This section only applies to systems running Windows 9x or NT. If you run Windows 3.1, you will have to install emTeX, DJGPP TeX, or wingut (in the top level systems directory) by hand.
It is also necessary to have your Windows set up so that it uses the Microsoft Joliet extensions for reading CD-ROMs; simply look at the CD-ROM in Explorer and see whether it shows long, mixed-case, file names. If it does not, you cannot use the ready-to-run system on the CD-ROM.
This Win32 TeX systems includes a new dvi previewer, Windvi, which is similar in usage to the established Unix xdvi. The documentation can be found in texmf/doc/windvi/windvi.html.
You can run all the TeX programs directly off the CD-ROM, and have access to all the macros and fonts immediately, at the price of a slower performance than if you install on the hard disk. To do this, you must add the bin/win32 directory of the CD-ROM to your PATH, using the Windows configuration software. Now you can run the programs at a command prompt, or use the shareware WinEdt editor, which runs the programs from convenient menus. Copy the entire winedt directory from the CD-ROM to your hard disk, and run winedt.exe from that copy.
Please respect the shareware status of WinEdt and register your copy if you intend to carry on using it.
Installation is started by running the program install.exe in the CD-ROM top level, which works by accessing lists of collections and packages from the CD-ROM. It will allow you to select the level at which each collection is installed (see section 2.1 for a description of `collections' and `packages', and permits you to omit the documentation and/or source segments of the packages if your disk space is limited. You will be prompted for directories in which to install the main distribution, and your local configuration. In addition, you will be able to install a shareware TeX editor, WinEdt, and the PostScript viewer Ghostscript.
Please respect the shareware status of WinEdt and register your copy if you intend to carry on using it.
Please be aware that the choice of cluster size on DOS disk partitions can radically affect the size of your TeX installation. The support tree has hundreds of small files, and it is not unusual for a complete installation to take up to 4 times the amount of space used on the CD-ROM.
When installation is complete, you will have to restart Windows, and then you can either run the TeX programs from a command prompt, or via WinEdt's menus (if you opted to install it).