32-bit Windows and on Arm64 Windows 10, because that binary cannot execute there. For Arm, use the wudict-windows-arm64-purego.exe build.

Install

  1. Download wudict-windows-x64-setup-<version>.exe from the releases page.
  2. Run it. Windows shows Windows protected your PC, because the file is not signed. Choose More info, then Run anyway.

  3. Choose an install mode:

    Mode Needs Installs to
    For all users (preselected) administrator rights C:\Program Files\wuDict
    For me only nothing %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\wuDict

  4. Choose which of the four extras you want (next section).

  5. Finish. Tick Start wuDict now to launch it.

Verify: the browser opens at localhost:6888, and a wuDict icon appears in the notification area.

The four optional tasks

Task Default Effect
Create a desktop shortcut off an icon on the desktop
Start wuDict at sign-in off a Startup entry that runs it with --no-browser
Add wuDict to my PATH on wudict works in PowerShell and cmd
Offer wuDict in Open with on for .mdx, .dsl, .slob, .bgl and .zim files

Every one of them is reversible. Re-run the installer, or clear it by hand; the uninstaller removes all four.

Start at sign-in is the whole autostart story on Windows

Ticking that box does what the manual Startup-folder shortcut in Run at startup does. Do one or the other, not both.

One executable, two behaviours

There is one wudict.exe, and how you start it decides what it does.

Started from PowerShell or cmd, it is an ordinary command-line program. It prints, it pipes, and it returns an exit code.

Started from the Start menu, a shortcut, the desktop icon, or by opening a dictionary file, it detaches from the console and shows a tray icon in the notification area instead. Its log then goes to %LOCALAPPDATA%\wudict\wudict.log.

The tray icon opens the page, rescans your dictionary folders, opens that folder in Explorer, and quits the server.

Upgrading

Run the newer installer over the old one. It keeps the install mode you chose the first time, and it asks Windows to close a running wudict.exe rather than failing on a file-in-use error. It does not start the server again afterwards.

Your dictionaries, your config file and the prepared library are untouched by an upgrade.

Silent install

unattended, for all users
.\wudict-windows-x64-setup-1.0.0.exe /ALLUSERS /VERYSILENT /NORESTART
unattended, current user only
.\wudict-windows-x64-setup-1.0.0.exe /CURRENTUSER /VERYSILENT /NORESTART

/ALLUSERS and /CURRENTUSER skip the mode page. A silent install does not launch the server at the end.

Uninstall

Use Settings ▸ Apps ▸ Installed apps ▸ wuDict ▸ Uninstall.

It removes the program, the shortcuts, the PATH entry and the Open with associations.

It leaves your data: the dictionary files, wudict.toml, the prepared library and the log. Delete %USERPROFILE%\.wudict yourself if you want those gone too.

Next

Quick Start: Configure WuWeiDict dictionary folders