# Building Zed for Windows > The following commands may be executed in any shell. ## Repository Clone down the [Zed repository](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed). ## Dependencies - Install [Rust](https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install). If it's already installed, make sure it's up-to-date: ```bash rustup update ``` - Install the Rust wasm toolchain: ```bash rustup target add wasm32-wasi ``` - Install [Visual Studio](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/) with the optional component `MSVC v*** - VS YYYY C++ x64/x86 build tools` (`v***` is your VS version and `YYYY` is year when your VS was released) - Install Windows 11 or 10 SDK depending on your system, but ensure that at least `Windows 10 SDK version 2104 (10.0.20348.0)` is installed on your machine. You can download it from the [Windows SDK Archive](https://developer.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/windows-sdk/) ## Backend dependencies > This section is still in development. The instructions are not yet complete. If you are developing collaborative features of Zed, you'll need to install the dependencies of zed's `collab` server: - Install [Postgres](https://www.postgresql.org/download/windows/) - Install [Livekit](https://github.com/livekit/livekit-cli) and [Foreman](https://theforeman.org/manuals/3.9/quickstart_guide.html) Alternatively, if you have [Docker](https://www.docker.com/) installed you can bring up all the `collab` dependencies using Docker Compose: ```sh docker compose up -d ``` ## Building from source Once you have the dependencies installed, you can build Zed using [Cargo](https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/). For a debug build: ``` cargo run ``` For a release build: ``` cargo run --release ``` And to run the tests: ``` cargo test --workspace ``` ## Installing from msys2 [MSYS2](https://msys2.org/) distribution provides Zed as a package. To download the prebuilt binary, run ``` pacman -Syu pacman -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-zed ``` then you can run `zed` in a UCRT64 shell. > Please, report any issue in https://github.com/msys2/MINGW-packages/issues first. ## Troubleshooting ### Can't compile zed Before reporting the issue, make sure that you have the latest rustc version with `rustup update`. ### Cargo errors claiming that a dependency is using unstable features Try `cargo clean` and `cargo build`. ### `STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION` This error can happen if you are using the "rust-lld.exe" linker. Consider trying a different linker. If you are using a global config, consider moving the Zed repository to a nested directory and add a `.cargo/config.toml` with a custom linker config in the parent directory. See this issue for more information [#12041](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/issues/12041)