---

title: Windows-Specific Questions

date: 2019-05-20T03:45:13.000Z

weight: 20

Yes! If the installer isn't able to successfully download and install the

dictionaries, you can do so manually.

First, upgrade to the newest release if you aren't on it!

Pidgin on Windows uses the dictionaries available from the [OpenOffice.org

Site](https://extensions.openoffice.org/en/search?f%5B0%5D=field_project_tags%3A157).

You need to download the appropriate language extension file(s). These files

are OpenOffice.org extensions named with a file extension of `.oxt`; these are

simply ZIP files with some extra data in them. Once you have downloaded one of

these files, you can rename it to have a `.zip` extension and then extract the

`*.dic` and `*.aff` files in it. These files need to be placed into

`%PIDGIN_INSTALL_DIR%\spellcheck\share\enchant\myspell\`. Create the

directories if they don't already exist. (`%PIDGIN_INSTALL_DIR%` is _usually_

`C:\Program Files (x86)\Pidgin` or `C:\Program Files\Pidgin`.) If Pidgin is

already running when you place the dictionary files, you will need to restart

Pidgin for it to recognize the files.

Absolutely! The [_Offline_ Pidgin

installer](https://www.pidgin.im/download/windows/) has a "silent" mode accessed

with the following syntax:

pidgin-x.y.z-offline.exe /DS=1 /SMS=0 /L=1033 /S /D=C:\Pidgin

The `/S` flag activates the silent mode for the installer. The `/L` flag

specifies the language using Windows LCID, and this affects both the installer

and Pidgin itself. The `/DS` and `/SMS` flags enable (`=1`) or disable (`=0`)

the desktop shortcut and Start menu shortcuts, respectively. The `/D` flag

specifies the installation directory. If you wish to use this flag, it _must_

be the last argument specified on the command line and may not contain any

quotes, even if the installation path includes spaces. All flags are optional,

except `/S` if silent mode is desired. Omitting the other flags will default to

LCID 1033 (English), with Desktop and Start menu shortcuts enabled, and a

default install path of `%PROGRAMFILESx86%\Pidgin\` or `%PROGRAMFILES%\Pidgin`

depending on your version of Windows.

The installer will, if necessary, download and install the GTK runtime, which is

needed for Pidgin to run. If you need to use a proxy server to connect to the

Internet, it is possible that the Pidgin installer will not be able to reach the

resources it needs. The installer automatically checks for proxies configured

in Internet Options. If you know the proxy settings, you can configure them by

opening Internet Options directly from Control Panel, or by opening Internet

Explorer and selecting Tools > Internet Options > Connections > LAN Settings.

Alternatively, and likely preferred if errors occur, you can download the

[offline version of the installer](https://www.pidgin.im/download/windows)

It is possible using old versions of Pidgin and GTK, but we do not support

this. Don't do it.