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You MikTeX is great tool for people typsetting in LaTeX. Updating the packages is easy and packages are downloaded automatically if you need them. But on the other hand it's not adapted for ConTeXt well enough. ConTeXt is working in MikTeX 2.4, but some new features aren't and the new updates are sometimes really way behind the time. The stand-alone ConTeXt is much better in the way that it is always up-to-date, the environment is set up properly and some special functionality that doesn't work in MikTeX should work here as expected. The only drawbacks (although I don't really dare to call them drawbacks) are that you have to bear have some other distribution working in mind parallel if you need LaTeX as well and that ConTeXt is being developed reasonably fast the installation and updates are not automatic (see [[Release Notes]]though still straightforward). You can use both MikTeX and the stand-alone distr. simultaneously though. I don't know XEmTeX. If anyone is willing to share the experince with other users, you're wellcome to do so . <i>(ConTeXt didn't work in MikTeX 2.5 at the beginning - perhaps itwas fixed in the meantime, but I wouldn's recommended t recommend you installing it yet unless looking for troubles is a challeng for you and you want to update it regularyhelp debugging.)</i>
'''Please note:''' The stand-alone distribution only works for newer versions of Windows, that have cmd.exe instead of command.com as command interpreter. The batch files do not run under Windows 98 (or earlier).
Good reasons for choosing the stand-alone distribution are:
* if you don't need LaTeX
* if you always want to have the very latest ConTeXt distribution
* ''... write some more''
→Which ConTeXt distribution to choose?: added a few notes on the top, the information below has to be adapted a bit as well
* some [[Text editor]]
* PDF viewer (Adobe Reader, GSview or any other)
= General =
== Updating ==
You have to bear in mind that ConTeXt is being developed reasonably fast (see [[Release Notes]]), so it's recommended to update it regulary. Updating in MikTeX is "one-button-click" operation, updating the stand-alone version means unziping [[cont-tmf.zip]] to the proper folder and remake formats.
But you need to <b>update [[cont-win.zip]]</b> every now and then as well (no matter which distribution you use)!
== Older versions of Windows ==
The stand-alone distribution only works for newer versions of Windows that have cmd.exe instead of command.com as command interpreter. Running it on Windows 98 (or earlier) is also possible, but needs some tweaking (hardcoding the paths in .bat script). If you really need that and can't make it work alone, try to ask Taco.
= Which ConTeXt distribution to choose? =
== Stand-alone ConTeXt distribution ==
* http://www.pragma-ade.com/download-1.htm
===Installation Instructions===
