This article is about using pre-built installers of Octave for Windows; for instructions about building it, see Windows Installer.

GNU Octave is primarily developed on GNU/Linux and other POSIX conform systems. The ports of GNU Octave to Microsoft Windows use different approaches to get most of the original Octave and adapt it to Microsoft Windows idiosyncrasies (e.g. dynamic libraries, file paths, permissions, environment variables, GUI system, etc). Bear this in mind and don't panic if you get unexpected results. There are a lot of suggestions on the mailing lists for tuning your Octave installation. GNU Octave standalone ports for Windows are independently compiled using either the MinGW or Microsoft Visual Studio development environments (3.6 or before).

Installers for Microsoft Windows

Octave-4.0.3

The easiest way to install GNU Octave on Microsoft Windows is using MXE builds. For the current 4.0. release installers and zip archived packages can be found at ftp.gnu.org/gnu/octave/windows/. Unofficial 64 bit binary is available at "File list of Octave for Windows".

Known issue specific to windows version 4.0

Both cli and gui cannot handle path name of which contains non-ascii characters. (For 3.8, cli can handle non-ascii code if codepage is properly set to the machine locale)

Known issues specific to 64 bit binary.

nan package cannot be installed by "pkg install" commands. Workaround is to execute "setenv CC gcc" before "pkg install".

Packages

Pre-built octave-forge packages are prepared for official release. If you installed Octave 4.0.3 using the executable installer you can confirm the package list by typing the command below from the Octave command prompt:

 >> pkg list

If you instead installed Octave from the .zip archive, you need to first rebuild the package list on your local machine. (The command above will produce a blank output.) Do this by typing the following command:

 >> pkg rebuild

Other packages can be installed by

  >> pkg install -forge <package name>

For detailed instruction of installing Octave-Forge packages is shown at Octave-Forge

For 64 bit binary distributed from the unofficial site, pre-built package are not prepared. Please follow the instruction on the distribution page.

gnuplot

Current octave for windows ships a not full featured gnuplot. Therefore you cannot use the full features of gnuplot graphics toolkit (e.g. cannot use cairo based devise like "-dpdfcairo"). If you want use it, please use the following instruction

Download and install gnuplot if you do not have it. You can find the windows installer in the "gnuplot web site for Files section" The latest version is 5.0.3.

We can find path of USERPROFILE directory by

 >> getenv USERPROFILE

make an .octaverc file in USERPROFILE directory by your favorite text editor and set gnuplot_binary e.g.

 gnuplot_binary 'C:\Program Files (x86)\gnuplot\bin\gnuplot.exe'

Please do not forget to quote the path name by single quote (') if name of which has (a) white space(s). gnuplot ver. 5 supports windows, wxt and qt terminal. On octave, windows terminal is default. If you want change it to wxt terminal, execute

>> setenv GNUTERM wxt

You can of course describe it in .octaverc.

Octave 4.0.3 on cygwin

Web-Site: http://cygwin.com
Maintainer: Marco Atzeri
Latest release: 2016-07-12

Latest packages:

octave-4.0.3-1

Its announce on cygwin mailing list [1]

octave-forge packages have each a cygwin package

Its announce on cygwin mailing list [2]

Full cygwin package list is available here [3]

At today 2016-07-12, 63 forge packages are available.

To install :

run cygwin setup-x86.exe (for cygwin 32 bit) or setup-x86_64.exe (for cygwin 64 bit) and select them in the Math category.

All the package dependencies will be also installed.

Graphics is based on X and to plot you will need to start octave within xterm (or similar).

I recommend to install "xinit", "xlaunch" and "gnuplot". These packages will pull all the functional Xserver.

Otherwise the only graphics will be ASCII art ;-)

Notes

When building from development source (default branch)

"make check"

passes almost all the tests. Only, and not substantial, failures are:

   
    /pub/hg/octave/src/data.cc : 8 failures due to different handling of complex Inf on sort
    /pub/hg/octave/src/syscalls.cc: 1 failure on fork. This disappears when octave is installed
    /pub/hg/octave/scripts/sparse/svds.m: 1 failure due to test sensitivity on starting point. See 
    https://mailman.cae.wisc.edu/pipermail/octave-maintainers/2011-September/024715.html

To build from cygwin source package, you need to install "cygport" and the relevant development libraries

    
     $ tar -xf octave-4.0.3-1-src.tar.xz 
     $ cygport octave.cygport almostall

see cygport documentation for further info.

Older instructions

MinGW ports

Octave-4.0.0

The easiest way to install GNU Octave on Microsoft Windows is using MXE builds. For the current 4.0.0 release installers can be found at ftp.gnu.org.

Known issues specific to windows version 4.0.0.

Both cli and gui cannot handle path name of which contains non-ascii characters. (For 3.8, cli can handle non-ascii code if codepage is properly set to the machine locale)

Packages

Pre-build octave-forge packages are not prepared from octave-3.8 or later for windows. You can install some octave-forge packages using archived sources and build script. However, small flaws exist in current octave-4.0.0_0 distribution. Before install, correct version number of general and signal packages version to 2.0.0 and 1.3.2, respectively and comment out install io package as "#try_install io-2.2.7.tar.gz" in C:\octave\octave-4.0.0\src\build_packages.m". Then execute

   >> cd C:\octave\octave-4.0.0\src
   >> build_packages
   >> pkg install -forge io

Other octave-forge packages may be installed by

  >> pkg install -forge (package name)

For detailed instruction of installing Octave-Forge packages is shown at Octave-Forge

Octave-3.8.2

The site that provide previous version of octave for windows of ver. 3.8.2 (unofficial build using mxe-octave) is closed. A mirrored binary can be downloaded at File list of Octave for Windows

If you got any problems while running Windows 8 or libstdc++-6.dll errors, try this octave-gui.bat file and place it into your Octave folder (e.g. `C:/octave/octave-3.8.2`).

   @echo off
   set PATH=%CD%\bin\
   start octave --force-gui -i --line-editing
   exit

Octave-3.6.4-mingw + octaveforge pkgs

For build instructions before octave-3.8 see Octave_for_MinGW or the Octave-Forge repository [4].

