Improve Windows support

[vilmibm]

This is a tracking issue for rounding up everything related to Windows support in gh.

Issues

Packaging

• Support for Windows ARM #2545 Support Windows ARM
• Sign gh.exe binaries in addition to signing the MSI installer #2111 Sign gh.exe within MSI
• Provide non-admin mode from the Windows installer #1740 Non-admin mode for MSI
• Windows Installer - Back button not working on Ready To Install Page #1723 Broken back button in MSI
• Automatic WinGet pkg update #1262 Support WinGet
• MSI installer ignores selected target folder #703 MSI ignores target folder
• Add 32-bit Windows Support #2182 Support 32-bit in MSI

Bugs

• tab-completions for powershell don't work on the root command #1775 Tab completion problem in powershell
• Incorrect display of Chinese characters in Git Bash on Windows #1774 Incorrect display of chinese characters in gitbash
• Windows Installer - Back button not working on Ready To Install Page #1723 PAGER problem in Cygwin
• WSL 2 - gh repo view -w fails #3642 WSL2 browser error
• "Incorrect function" error in Windows Git Bash terminal #404 Error when using gitbash
• gh pr diff returns broken output when using delta pager on Windows #3703 Pager issues

Features

• Store gh config in %APPDATA% on windows #1944 Store gh config in %APPDATA%
• Repo garden for Windows #3223 Support repo garden
• Better detection of terminal environment on windows (ie PowerShell vs. GitBash vs. other)

Docs

• Clarify how to use the PowerShell completions #695 Better document completions in PowerShell
• Document minTTY (gitbash) workaround that is detailed in "Incorrect function" error in Windows Git Bash terminal #404

Notes

Part of what has made Windows support difficult is the variety of execution environments users might be using. We know we have many Windows users and can tell from within code when we're running on Windows; however, we have no insight right now into which of the many potential Windows environments someone is running gh in:

• Powershell
• Git Bash
• Cygwin
• cmd.exe
• WSL
• WSL2
• something else

Nor what terminal emulator might be in use:

• Windows Terminal
• mintty
• conhost.exe
• Hyper
• Alacritty
• something else

Depending on the combination from the above two lists there may be issues with tab completion, unicode rendering, and color palettes. Our confusion around what environments people are actually in has led to some paralysis in improving Windows support.

I propose:

• research spike on at least determining when we're running in PowerShell
• blessing some combinations of environments + terminal emulators as first class support targets
• write QA docs for the blessed environments + terminal emulators
• write public facing docs on setting up Windows for success with gh (Primarily targeted at installing and using a proper unicode-supporting font)

[kushagrarathore]

windows 32bit version not supporting.....

[just1a-person]

Nit: CMD.exe (aka Command Prompt) is a shell, conhost.exe is the terminal

[bl-ue]

Hey team :) Non-admin mode for MSI and WSL2 browser error can be checked off.

By the way, this amazing extension makes it just too obvious when an item is done ;)

[mislav]

Non-admin mode for MSI

This is still not resolved, but a wrong issue was linked. I've fixed the issue reference

and WSL2 browser error can be checked off.

Good catch. Thank you @bl-ue!

[just1a-person]

Automatic winget pkg update can be checked off

[eacp]

Would ARM support require going for a higher Golang version? One that can build ARM Windows binaries?

[samyakbambole]

windows 32bit version not supporting.....

@kushagrarathore The team is still working on it. If you still want to install gh, Check this issue - #2182
There are steps on how to install the source code and How to update the ENVs for gh to work on Windows 32-bit

[just1a-person]

blessing some combinations of environments + terminal emulators as first class support targets

That's going to PowerShell/Windows Terminal.

As for WSL, just consider it the same as Linux.

[vilmibm]

We won't be able to support Windows ARM64 until the next version of Go ships (but yes, you can use 32bit or WSL to get around until then as mentioned)

[Rdna123]

Git flags don't work when using PowerShell 7.1.5 ei gh repo clone cli/cli -- --depth 2 produces error unknown flag: --depth Separate git clone flags with '--'. but using in cmd.exe works

[mislav]

Closing this tracking issue since we've accomplished most of the tasks in this list 🎉

Some items are still tracked separately (e.g. Windows ARM support) but I feel there is no need for a tracking issue anymore.