This README file is for the Smoldyn distribution for Windows.

This Smoldyn distribution was compiled on Windows 10 and should work on all modern Windows computers. It includes the main Smoldyn software (smoldyn.exe), the Smoldyn utility programs (SmolCrowd.exe and wrl2smol.exe), and the Smoldyn code libraries (libsmoldyn_static.lib and libsmoldyn_shared.dll). The Windows version of Smoldyn is missing two minor features: it cannot save graphics images as TIFF files because I can't find a version of LibTiff that works on 64 bit Windows computers and it does not support hybrid lattice-particle simulation because I was unable to compile that. If you want those features, let me know, or use a Mac or Linux computer.


----- INSTALLING, IF YOU HAVE ADMINISTRATOR PRIVILEGES -----

1. Download the latest Windows version from the Smoldyn download webpage, http://www.smoldyn.org/download.html. It's probably called smoldyn-2.xx-windows.zip.

2. Extract the zip file to the desired location.

3. Open a “Command Prompt” application as administrator (PowerShell might work, but it also might not work). You can find Command Prompt by searching for it with the Start menu, or go to Start > Windows System > Command Prompt. Right click on this, select "More", and select “Run as administrator”. The computer emits scary warnings, but just say yes.

4. Change directories to the newly extracted Smoldyn directory (e.g. type “cd C:\Users\username\Downloads\smoldyn-2.xx-windows”, or wherever you extracted Smoldyn to).

5. Type “install”. This copies all of the Smoldyn executable files to a Smoldyn subdirectory inside your “C:\Program Files” directory (or whatever your %PROGRAMFILES% environment variable is set to). This also adds the new Smoldyn subdirectory to your system PATH environment variable. *** WARNING *** It is possible that this will alter the PATH variable in bad ways, particularly if it was already extremely long (i.e. over 1024 characters). If that happens, then note that Smoldyn saves the prior contents of the PATH variable in a file called PATH_old.txt, which it saves in the new Smoldyn subdirectory, allowing you to revert the PATH variable if you need to.

6. Exit the command prompt as administrator, and start a new command prompt, not as administrator.

7. Test Smoldyn by typing “smoldyn examples/S1_intro/bounce3.txt”.


------ IF YOU DON'T HAVE ADMINISTRATOR PRIVILEGES ------

1. Download the latest Windows version from the Smoldyn download webpage, http://www.smoldyn.org/download.html. It's probably called smoldyn-2.xx-windows.zip.

2. Extract the zip file to the desired location.

3. Open a “Command Prompt” application (PowerShell might work, but it also might not work). You can find Command Prompt by searching for it with the Start menu, or go to Start > Windows System > Command Prompt.

4. Change directories to the newly extracted Smoldyn directory (e.g. type “cd smoldyn-2.xx-windows”, or whereever you extracted Smoldyn to).

5. Try running Smoldyn by typing "smoldyn examples/S1_intro/bounce3.txt". (You can only run Smoldyn when you are working in the same directory as the smoldyn.exe file.)

6. If you get a warning that says that a dll file is missing, then that file is probably in the dll subdirectory. Simply move it from the dll subdirectory to the same directory where smoldyn.exe is (e.g. "move dll\libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll ."). Return to step 5.


----- IF INSTALLATION FAILS -----

Please e-mail support@smoldyn.org for assistance! If you can't install, then it's probably my fault and no one else can install Smoldyn either, which is something that I'd really like to know about it.


----- UNINSTALLING SMOLDYN -----

If you want to uninstall Smoldyn because your PATH system variable is corrupted, don't! Instead, the Smoldyn installer saves the old PATH variable in PATH_old.txt, so you should rescue this file first and likely use it to redefine the PATH variable. This situation is rare.

To uninstall, run the uninstall.bat batch file. This deletes the Smoldyn directory that was created during installation (probably at C:\Program Files\Smoldyn), and all of its contents. This does not delete any other files, whether Smoldyn files or not. This also does not remove the Smoldyn directory from the PATH system variable; this doesn't matter, but you can remove it if you want to. To remove it, go to Start > Windows System > Control Panel > System and Security > System > Advanced system settings > Environment Variables, and then select the Path variable for editing; here, you can remove the Smoldyn path.