Files for manual installation

Octave-3.6.4-mingw binaries tree
- Octave3.6.4_gcc4.6.2_20130329.7z - MD5:46BD238C664E17B4B25E72A11C38163F
This is a 7z archive which includes a directory tree of all the binaries and libraries required for a complete octave installation (excluding octaveforge packages)

It can be downloaded from Octave Forge
- The archive include:
- octave-3.6.4 including PDF documentation (built using Tatsuro Matsuka OctaveLibs and gplibs http://www.tatsuromatsuoka.com/octave/Eng/Win/)
- mingw32 + msys tool chain
- gnuplot-4.6.0
- fig2dev-3.2.5c
- ghostscript-9.0.7
- pstoedit-3.61
- OpenBLAS-v2.6.0 and ATLAS-3.8.4 based libblas alternatives
- Maintainer: Nitzan Arazi
- Latest update: 2013-03-29
Octaveforge pkgs, built for Octave-3.6.4-mingw
- Octave3.6.4_gcc4.6.2_pkgs_20130331.7z - MD5:8AB5F5F88E7267FB1E47BABC29FD7FE0
It can be downloaded from Octave Forge

This is a 7z archive which includes additional binaries and libraries for a set of octaveforge packages.
- The included packages are:
- actuarial-1.1.0
- ad-1.0.6_patched
- audio-1.1.4
- benchmark-1.1.1
- bim-1.1.1
- bioinfo-0.1.2
- cgi-0.1.0
- civil-engineering-1.0.7
- combinatorics-2.0.0
- communications-1.1.1_patched
- control-2.4.2
- data-smoothing-1.3.0
- dataframe-0.9.1
- econometrics-1.1.1
- fenv-0.1.0
- financial-0.4.0
- fits-1.0.2
- fpl-1.3.3
- fuzzy-logic-toolkit-0.4.2
- ga-0.10.0
- general-1.3.2
- generate_html-0.1.5
- geometry-1.6.0
- gnuplot-1.0.1
- gsl-1.0.8
- ident-1.0.7
- image-2.0.0
- informationtheory-0.1.8
- integration-1.0.7_svn20120128
- io-1.2.1
- irsa-1.0.7
- java-1.2.9_patched
- linear-algebra-2.2.0
- lssa-0.1.2
- mapping-1.0.7
- mechanics-1.3.1
- miscellaneous-1.2.0
- missing-functions-1.0.2
- msh-1.0.6
- multicore-0.2.15
- nan-2.5.5
- ncarray-1.0.0
- nlwing2-1.2.0
- nnet-0.1.13
- nurbs-1.3.6
- ocs-0.1.3_svn20120128_patched
- octcdf-1.1.5
- octclip-1.0.3
- octgpr-1.2.0
- octproj-1.1.2
- odebvp-1.0.6
- odepkg-0.8.4
- optim-1.2.2
- optiminterp-0.3.4
- outliers-0.13.9
- physicalconstants-1.0.0
- plot-1.1.0
- quaternion-2.0.2
- queueing-1.2.1
- secs1d-0.0.9
- secs2d-0.0.8
- secs3d-0.0.1
- signal-1.2.1
- simp-1.1.0
- sockets-1.0.8_patched
- specfun-1.1.0
- special-matrix-1.0.7
- splines-1.1.2
- statistics-1.2.0
- strings-1.1.0_patched
- struct-1.0.10
- symband-1.0.10
- symbolic-1.1.0
- tcl-octave-0.1.8
- time-2.0.0
- tsa-4.2.4
- video-1.0.2_patched
- vrml-1.0.13_patched
- windows-1.2.1
- xraylib-1.0.8
- zenity-0.5.7
- Maintainer: Nitzan Arazi
- Latest update: 2013-03-31

Manual installation instructions

Create an installation directory of which doesn't have space chars (i.e. C:\Octave\Octave3.6.4_gcc4.6.2\). This directory is referred hereafter as <your_install_dir>.
Extract the complete directories tree from Octave3.6.4_gcc4.6.2_20130329.7z to the installation directory keeping the original directory structure as in the archive (you can use 7-zip tool from http://www.7-zip.org/). Note that the archive contains Octave3.6.4_gcc4.6.2 folder, so you want to extract to the *parent* of <your_install_dir>.
Copy octave3.6.4_gcc4.6.2.lnk to any convenient location and edit its properties respectively to point to <your_install_dir>\bin\octave.exe and <your_install_dir>\doc\octave\icons\octave-logo.ico as an icon
Note for windows 8 users: As a workaround for a gnulib windows 8 compatibility bug, add command line switches ' -i --line-editing' to the octave.exe shortcut (i.e. <octave-dir>\bin\octave.exe -i --line-editing)
Copy octave3.6.4_gcc4.6.2_docs.lnk to any convenient location and edit its properties respectively to point to <your_install_dir>\doc\octave and <your_install_dir>\doc\octave\icons\octave-logo.ico as an icon.
At this point you can:

a. Launch and use octave by double-clicking the copied octave3.6.4_gcc4.6.2.lnk

b. Access and browse the documentation files by double-clicking the copied octave3.6.4_gcc4.6.2_docs.lnk
Optional libblas dll replacement for optimizing the linear algebra subroutines for your CPU:
- The default configuration should automatically detect your cpu architecture and select an appropriately tuned library.
- In case the default library is not properly functioning on the actual cpu, or you wish to explore the performance with another library, you can manually replace the default one by performing the following procedures (where libblas.dll.<libblas_source> should be replaced with the full name of the desired library from the list below these instructions):
  1. Exit octave
  2. Delete <your_install_dir>\bin\libblas.dll
  3. Make a copy of the desired <your_install_dir>\bin\libblas.dll.<libblas_source>
  4. Rename the copy of the desired <your_install_dir>\bin\libblas.dll.<libblas_source> to libblas.dll
- The following is a list of the available libblas.dll.<libblas_source> options:
  1. libblas.dll.ref - reference blas implementation, very slow but most stable
  2. libblas.dll.OpenBLAS-v2.6.0-0-54e7b37_dynamicarch_nt4 - Openblas based, up to 4 threads, detects cpu architecture and selects respective lib
  3. libblas.dll.OpenBLAS-v2.6.0-0-54e7b37_nehalem_nt4 - Openblas based, up to 4 threads, tuned for nehalem cpu architecture
  4. libblas.dll.OpenBLAS-v2.6.0-0-54e7b37_core2_nt4 - Openblas based, up to 4 threads, tuned for core2 cpu architecture
  5. libblas.dll.OpenBLAS-v2.6.0-0-54e7b37_sandybridge_nt4 - Openblas based, up to 4 threads, tuned for sandybridge cpu architecture
  6. libblas.dll.OpenBLAS-v2.6.0-0-54e7b37_atom_nt4 - Openblas based, up to 4 threads, tuned for atom cpu architecture
  7. libblas.dll.altas-3.8.4_ht-pentium - ATLAS based libblass, tuned for older ht-pentium (compiled by Tatsuro Matsuka)
  8. libblas.dll.altas-3.8.4_corei5 - ATLAS based libblass, tuned for older core i5 cpu (compiled by Tatsuro Matsuka)

