Native GNU Midnight Commander for Win32
--------------------------------------------
A native port of GNU Midnight Commander for Windows XP and later, available in both 32-bit and
64-bit versions, based on the latest 4.8.x release series.
Compatible with the latest Windows 10 and 11 versions, as well as older distributions, it
supports both MsTerminal and the legacy console, offering 16 and 256 color modes across all
platforms.
Midnight Commander, commonly referred to as mc, is a free, cross-platform orthodox file manager
that represents a modern clone of Norton Commander (NC) from the 1990's.
Features include the ability work with common archive formats as if they were simply another
directory, and to function as an SFTP/FTP client. Midnight Commander also includes an built-in
editor/viewer, features include syntax highlighting for many languages, macros, code snippets,
simple integration with external tools, automatic indentation, mouse support, clipboard and the
ability to work in both ASCII and hex modes. Both the editor and viewer are available
standalone, as _mcedit_ and _mcview_.
Midnight Commander supports accessing remote filesystems through several methods, including
SSH’s Secure File Transfer Protocol, SFTP. This is in addition to FISH, using either a SSH
client or legacy RSH connections. This way you can easily transfer files between servers.
Midnight Commander can also rename groups of files, move files to a different directory at the
same time as it renames them. It lets the user specify the original and resulting file names
using wildcard characters.
Version Build Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.8.33 234
- upgrades/bug-fixes
o improve powershell support (#140)
o shell quoting (#139)
o command view, subshell alternative; no-panel mode (#137)
o specialised x64 manifest name
o several toolchain issues
4.8.33 233
- internal tools
o mcupdater
- Ed25519 support (#129) libappupdater-1.0.3
- utilize GitHub for updater (#127)
o mchelp locale (#126)
o mcstart enhancements (#124)
- upgrades/bug-fixes
o handle resource leak (#128)
4.8.33 232
- internal tools
o mandoc / mchelp integration (#116)
o mcstart, file-extension utility (#124)
o mc-wrapper's (#69)
- upgrades/bug-fixes
o documentation enhancements
o MSTerminal maximize disabled (#122)
o obey NODRIVES group policy (#121)
o getmntinfo, networked/mapped drive (#120)
o script enhancements, MC_XDG_OPEN as "start" (#119)
o non-ascii group name handling (#118)
o stat/seek64 (#35) and (#89)
o unzip vfs (#88)
o ESC timeout, -1 enables an infinite wait (#36)
4.8.33 231 (mc merge 4.8.33)
- internal tools front-ends, externalized (#78)
o mcedit
o mcdiff and mcbsddiff (diff backend)
o mcview
- upgrades/bugfixes
o vio: wide-character handling (#115)
o wputenv() cross tool-chain usage (#113)
o pcre2 10.45 (#106)
o appupdater (#102)
o glib 2.54.3 (#102)
o zlib-1.3.1 (#102)
o mbedtls-3.6.2 (#100)
o improved UNC and extended prefix support, plus stat optimisations (#98)
o libssh2-1.11.1 (#95)
o enhanced utf8 support, directory plus username; non-ascii user name support (#97)
o EXDEV, cross-device detection rename failure; allowing alt move logic (#85)
o x64 installer path (#79)
4.8.31 230 (mc merge 4.8.31)
- mbedtls 3.5.2 (#67)
- AltGr detection (#71, #52)
- mcdiff integration (#74)
- cd/cdpath (#72)
4.8.30 229 (mc merge 4.8.30)
- pcre2 10.42
- mbedtls 3.4.1
- enca 1.19
- file 5.45
- zlib 1.3
4.8.29 228 (mc merge 4.8.29)
- libssh2 1.11.0
- mbedtls 3.3.0
- zlib 1.2.11
4.8.28 227 (mc merge, 4.8.27)
4.8.27 226 (#21 - FISH enabled)
FISH requires either an external SSH and/or RSH client, possible solutions include:
o Windows portable OpenSSH [[ https://github.com/PowerShell/openssh-portable ]].
o WinXSH [[ https://github.com/adamyg/winxsh ]].
