As of October 2025, Zed Editor has an official Windows release. However, community-maintained versions via package managers like Scoop remain viable alternatives. Zed, written in Rust, has gained significant attention in the developer community. Initially released for macOS, Windows users had to compile from source until community builds became available. Two notable projects provide pre-compiled Windows versions:

• Zed Win Build by ShenJackYuanJie
• Zed Windows Builds by Deevus

Installation

The Deevus repository is recommended as it supports updates through Scoop.

Installing via Scoop

scoop bucket add versions
scoop install versions/zed-nightly

Updating Zed

scoop update zed-nightly

Basic Usage

Similar to VS Code's code command, Zed can be launched from the command line:

zed .

For GUI access, press Win+Q, type "zed", and open the file location. Create a desktop shortcut by right-clicking the icon and selecting "Send to > Desktop (create shortcut)". The executable is located at:

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\scoop\apps\zed-nightly\current

GBK Encoding Support

Opening PowerShell scripts (.ps1 files) may trigger encoding-related errors due to GBK format incompatibility.

Chinese Language Support

Official localization is unavailable, but community translations exist for Linux:

• Zed Chinese Translation

Code Snippets

Configure snippets via Ctrl+Shift+P > "Snippets" > select language. The JSON format resembles VS Code:

{
  "Log to console": {
    "prefix": "log",
    "body": ["console.log($1);", "$0"],
    "description": "Log output to console"
  },
  "Log warning": {
    "prefix": "warn",
    "body": ["console.warn($1);", "$0"],
    "description": "Log warning to console"
  },
  "Log error": {
    "prefix": "error",
    "body": ["console.error($1);", "$0"],
    "description": "Log error to console"
  },
  "Throw exception": {
    "prefix": "throw",
    "body": ["throw new Error(\"$1\");", "$0"],
    "description": "Throw new error"
  }
}

IntelliSense Delay

Like VS Code, IntelliSense may not appear immediately after opening a file.

Configuraton

Zed uses JSON-based configuraton files, similar to Sublime Text. Official documentation:

• Configuring Zed

Markdown Preview

Access via Ctrl+Shift+P > "Markdown: Open Preview to the Side". Custom keyboard shortcuts may not function correctly.

Troubleshooting Updates

Version Format Inconsistency

Scoop may fail to update due to version format changes. For example, Scoop detects version 7-31 but installs 0302. This occurs when maintainers alter vertion numbering schemes.

Solution: Reinstall Zed:

scoop uninstall zed-nightly
scoop install zed-nightly

Conclusion

Zed serves as a competent editor, offering advantages over Sublime Text for Windows users.