Manual installation instructions for the Octave-forge packages

Extract the complete directories tree from Octave3.6.4_gcc4.6.2_pkgs_20130331.7z to the installation directory (<your_install_dir>) keeping the original directory structure as in the archive (you can use 7zip tool from http://www.7-zip.org/).
In order to update octave_packages database with your installation tree and auto-load most packages (excluding 'ad' and 'windows' which may crash octave when loaded and 'clear all' is executed), launch Octave and execute the following five rebuild commands from the octave console:

   pkg rebuild -auto
   pkg rebuild -noauto ad % may crash octave when loaded and 'clear all' is executed
   pkg rebuild -noauto nan % shadows many statistics functions
   pkg rebuild -noauto gsl % shadows some core functions
   pkg rebuild -auto java

Last pkg rebuild command is required in order for the java pkg entry to be moved to the top of <your_install_dir>\share\octave\octave_packages db file - thus java pkg is loaded before io pkg is loaded, and io pkg related jars are added to java class path.
You can optionally adjust your installed packages status per your specific needs and usage by executing the following commands:

a. To interactively load or unload a package

pkg load <pkg_name>

or

pkg unload <pkg_name>

b. To disable auto-load for specific pkg <pkg_name>

pkg rebuild -noauto <pkg_name>

c. To enable auto-load for specific pkg <pkg_name>

pkg rebuild -auto <pkg_name>

d. To completely uninstall a package

pkg uninstall <pkg_name>

Optional installation of Notepad++ as an editor (recommended)

Download recent Notepad++ installation package from http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ and install it on your system.
Edit <your_install_dir>\share\octave\site\m\startup\octaverc and un-comment the line which sets octave default editor:

EDITOR('C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe');
edit ("editor", sprintf ("%s %%s", EDITOR ()))
edit mode async

Note: win64 users may use the w32 programs directory:

EDITOR('C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe');

Note: You may adjust the above line for the location of notepad++.exe as installed on your system.

Troubleshooting

Upon launching, some warnings may be displayed. These warnings can be ignored.

Following warnings are about missing external tools which may reduce some of the functions of some packages. These external tools are not provided by the 7z archives in sourceforge.

warning: gmsh does not seem to be present some functionalities will be disabled 
warning: dx does not seem to be present some functionalities will be disabled

Following warning is about fstat function of the statistics package that overloads the old (to be deprecated) fstat function of octave-3.6.4

warning: function C:\Octave\3.6.4_gcc-4.6.2\share\octave\packages\statistics-1.2.0\fstat.m shadows a core library function

Octave-3.6.2-mingw + octaveforge pkgs

Files for manual installation

Octave-3.6.2-mingw binaries tree
- Octave362_gcc462_20120609.7z - MD5:1FA1F6191C151D527830722F71822312
This is a 7z archive which includes a directory tree of all the binaries and libraries required for a complete octave installation (excluding octaveforge packages)

It can be downloaded from Octave Forge

Octave-3.6.1-mingw + octaveforge pkgs

Files for manual installation

Octave-3.6.1-mingw binaries tree
- Octave3.6.1_gcc4.6.2_20120303.7z - MD5:294B99B5E4D47CAA83E8940EB2918D10
This is a 7z archive which includes a directory tree of all the binaries and libraries required for a complete octave installation (excluding octaveforge packages)

It can be downloaded from Octave Forge
- The archive include:
- octave-3.6.1 including PDF documentation (built by Tatsuro Matsuka http://www.tatsuromatsuoka.com/octave/Eng/Win/)
- OpenBLAS-r0.1alpha2.5 and ATLAS-3.8.4 based libblas altenatives
- mingw32 + msys tool chain
- gnuplot-4.4.4
- fig2dev-3.2.5c
- ghostscript-9.0.4
- pstoedit-3.60
- Maintainer: Nitzan Arazi
- Latest update: 2012-03-03
Octaveforge pkgs, built for Octave-3.6.1-mingw
- Octave3.6.1_gcc4.6.2_pkgs_20120303.7z - MD5:44A85F26A8925FEC5E1F0856408C9DD5
It can be downloaded from Octave Forge

This is a 7z archive which includes additional binaries and libraries for a set of octaveforge packages.
- The included packages are:
- actuarial-1.1.0
- ad-1.0.6_patched
- audio-1.1.4
- benchmark-1.1.1
- bim-1.0.2
- bioinfo-0.1.2
- civil-engineering-1.0.7
- combinatorics-1.0.9
- communications-1.1.0_svn20120127_patched
- control-2.2.5
- data-smoothing-1.3.0
- dataframe-0.9.1
- econometrics-1.0.8
- fenv-0.1.0
- financial-0.3.2
- fpl-1.2.0
- fuzzy-logic-toolkit-0.3.0
- ga-0.9.8
- general-1.2.2
- generate_html-0.1.3
- geometry-1.4.0
- gnuplot-1.0.1
- gpc-0.1.7
- gsl-1.0.8
- ident-1.0.7
- image-1.0.15
- informationtheory-0.1.8
- integration-1.0.7_svn20120128
- io-1.0.17
- irsa-1.0.7
- java-1.2.8_patched
- linear-algebra-2.1.0_svn20120225
- mapping-1.0.7
- mechanics-1.2.0
- miscellaneous-1.0.11_svn20120127
- missing-functions-1.0.2
- msh-1.0.2
- multicore-0.2.15
- nan-2.5.2
- nlwing2-1.2.0
- nnet-0.1.13
- nurbs-1.3.5
- ocs-0.1.3_svn20120128_patched
- octclip-1.0.0
- octgpr-1.2.0
- odebvp-1.0.6
- odepkg-0.8.0_svn20120127
- optim-1.0.17_patched
- optiminterp-0.3.4_svn20120128_patched
- outliers-0.13.9
- physicalconstants-0.1.7
- plot-1.1.0
- quaternion-1.0.0
- queueing-1.0.0
- secs1d-0.0.8
- secs2d-0.0.8
- secs3d-0.0.1
- signal-1.1.2
- simp-1.1.0
- sockets-1.0.7_svn20120128_patched
- specfun-1.1.0
- special-matrix-1.0.7
- spline-gcvspl-1.0.8
- splines-1.0.7
- statistics-1.1.0_svn20120128
- strings-1.0.7
- struct-1.0.9
- symband-1.0.10
- symbolic-1.1.0
- tcl-octave-0.1.8
- time-1.0.9
- tsa-4.1.1
- video-1.0.2_patched
- vrml-1.0.12_svn20111014_patched
- windows-1.1.0
- xraylib-1.0.8
- zenity-0.5.7
- Maintainer: Nitzan Arazi
- Latest update: 2012-03-03

