It's to be expected. Emacs assumes a Unix-like environment, which Windows doesn't provide, so you need to provide any programs that you want to run via Emacs yourself. I currently use the 64-bit Cygwin distribution. I found that I needed to add the Cygwin bin directory to my Windows path (outside of Emacs) and then ediff works fine.
Francis Wright > -----Original Message----- > From: help-emacs-windows [mailto:help-emacs-windows- > bounces+f.j.wright=live.co...@gnu.org] On Behalf Of David Wardle > Sent: Monday, 13 November 2017 3:21 am > To: help-emacs-windows@gnu.org > Subject: [h-e-w] Trying to use Ediff with Windows 7 > > Hi. > > I am running Windows 7 on an HP computer. > > I downloaded: > > http://mirror.lagoon.nc/pub/gnu/emacs/windows/emacs-25.3-i686.zip > > It unzipped fine and I have a folder `bin' (among other folders) with file > `runemacs.exe'. > > Double-clicking `runemacs.exe' successfully launches the GUI for Emacs. I > can choose `Tool' and `Compare(Ediff)' and it seems to work fine for > comparing directories, but, if I try and compare files, I get the error: > > `No such file or directory, diff' > > Is this a bug or is it to be expected (given that I am running Windows > 7 and the only gnu-related thing I have on my computer is the unzip of > `emacs-25.3-i686.zip')? > > I hope someone can clarify this as I am quite confused. > > Sincerely, > > David Wardle > Auckland > NEW ZEALAND.
