A Double-Click Experience for Running Jekyll on Windows

Typically, running a Jekyll site locally for the first time requires a basic knowledge of using the command line. It usually involves a few commands: bundle exec jekyll serve (with the optional --incremental flag) after installing the bundler gem and running the associated bundle install command.

Below is a .cmd file to get a Jekyll site run locally, as well as open a web browser automatically. This can be useful to give command line focused users a quickstart, as well as provide a double-click experience from Windows Explorer.

Simply add the following to your project:

jekyll-run.cmd

@echo Off
pushd %~dp0
setlocal

call gem install bundler --no-ri --no-rdoc
call bundle install
call explorer "http://localhost:4000"
call bundle exec jekyll serve --incremental

Note: This assumes the required Ruby version is already installed. For Jekyll installation instructions for Windows see https://jekyllrb.com/docs/windows/#installation.