Manual installation instructions

Create an installation directory of which doesn't have space chars (i.e. C:\Octave\Octave3.6.1_gcc4.6.2\). This directory is referred hereafter as <your_install_dir>.
Extract the complete directories tree from Octave3.6.1_gcc4.6.2_20120303.7z to the installation directory keeping the original directory structure as in the archive (you can use 7-zip tool from http://www.7-zip.org/). Note that the archive contains Octave3.6.1_gcc4.6.2 folder, so you want to extract to the *parent* of <your_install_dir>.
Copy octave3.6.1_gcc4.6.2.lnk to any convenient location and edit its properties respectively to point to <your_install_dir>\bin\octave.exe and <your_install_dir>\share\octave\3.6.1\imagelib\octave-logo.ico as an icon
Copy octave3.6.1_gcc4.6.2_docs.lnk to any convenient location and edit its properties respectively to point to <your_install_dir>\doc\octave and <your_install_dir>\share\octave\3.6.1\imagelib\octave-logo.ico as an icon.
At this point you can:

a. Launch and use octave by double-clicking the copied octave3.6.1_gcc4.6.2.lnk

b. Access and browse the documentation files by double-clicking the copied octave3.6.1_gcc4.6.2_docs.lnk
Optional libblas dll replacement for optimizing the linear algebra subroutines for your CPU:
- The default configuration should automatically detect your cpu architecture and select an appropriately tuned library.
- In case the default library is not properly functioning on the actual cpu, or you wish to explore the performance with another library, you can manually replace the default one by performing the following procedures (where libblas.dll.<libblas_source> should be replaced with the full name of the desired library from the list below these instructions):
  1. Exit octave
  2. Delete <your_install_dir>\bin\libblas.dll
  3. Make a copy of the desired <your_install_dir>\bin\libblas.dll.<libblas_source>
  4. Rename the copy of the desired <your_install_dir>\bin\libblas.dll.<libblas_source> to libblas.dll
- The following is a list of the available libblas.dll.<libblas_source> options:
  1. libblas.dll.ref - reference blas implementation, very slow but most stable
  2. libblas.dll.libopenblas_dynamicarch-r0.1alpha2.5-0-fda39c6 - Openblas based, up to 2 threads, detects cpu architecture and selects respective lib
  3. libblas.dll.libopenblas_dynamicarch_nt4-r0.1alpha2.5-0-fda39c6 - Openblas based, up to 4 threads, detects cpu architecture and selects respective lib
  4. libblas.dll.libopenblas_nehalemp-r0.1alpha2.5-0-fda39c6 - Openblas based, up to 2 threads, tuned for nehalem cpu architecture
  5. libblas.dll.libopenblas_nehalemp_nt4-r0.1alpha2.5-0-fda39c6 - Openblas based, up to 4 threads, tuned for nehalem cpu architecture
  6. libblas.dll.libopenblas_core2p-r0.1alpha2.5-0-fda39c6 - Openblas based, up to 2 threads, tuned for core2 cpu architecture
  7. libblas.dll.libopenblas_core2p_nt4-r0.1alpha2.5-0-fda39c6 - Openblas based, up to 4 threads, tuned for core2 cpu architecture
  8. libblas.dll.altas-3.8.4_ht-pentium - ATLAS based libblass, tuned for older ht-pentium (compiled by Tatsuro Matsuka)
  9. libblas.dll.altas-3.8.4_corei5 - ATLAS based libblass, tuned for older core i5 cpu (compiled by Tatsuro Matsuka)

Manual installation instructions for the Octave-forge packages

Extract the complete directories tree from Octave3.6.1_gcc4.6.2_pkgs_20120303.7z to the installation directory (<your_install_dir>) keeping the original directory structure as in the archive (you can use 7zip tool from http://www.7-zip.org/).
In order to update octave_packages database with your installation tree and auto-load most packages (excluding 'ad' and 'windows' which may crash octave when loaded and 'clear all' is executed), launch Octave and execute the following 3 rebuild commands from the octave console:

   pkg rebuild -auto
   pkg rebuild -noauto ad windows
   pkg rebuild -noauto nan % shadows many statistics functions
   pkg rebuild -noauto gsl % shadows some core functions
   pkg rebuild -auto java

Last pkg rebuild command is required in order for the java pkg entry to be moved to the top of <your_install_dir>\share\octave\octave_packages db file - thus java pkg is loaded before io pkg is loaded, and io pkg related jars are added to java class path.
You can optionally adjust your installed packages status per your specific needs and usage by executing the following commands:

a. To interactively load or unload a package

pkg load <pkg_name>

or

pkg unload <pkg_name>

b. To disable auto-load for specific pkg <pkg_name>

pkg rebuild -noauto <pkg_name>

c. To enable auto-load for specific pkg <pkg_name>

pkg rebuild -auto <pkg_name>

d. To completely uninstall a package

pkg uninstall <pkg_name>

Optional installation of Notepad++ as an editor (recommended)

Download recent Notepad++ installation package from http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ and install it on your system.
Edit <your_install_dir>\share\octave\site\m\startup\octaverc and un-comment the line which sets octave default editor:

EDITOR('C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe');
edit ("editor", sprintf ("%s %%s", EDITOR ()))
edit mode async

Note: You may adjust the above line for the location of notepad++.exe as installed on your system.

