Install Jekyll on Windows

Install Ruby

First you must install Ruby because Jekyll is a Ruby-based program and needs Ruby to run.

1. Go to RubyInstaller for Windows.
2. Under RubyInstallers, download and install one of the Ruby installers (usually one of the first two options).
3. Double-click the downloaded file and proceed through the wizard to install it.

Install Ruby Development Kit

Some extensions Jekyll uses require you to natively build the code using the Ruby Development Kit.

1. Go to RubyInstaller for Windows.
2. Under the Development Kit section near the bottom, download one of the For use with Ruby 2.0 and above… options (either the 32-bit or 64-bit version).
3. Move your downloaded file onto your C drive in a folder called something like RubyDevKit.
4. Extract the compressed folder’s contents into the folder.

5. Browse to the RubyDevKit location on your C drive using your Command Line Prompt.

   To see the contents of your current directory, type dir. To move into a directory, type cd foldername, where “foldername” is the name of the folder you want to enter. To move up a directory, type cd ../ one or more times depending on how many levels you want to move up. To move into your user’s directory, type /users. The / at the beginning of the path automatically starts you at the root.

6. Type ruby dk.rb init
7. Type ruby dk.rb install

If you get stuck, see the official instructions for installing Ruby Dev Kit.

Install the Jekyll gem

At this point you should have Ruby and Rubygem on your machine.

Now use gem to install Jekyll:

gem install jekyll

You can now use Jekyll to create new Jekyll sites following the quick-start instructions on Jekyllrb.com.

Git Clients for Windows

Although you can use the default command prompt with Windows, it’s recommended that you use Git Bash instead. The Git Bash client will allow you to run shell scripts and execute other Unix commands.

Serve the Jekyll Documentation theme

1. Browse to the directory where you downloaded the Documentation theme for Jekyll.
2. Type jekyll serve
3. Go to the preview address in the browser. (Make sure you include the / at the end.)