Installing Jekyll on Windows

Windows is not an officially supported operating system by Jekyll, but there are a couple of different ways to install Jekyll on Windows.

RubyInstaller

RubyInstaller for Windows is a program that installs and configures Ruby on Windows. The complete guide is available here. This video also shows the process visually.

If are familiar with Linux and have Windows 10 version 1607 or later, it is more straightforward to use Windows Subsystem for Linux to install Jekyll.

Windows Subsystem for Linux

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), is a compatibility layer to run Linux binary files natively on Windows 10. If you have Windows 10, it is recommended to install Jekyll on WSL instead of Windows. The process of installing Jekyll on Linux is much simpler and more robust, and if you are familiar with Linux, it makes manipulating files and directories much easier. Please follow this guide to activate WSL on your system.

If you are not using Windows 10 or you are interested in installing Jekyll and its prerequisites on Windows, go to this webpage: Installing Jekyll directly on Windows

To install WSL on your Windows Machine, you have two options.

• Simplified install

• Manual Installation Steps

Since the simplified install requires joining the “Windows Insiders Program”, I recommend using the manual install. Moreover, setting WSL 2 as the default version activates some new tools that might be handy as you proceed to more advanced levels.

After activating WSL, You can install different Linux distributions on your machine. If you do not have a particular preference, I recommend installing Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

After finishing Linux installation, follow Installation via Bash on Windows 10.

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