Troubleshooting

Upon launching, some warnings may be displayed. These warnings can be ignored.

Following warnings are about missing external tools which may reduce some of the functions of some packages. These external tools are not provided by the 7z archives in sourceforge.

warning: gmsh does not seem to be present some functionalities will be disabled 
warning: dx does not seem to be present some functionalities will be disabled

Following warning is about fstat function of the statistics package that overloads the old (to be deprecated) fstat function of octave-3.6.1

warning: function C:\Octave\3.6.1_gcc-4.6.2\share\octave\packages\statistics-1.1.0\fstat.m shadows a core library function

Octave-3.6.0-mingw + octaveforge pkgs

Files for manual installation

Octave-3.6.0-mingw binaries tree
- Octave3.6.0_gcc4.6.2_20120129.7z - MD5:53E4823B0DC5F2923C4CBCB8B60FC1B6
This is a 7z archive which includes a directory tree of all the binaries and libraries required for a complete octave installation (excluding octaveforge packages)

It can be downloaded from octave forge
- The archive include:
- octave-3.6.0 including PDF documentation (built by Tatsuro Matsuka http://www.tatsuromatsuoka.com/octave/Eng/Win/)
- mingw32 + msys tool chain
- gnuplot-4.4.4
- fig2dev-3.2.5c
- ghostscript-9.0.4
- pstoedit-3.60
- Maintainer: Nitzan Arazi
- Latest update: 2012-01-29
Octaveforge pkgs, built for Octave-3.6.0-mingw
- Octave3.6.0_gcc4.6.2_pkgs_20120128.7z - MD5:93CC6207EED411BCE747193D3A8B6625
It can be downloaded from octave forge

This is a 7z archive which includes additional binaries and libraries for a set of octaveforge packages.
- The included packages are:
- actuarial-1.1.0
- ad-1.0.6_patched
- audio-1.1.4
- benchmark-1.1.1
- bim-1.0.2
- bioinfo-0.1.2
- civil-engineering-1.0.7
- combinatorics-1.0.9
- communications-1.1.0_svn20120127_patched
- control-2.2.4
- data-smoothing-1.2.3
- dataframe-0.8.2
- econometrics-1.0.8
- fenv-0.1.0
- financial-0.3.2
- fpl-1.2.0
- fuzzy-logic-toolkit-0.3.0
- ga-0.9.8
- general-1.2.2
- generate_html-0.1.3
- geometry-1.4.0
- gnuplot-1.0.1
- gpc-0.1.7
- gsl-1.0.8
- ident-1.0.7
- image-1.0.15
- informationtheory-0.1.8
- integration-1.0.7_svn20120128
- io-1.0.16
- irsa-1.0.7
- java-1.2.8_patched
- linear-algebra-2.1.0_svn20120127
- mapping-1.0.7
- mechanics-1.2.0
- miscellaneous-1.0.11_svn20120127
- missing-functions-1.0.2
- msh-1.0.2
- multicore-0.2.15
- nlwing2-1.2.0
- nnet-0.1.13
- nurbs-1.3.5
- ocs-0.1.3_svn20120128_patched
- octclip-1.0.0
- octgpr-1.2.0
- odebvp-1.0.6
- odepkg-0.8.0_svn20120127
- optim-1.0.17_patched
- optiminterp-0.3.4_svn20120128_patched
- outliers-0.13.9
- physicalconstants-0.1.7
- plot-1.1.0
- quaternion-1.0.0
- secs1d-0.0.8
- secs2d-0.0.8
- secs3d-0.0.1
- signal-1.1.2
- simp-1.1.0
- sockets-1.0.7_svn20120128_patched
- specfun-1.1.0
- special-matrix-1.0.7
- spline-gcvspl-1.0.8
- splines-1.0.7
- statistics-1.1.0_svn20120128
- strings-1.0.7
- struct-1.0.9
- symband-1.0.10
- symbolic-1.1.0
- tcl-octave-0.1.8
- time-1.0.9
- tsa-4.1.1
- video-1.0.2_patched
- vrml-1.0.12_svn20111014_patched
- windows-1.1.0
- xraylib-1.0.8
- zenity-0.5.7
- Maintainer: Nitzan Arazi
- Latest update: 2012-01-28

Manual installation instructions

Create an installation directory of which doesn't have space chars (i.e. C:\Octave\Octave3.6.0_gcc4.6.2\). This directory is referred hereafter as <your_install_dir>.
Extract the complete directories tree from Octave3.6.0_gcc4.6.2_20120129.7z to the installation directory keeping the original directory structure as in the archive (you can use 7-zip tool from http://www.7-zip.org/).
Copy octave3.6.0_gcc4.6.2.lnk to any convenient location and edit its properties respectively to point to <your_install_dir>\bin\octave.exe and <your_install_dir>\share\octave\3.6.0\imagelib\octave-logo.ico as an icon
Copy octave3.6.0_gcc4.6.2_docs.lnk to any convenient location and edit its properties respectively to point to <your_install_dir>\doc\octave and <your_install_dir>\share\octave\3.6.0\imagelib\octave-logo.ico as an icon.
At this point you can:

a. Launch and use octave by double-clicking the copied octave3.6.0_gcc4.6.2.lnk

b. Access and browse the documentation files by double-clicking the copied octave3.6.0_gcc4.6.2_docs.lnk

