Sometimes I have to use Windows. However, life isn’t always TOO bad. There is a vim port for windows. However, it does have some default settings that really drive me crazy.

If you have ever installed it, you know what I mean. When you open any file, it creates a temporary swap file. This is fine in Linux, because I always have multiple terminals doing multiple things at once. However, we don’t have that in Windows. Don’t pretend you do. The other setting is the automatic backup option. Open a file, edit, then save. It will create a backup of the original file. To me, that’s not needed.

To fix this, go to your _vimrc file. The default location is in C:\Program Files\Vim. Add these lines to the bottom of the file, and you are all set:

set nobackup
set nowritebackup
set noswapfile

Save and exit. Simple when you know how.