4.8.27 225 (enhancements #16 and #17).
4.8.27 224 (mc merge, libaspell - beta) See [https://github.com/adamyg/aspell-win32] for distributions.
4.8.24 223 (bug fixes - unable to load skins)
4.8.24 222 (UTF8 exec/shell support, libmagic upgrade)
4.8.24 221 (bug fixes - whitespace handling, mbedtls and libssh2 upgrades)
4.8.24 220 (UTF8/widechar file support)
4.8.24 217 (enhancements / bug fixes / InnoSetup 5.x - beta3)
4.8.24 216 (bug fixes - beta2)
4.8.24 215 (beta)
4.8.21 214 (bug fixes)
4.8.21 213 (windows 10 console)
4.8.21 209 (windows 10 console, beta)
4.8.19 204 (configuration updates), 201 (sftp/ssh)
4.8.14 189 (beta)
4.8.13 188, 187 (beta)
4.8.12 186
4.8.11 183
4.8.8 181
4.8.7 180
4.8.4 159
Midnight Commander is released under the GNU General Public License version 3 or any later
version. A copy of the file is included with this distribution package.
Install
-------
Install simply though use of the windows installer package.
Default directories are as follows, available using the '-F' command line option, the
installation directory maybe be changed at your option:
o Windows XP/Vista/7/8 and 10
Config directory:
C:/Program Files/Midnight Commander/etc/
Data directory:
C:/Program Files/Midnight Commander/share/
VFS plugins and scripts:
extfs.d: C:/Program Files/Midnight Commander/plugin/extfs.d/
magic: C:/Program Files/Midnight Commander/etc//magic
User data:
C:/Documents and Settings/<user>/Application Data/Midnight Commander/
Once installed place the installation directory into your PATH. As an
alternative keeping your PATH and dll's namespace clean, create a simple
batch mc.bat which points to the true installation image.
Alternatively, a choco package is being maintained seperately yet this
version generally lags behind.
https://chocolatey.org/packages/mc
Getting Started
---------------
There are a numerious resources detailing working with Midnight
Commander, including:
o Midnight Commander Draft Documentation
https://www.midnight-commander.org/wiki/doc
o FAQ
see 'docs' within the installation directory.
Resources
---------
Window native port for GNU Midnight Commander, the latest builds can be
found at the links:
https://github.com/adamyg/mcwin32/ (master)
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mcwin32/ (mirror)
Specific information regarding the base Midnight Commander 4.8.x engine,
can be found at the following
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Commander
www.midnight-commander.org
Midnight Commander Skin Editor
https://phplego.github.io/mc/
Older information is available at
www.gnu.org/software/mc
Status
------
I consider this port stable, yet not all things may work as designed;
yet as this package is in use day-to-day expect issues to be addressed quickly.
Please feel free to raise tickets on GitHub (preferred) or SourceForge when issues are encountered.
adamy
May/2025
Other Resources
---------------
There are a number of alternative, yet older, native builds available on
the web. The two most referenced are:
o www.siegward-jaekel.de/mc-gb.html
o franco-bez.4lima.de
Features and Limitations
------------------------
Internal editor is supported (including syntax highlighting).
Internal viewer is supported (including hex editor).
Note the underlying the view logic may invoke one or more system
utilities which are not generally available on Windows systems.
If upon viewing a file using <F3> and it fails, use <shift-F3> which
shall use the internal viewer bypassing the file extension based
logic.
VFS (virtual file system) is enabled, yet not all of the modules have
been enabled.
Concurrent subshell is not supported.
Use forward slashes where possible, as backslash support is not fully
tested.
A few items are unix specific (e.g. chown), which shall be updated over
time.
-end-
Download Latest Version
mcwin32-build231-bin.zip (5.9 MB)