Manual installation instructions for the Octave-forge packages

Extract the complete directories tree from Octave3.6.0_gcc4.6.2_pkgs_20120128.7z to the installation directory (<your_install_dir>) keeping the original directory structure as in the archive (you can use 7zip tool from http://www.7-zip.org/).
In order to update octave_packages database with your installation tree and auto-load most packages (excluding 'ad' and 'windows' which may crash octave when loaded and 'clear all' is executed), launch Octave and execute the following 3 rebuild commands from the octave console:

   pkg rebuild -auto
   pkg rebuild -noauto ad windows
   pkg rebuild -auto java

Last pkg rebuild command is required in order for the java pkg entry to be moved to the top of <your_install_dir>\share\octave\octave_packages db file - thus java pkg is loaded before io pkg is loaded, and io pkg related jars are added to java class path.
You can optionally adjust your installed packages status per your specific needs and usage by executing the following commands:

a. To interactively load or unload a package

pkg load <pkg_name>

or

pkg unload <pkg_name>

b. To disable auto-load for specific pkg <pkg_name>

pkg rebuild -noauto <pkg_name>

c. To enable auto-load for specific pkg <pkg_name>

pkg rebuild -auto <pkg_name>

d. To completely uninstall a package

pkg uninstall <pkg_name>

Optional installation of Notepad++ as an editor (recommended)

Download recent Notepad++ installation package from http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ and install it on your system.
Edit <your_install_dir>\share\octave\site\m\startup\octaverc and un-comment the line which sets octave default editor:

EDITOR('C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe');
edit ("editor", sprintf ("%s %%s", EDITOR ()))
edit mode async

Note: You may adjust the above line for the location of notepad++.exe as installed on your system.

Troubleshooting

Upon launching, some warnings may be displayed. These warnings can be ignored.

Following warnings are about missing external tools which may reduce some of the functions of some packages. These external tools are not provided by the 7z archives in sourceforge.

warning: gmsh does not seem to be present some functionalities will be disabled 
warning: dx does not seem to be present some functionalities will be disabled

Following warning is about fstat function of the statistics package that overloads the old (to be deprecated) fstat function of octave-3.6.0

warning: function C:\Octave\3.6.0_gcc-4.6.2\share\octave\packages\statistics-1.1.0\fstat.m shadows a core library function

Octave-3.4.3-mingw + octaveforge pkgs

Octave-3.4.3-mingw (without pkgs)
Octave3.4.3_gcc4.5.2_20111025.7z - MD5:5AA004D933E000E762AE2AE95573ACBD - http://www.multiupload.com/KDQ1N463UW
Octaveforge pkgs, built for Octave-3.4.3-mingw
Octave3.4.3_gcc4.5.2_pkgs_20111026.7z - MD5:2987F6078B4AD161F2D23634D5109D61 - http://www.multiupload.com/7U6J23CSZ6

The above archive files are now able to be downloaded from octave forge

Maintainer: Nitzan Arazi
Latest update: 2011-10-26
Packages are archived by 7zip. 7zip software can be download from http://www.7-zip.org/
Octave Binaries are built using Tatsuro Matsuka OctaveLibs.zip and gplibs.zip (http://www.tatsuromatsuoka.com/octave/Eng/Win/)

Troubleshooting

Upon launching, some warnings may be displayed. The following warnings can be ignored:

Following warning is about interpretation of logical operators (on scalars) in octave which is slightly different than matlab's interpretation.

warning: C:\Octave\3.4.3_gcc-4.5.2\share\octave\packages\integration-1.0.7\PKG_ADD: possible Matlab-style short-circuit operator
at line 9, column 32

Following messages are from java package about loading of java classes that have been found and how to manually run a statement which will display its capabilities.

io PKG_ADD: java classes has been found and added in C:\Octave\3.4.3_gcc-4.5.2\bin 
io PKG_ADD: run chk_spreadsheet_support([],3) to view io support

Following warnings are about missing external tools which may reduce some of the functions of some packages. These external tools are not provided by the 7z archives in sourceforge.

warning: gmsh does not seem to be present some functionalities will be disabled 
warning: dx does not seem to be present some functionalities will be disabled

Following warning is about fstat function of the statistics package that overloads the old (to be deprecated) fstat function of octave-3.4.3

warning: function C:\Octave\3.4.3_gcc-4.5.2\share\octave\packages\statistics-1.0.10\fstat.m shadows a core library function

Octave-3.4.2-mingw + octaveforge pkgs

Octave-3.4.2-mingw (without pkgs)
Octave3.4.2_gcc4.5.2_20110914.7z - MD5:4AA0DD4C97F73B2E9E0F7370CD8AD719 - http://www.multiupload.com/TCUHKNNH9S
Octaveforge pkgs, built for Octave-3.4.2-mingw
Octave3.4.2_gcc4.5.2_pkgs_20111014.7z - MD5:49097AF3C6FC6CDB58EE83F510A50993 - http://www.multiupload.com/DCWFZOUGZA

Maintainer: Nitzan Arazi
Latest update: 2011-10-14
Packages are archived by the 7zip. The 7zip software can be download from http://www.7-zip.org/
Octave Binaries are built by Tatsuro Matsuoka (http://www.tatsuromatsuoka.com/octave/Eng/Win/)
Octave manual (octave-3.4.2.pdf.zip, octave-3.4.2.html.zip) can be downloaded from http://www.tatsuromatsuoka.com/octave/Eng/Win/

Installation

The installation instructions are the same as for the 3.4.3 version, above.

Notes

For details, please see http://old.nabble.com/Octave-3.4.2-mingw-%2B-octaveforge-pkgs-to32394771.html

Upon launching, some warnings may be displayed. The following warnings can be ignored:

Following warning is about interpretation of logical operators (on scalars) in octave which is slightly different than matlab's interpretation.

warning: C:\Octave\Octave3.4.2_gcc4.5.2\share\octave\packages\integration-1.0.7\PKG_ADD: possible Matlab-style 
short-circuit operator at line 9, column 32

Following warnings are about missing external tools which may reduce some of the functions of some packages. These external tools are not provided by the 7z archives in sourceforge.

warning: gmsh does not seem to be present some functionalities will be disabled
warning: dx does not seem to be present some functionalities will be disabled

Following warning is about fstat function of the statistics package that overloads the old (to be deprecated) fstat function of octave-3.4.3

warning: function C:\Octave\Octave3.4.2_gcc4.5.2\share\octave\packages\statistics-1.0.10\fstat.m shadows a core library

Octave 3.2.4 for Windows MinGW32

Download: Octave-3.2.4_i686-pc-mingw32_gcc-4.4.0_setup.exe
Maintainer: Benjamin Lindner
Latest release: 2010-03-25

