Installing GVim without administrator privileges on Windows 7

Question

I'm trying to install GVim on my work machine. I can get admin rights if I really need them, but I would like to avoid that if I can. This is relevant, as it seems that the GVim portable executable I have in a folder won't run without admin rights. This strikes me as odd, given that it's meant to be a portable application.

Really all I'm trying to do is use Vim (which I'm still getting to grips with) on my work computer.

Any and all help, including alternative suggestions, would be greatly appreciated.

Jonny

Answer 1

Which portable GVIM are you talking about? The default installers from vim.org are not portable per se (but you can usually just copy the installation directory around and directly launch that).

If you can get admin rights, I think it's a good idea to acquire them for the one-time install process (you presumably won't upgrade Vim that often). Installing to a secured location with elevated rights reduces the attach surface: You can then be sure that nothing tampered with Vim's executable and runtime.