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Portable and installable builds for UWP and Electron

WikiMed montage

These custom apps are packaged with the <> English-language WikiMed archive <<zim>>. They will run on 32bit and 64bit editions of Windows or Linux (tested on Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and OpenSUSE - but see instructions below). The Windows builds are not compatible with Windows XP or Windows Vista. If you need an app compatible with those old platforms, get Kiwix JS Windows reader and download the latest WikiMed archive from within the app.

MS Store status: IN CERTIFICATION Winget status: IN CERTIFICATION

Please choose the correct version (the UWP version will self update, others will notify you):

Installation Instructions - Electron

  • For the Windows Portable build, unzip the contents of the WikiMed-by-Kiwix-<<base_tag>>-E.zip archive to any folder, or to a flash drive / thumb drive, and double click on Start WikiMed by Kiwix or Start WikiMed by Kiwix.bat, or open the kiwix-js-windows-win32-ia32 folder and double click on WikiMed by Kiwix.exe.
  • For the Windows Setup (installable) build, simply download and launch. It will install itself, together with a shortcut in your shortcut menu, and run. When you want to update the app, just install a new version over it (it will uninstall the old one for you).
  • For the Linux portable builds, download and save the correct AppImage file anywhere (e.g. your Desktop), and double-click it. If it doesn’t work, open Terminal and run chmod a+x WikiMed-by-Kiwix*.AppImage and then ./WikiMed-by-Kiwix*.AppImage. If you have trouble with Debian, you may need to add the --no-sandbox switch to the command like this ./WikiMed-by-Kiwix*.AppImage --no-sandbox (see https://github.com/electron/electron/issues/17972#issuecomment-516957971).
  • On OpenSUSE you may need to install Chrome in order to get the dependencies necessary to run the AppImage (because Electron apps run Chrome internally). With older versions of OpenSUSE, you may additionally need to use these commandline switches: ./WikiMed-by-Kiwix*.AppImage --use-gl=disabled --disable-gpu-compositing,¹ but this is no longer necessary in recent versions.
  • For the Linux installable builds, download the correct .deb package. Open a terminal, cd to the directory containing the package, and type sudo apt install ./kiwix-js-wikimed*.deb. Once installed, on Debian, you may have to run the app by opening terminal and typing kiwix-js-wikimed --no-sandbox. On Ubuntu, you should be able to run it from its installed icon. When you want to update, just install the new version, and it will install over the old version. To install on OpenSUSE, it may be easiest to extract the files from the AppImage instead of using the Deb package. The executable is kiwix-js-wikimed. See possible commandline switches above.
  • Windows: Because the portable archive may not be commonly downloaded, you may face Windows SmartScreen issues on first launch. Follow instructions to "Run anyway" if you trust this site. If you prefer, use the installable version WikiMed-by-Kiwix-Setup-<<numeric_tag>>-E.exe which is digitally signed.

¹ With many thanks to Jay Midura for documenting the switches needed for OpenSUSE.

Release Notes

  • This app is packaged with the <> English-language WikiMed archive <<zim>>. The packaged archive is located in the archives folder (only accessible in the portable Windows version). See the readme in that folder if you wish to add a different archive as the packaged ZIM;
  • You can download WikiMed in other languages from the Configuration page (see Known Issues below);
  • The Electron apps (for modern Windows or Linux) have experimental support for Full-Text searching;
  • It supports dark mode, and opening different navigable windows by right-clicking or ctrl-clicking a link (see Configuration);
  • You can print by pressing Ctrl-P or using the print icon. If local printers are not available (after clicking on More options...) then print to PDF and use another app to print;
  • You can open a new browsable window by right-clicking, middle-clicking or ctrl-clicking an article link (for UWP app, this only works in Service Worker mode);
  • In title search, you can use wildcards .* or .+ (this works best if you start the search with a normal alphanumeric string). You can include a more complex regular expression by enclosing it within (?:my_regular_expression). See Configuration -> About for more details and limitations;
  • You can search for any file in a ZIM by prefixing the namespace, e.g. I/isaac.*newton for images of Isaac Newton (or in no-namespace ZIMs C/isaac.*newton.*webp);
  • You can set the app to full-screen mode in Configuration.

Known Issues

  • INCONSISTENCY: When printing in jQuery mode, all sections are opened before printing (if the user had closed any), whereas in SW mode, closed sections are not opened before printing;
  • Please see https://github.com/kiwix/kiwix-js-windows/issues for further known issues. If you find a new issue, please open a new issue on that page.

Instructions for sideloading (UWP)

New! You can sideload the app easily by typing winget install kiwix.wikimed in a Command Prompt or PowerShell terminal (Windows 10 or 11).

For Windows Mobile or for sideloading manually, please download KiwixWebAppWikiMed_<<base_tag>>.0_AnyCPU.appxbundle and the zipped PowerShell script from Assets below. Then follow the detailed instructions at https://github.com/kiwix/kiwix-js-windows/tree/main/AppPackages#readme.