Includes

GNU Octave, version 3.2.4 (i686-pc-mingw32)
atlas 3.8.2
mingw32 (GCC 4.4.0 on http://www.mingw.org )
gnuplot Version 4.4.0 specially prepared for octave
mini-MSYS 1.0.11
notepad++ 5.6.7 as text editor
Some components of octave-forge packages
- actuarial-1.1.0 (New!)
- audio-1.1.4
- benchmark-1.1.1
- bim-1.0.0 (New!)
- bioinfo-0.1.2
- combinatorics-1.0.9
- communications-1.0.10
- control-1.0.11
- data-smoothing-1.2.0
- econometrics-1.0.8
- fenv-0.1.0 (New!)
- financial-0.3.2
- fixed-0.7.10
- fpl-1.0.0 (New!)
- ga-0.9.7
- general-1.2.0 (updated)
- generate_html-0.1.2 (New!)
- gnuplot-1.0.1 (New!)
- gpc-0.1.7
- gsl-1.0.8
- ident-1.0.7
- image-1.0.10
- informationtheory-0.1.8
- integration-1.0.7
- io-1.0.11 (updated)
- irsa-1.0.7
- java-1.2.7 (New!)
- jhandles-0.3.5 (New!)
- linear-algebra-1.0.8
- mapping-1.0.7
- miscellaneous-1.0.9
- missing-functions-1.0.2
- msh-1.0.0 (New!)
- nlwing2-1.1.1 (New!)
- nnet-0.1.10
- nurbs-1.0.3 (New!)
- ocs-0.0.4 (New!)
- oct2mat-1.0.7 (New!)
- octcdf-1.0.17 (updated 1.0.17+)
- octgpr-1.1.5 (New!)
- odebvp-1.0.6
- odepkg-0.6.10 (updated)
- optim-1.0.12 (updated)
- optiminterp-0.3.2
- outliers-0.13.9
- physicalconstants-0.1.7
- plot-1.0.7
- quaternion-1.0.0
- signal-1.0.10
- simp-1.1.0 (New!)
- sockets-1.0.5
- specfun-1.0.8
- special-matrix-1.0.7
- spline-gcvspl-1.0.8 (New!)
- splines-1.0.7
- statistics-1.0.9
- strings-1.0.7
- struct-1.0.7
- symband-1.0.10 (New!)
- symbolic-1.0.9
- time-1.0.9
- video-1.0.2 (New!)
- windows-1.0.8(updated to 1.0.8+)
- zenity-0.5.7

Notes

Although there are some remaining known issues, some bugs reported to the octave-3.2.3 have been corrected. In addition, useful octave-forge packages are added (Java, Jhandles, ....). Please see RELEASE_NOTES.txt for details:
Default Octave install folder changed to e.g. C:\Octave\3.2.4_gcc-4.4.0\.
If you have installed octave in a folder where the path name has whitespace, for example, C:\Program Files\, 'pkg install (package name)' command will fail: See http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_name=4A1AF9EF.1000005@hotmail.com for details

Additional important topics found after the release:

It is reported that the oct2mat octave-forge package affects plot related commands. The purpose of the package is to convert m-file into matlab-compatible coding style. Please see the documentation of the octave-forge (oct2mat - freetb4matlab) from http://octave.sourceforge.net/functions_by_package.php)
- Report for this problem: http://old.nabble.com/Re:-Octave-3.2.4-mingw32-available-p28053703.html
- Explanation of the problem: http://old.nabble.com/Re:-Octave-3.2.4-mingw32-available-p28090303.html
- Realistic solution at this moment, do not install the oct2mat package when you install octave with octave-forge packages if you do not use this package. Another solution is to execute

     pkg rebuild -noauto oct2mat

at the octave prompt and then restart octave. The operation results in the oct2mat package not to be auto-loaded in startup. When you want to use oct2mat, execute

     pkg load oct2mat

The plot octave-forge package still have ginput code although the ginput function is now merge into octave itself. Therefore conflict occur if the plot package is installed. To avoid this problem, rename 'ginput.m' in the folder ..\Octave\3.2.4_gcc-4.4.0\share\octave\packages\plot-1.0.7, for example ginput.ob.m. In some computers which has one core CPU, response of ginput is very slow. In the case, modify '__gnuplot_ginput__.m' according to the following thread. http://old.nabble.com/ginput-on-Octave-3.2.4-mingw32-to28093888.html
From gnuplot-4.4.0, the default terminal of gnuplot for windows is the wxt terminal. Some users may set the GNUTERM environmental variable for the windows terminal being default. The gnuplot for windows allows to set GNUTERM to 'win' (abbreviated form) but octave does not recognize the abbreviated form for terminal name. If one would like set GNUTERM to windows terminal, one should specify it as 'windows' (full form) but not 'win' (abbreviated form). In detail see the following thread: http://old.nabble.com/flicking-problem-again-Octave-3.2.4-mingw32-td28038688.html

Octave with Visual Studio

Octave binaries compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio are available for download from Octave-Forge site. These binaries come in the form of an easy-to-use installer (created with NSIS) and are provided in 2 flavors: pre-compiled version for Visual Studio 2008 and for Visual Studio 2010.

These binaries do not include the Microsoft Visual C++ compiler. This must be installed separately, but is only required if you plan to compile and link source code against the pre-compiled octave release. If the Visual C++ compiler is not present on the target system, then the Visual C++ runtime libraries must be installed prior the installation of these binaries. These runtime libraries are support libraries that are required by any code compiled with the Visual C++ compiler. They can be downloaded for free from the Microsoft download site:

Note that if you already installed other software on your system, there is a possibility that these runtime libraries are already present. Search for a files named msvcr90.dll (Visual Studio 2008) or msvcr100.dll (Visual Studio 2010) in the %WINDIR% directory (usually C:\WINDOWS).

Installation

The pre-compiled versions for Visual Studio come in the form of a self-installing executable. Simply download the executable, run it and follow the installer instructions. To avoid possible problems with white spaces in the octave paths, it is strongly recommended to install octave in a directory that do not contain any white spaces.

Octave-Forge packages are not installed by default. To install packages, expand the section "Octave Forge" in the component selection page of the installer and select the packages you wish to install. Note that installed packages are not loaded by default. To use the packages, you still need to load them into octave.

Printing (installing Ghostscript)

In order to use the print command ghostscript must be installed. The installer may be obtained at sourceforge.

The instructions below assume the GLP version of Ghostscript is installed with the Destination directory C:\Program Files (x86)\GPLGS\. The Destination directory may be different for 32 bit and 64 bit windows and can also change for different versions of Ghostscript. Therefore, it is important that the user make note of the Destination directory used to install Ghostscript and use it in place of the Destination directory used in these instructions.

In order for Octave to find Ghostscript, the directory containing Ghostscript's command line program must be in the command shell's path. The name of Ghostscript's command line program may vary. Some examples are gswin32c.exe, gswin64c.exe, gs.exe, and mgs.exe. To directory containing Ghostscript's command line program may either be added to the command shell's using Windows Control Panel, or by having Octave modify the path variable to include the directory where Ghostscript's command line programs resides.

For the latter, to following lines may be placed in the ~/.octaverc file (where ~ indicates the user's home folder). The variable gs_path should be set to the Destination directory where Ghostscript was installed.

 cmd_path = getenv ("path");
 gs_path = 'C:\Program Files (x86)\GPLGS\';
 if (isempty (strfind (cmd_path, gs_path)))
   setenv ('path', strcat (cmd_path, pathsep (), gs_path));
 endif

In this case, the value of gs_path has been set to the location of Ghostscript's command line program for the GPL's 8.15 version of Ghostscript. The location for other versions may differ. Please determine the location of the installed Ghostscript command line program and make the needed adjustments to these instructions.

To set the path via the Control Panel,

Go to Control Panel --> System and Security --> System
Click Advanced System Settings
Click Environment Variables
In the System Variables area, locate the Path variable, highlight it and click Edit.
Add the Destination directory where Ghostscript is installed and confirm the change by clickiing OK, OK, OK.

If the 64 bit version of Ghostscript is installed, Octave will not automatically detect it. To use the 64 bit version an option telling Octave about it must be passed to the print command. For example to produce PDF output for a figure, using the 64 bit version of Ghostscript, the command below may be used.

 print -Ggswin64c.exe figure.pdf

At this point most of Octave's printing functionality should work. When output is produced using the print command the warnings below will be given.

 warning: print.m: epstool binary is not available.
 Some output formats are not available.
 warning: print.m: fig2dev binary is not available.
 Some output formats are not available.
 warning: print.m: pstoedit binary is not available.
 Some output formats are not available.

For the print command to be fully functional, each of these utilities will also need to be installed, and their locations added to the Path variable via either the Control Panel or Octave's ~/.octaverc file.

Using the Visual C++ compiler with Octave

As of version 3.6.1, the Microsoft Visual C++ compiler is not automatically detected. If you need to use it from octave (for instance to compile a MEX, OCT file, and building packages), then you must configure your system by updating the appropriate environment variables: %PATH%, %INCLUDE% and %LIB%. One way to achieve this easily is to call the vcvarsall.bat script (from the Visual C++ installation directory) prior executing octave. You can for instance automate this by creating a batch script with the following content (adapt paths to your actual installation):

call "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat"
"C:\Octave-3.6.1\bin\octave.exe"

Octave 3.6.4

Download

Octave-Forge

Content

Octave 3.6.4
OpenBLAS-0.2.2 (dynamic architectures, up to 4 threads)
ATLAS 3.8.4 single-threaded and multi-threaded (2 threads)
All required libraries
Gnuplot 4.4.4
FLTK
82 packages from Octave-Forge (Must be installed through the Octave installer, see README: 3. Content)

Octave 3.6.2

Download

Octave-Forge

Content

Octave 3.6.2
OpenBLAS-0.1.1 (dynamic architectures, up to 4 threads)
ATLAS 3.8.4 single-threaded and multi-threaded (2 threads)
All required libraries
QtHandles
Octave GUI (experimental, compiled from development sources)
Gnuplot 4.4.4
72 packages from Octave-Forge (see README: 3. Content)

Octave 3.6.1

Download

Octave-Forge

Content

Octave 3.6.1
ATLAS 3.8.4 single-threaded (SSE/SSE2/SSE3) and multi-threaded (SSE3, 2 threads)
All required libraries
QtHandles
Octave GUI (experimental, compiled from development sources)
Gnuplot 4.4.4
72 packages from Octave-Forge

Alternative

In addition to the instructions provided in the Octave manual and Octave-Forge repository, a basic toolkit for building Octave in windows using the MSVC compiler has been produced by Michael Goffioul. It consists of a set of scripts that can be used to compile Octave and its dependencies.

A pre-compiled (with VS2010) version of everything has also been provided, so it is not necessary to recompile everything from scratch. The files can be found at: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/45539519/octave-build2.zip and http://dl.dropbox.com/u/45539519/VC10Libs.zip

Note that this is not a enterprise-level SDK, so don't try to start an enterprise with it.

Octave for Microsoft Windows

Installers for Microsoft Windows

Octave-4.0.3

Packages

gnuplot

Octave 4.0.3 on cygwin

Notes

Older instructions

MinGW ports

Octave-4.0.0

Packages

Octave-3.8.2

Octave-3.6.4-mingw + octaveforge pkgs

Files for manual installation

Manual installation instructions

Manual installation instructions for the Octave-forge packages

Optional installation of Notepad++ as an editor (recommended)

Troubleshooting

Octave-3.6.2-mingw + octaveforge pkgs

Files for manual installation

Octave-3.6.1-mingw + octaveforge pkgs

Files for manual installation

Manual installation instructions

Manual installation instructions for the Octave-forge packages

Optional installation of Notepad++ as an editor (recommended)

Troubleshooting

Octave-3.6.0-mingw + octaveforge pkgs

Files for manual installation

Manual installation instructions

Manual installation instructions for the Octave-forge packages

Optional installation of Notepad++ as an editor (recommended)

Troubleshooting

Octave-3.4.3-mingw + octaveforge pkgs

Troubleshooting

Octave-3.4.2-mingw + octaveforge pkgs

Installation

Notes

Octave 3.2.4 for Windows MinGW32

Includes

Notes

Octave with Visual Studio

Installation

Printing (installing Ghostscript)

Using the Visual C++ compiler with Octave

Octave 3.6.4

Download

Content

Octave 3.6.2

Download

Content

Octave 3.6.1

Download

Content

Alternative