MDView

A fast, lightweight Markdown viewer for Windows. Available as a Total Commander Lister plugin and standalone executable with rich terminal output.

Total Commander Plugin

Features

• WebView2 rendering - Modern HTML rendering with full Markdown support (GUI mode)
• Auto dark mode - Follows Windows appearance settings (GUI mode)
• Rich terminal output - ANSI colors, clickable hyperlinks, unicode tables (terminal mode)
• Clickable links - Click .md links to navigate, external links open in browser
• ESC to close - Quick keyboard navigation
• Syntax highlighting - Code blocks with proper formatting
• GitHub Flavored Markdown - Tables, task lists, strikethrough, and more

Installation

Total Commander Plugin

1. Download the latest release ZIP
2. Open the ZIP file in Total Commander
3. Total Commander will automatically detect pluginst.inf and offer to install
4. Select your preferred installation directory
5. Configure file associations (.md, .markdown) in TC settings

Standalone Executable

1. Download mdview.exe from the latest release
2. Place it anywhere in your PATH or desired location
3. Associate .md files with mdview.exe or run from command line

Standalone Executable

The standalone mdview.exe automatically detects its environment:

• From terminal (cmd.exe, PowerShell, Windows Terminal): Renders markdown with ANSI formatting
• Double-clicked or no console: Opens GUI window with WebView2

Windows Terminal

Full support for modern terminal features including clickable hyperlinks (OSC 8), true color, and unicode box drawing for tables.

Legacy cmd.exe

ANSI escape processing is automatically enabled for color support in legacy consoles.

Command Line Options

mdview [OPTIONS] [FILE]

Arguments:
  [FILE]  Markdown file to view (reads from stdin if not provided)

Options:
  --gui          Force GUI window mode
  --term         Force terminal output mode
  --html         Output full HTML document to stdout
  --body         Output HTML body only (no wrapper)
  --text         Output plain text (no formatting)
  --register     Register as .md file viewer (Open With)
  --unregister   Remove .md file viewer registration
  -h, --help     Show help message

Examples

# Auto-detect: terminal output when run from console
mdview README.md

# Pipe content from another command
cat notes.md | mdview

# Force GUI window
mdview --gui README.md

# Output HTML for further processing
mdview --html README.md > output.html

File Association

MDView can register itself as a handler for .md and .markdown files:

• First launch (GUI mode): MDView will offer to register as a viewer. Choose "Yes" to register and open Windows Settings where you can set it as the default. Choose "No" to be asked again next time, or "Cancel" to suppress the prompt permanently.
• Command line: Use mdview --register to register and mdview --unregister to remove the registration. Registration adds MDView to the "Open With" list; you then confirm the default in Windows Settings.

# Register as .md viewer and open Windows Settings
mdview --register

# Remove registration
mdview --unregister

Terminal Features

Feature	Windows Terminal	Legacy cmd.exe
ANSI colors	Yes	Yes
Bold/Italic	Yes	Yes
Clickable hyperlinks	Yes	No (text only)
Unicode tables	Yes	Yes
True color (24-bit)	Yes	Limited

Keyboard Shortcuts (GUI mode)

Key	Action
ESC	Close viewer
Ctrl+O	Open file
Click link	Navigate .md files in viewer, open external URLs in browser
Ctrl+Click	Always open link in browser

Menu Options (GUI mode)

Menu	Item	Action
File	Open	Open a Markdown file
File	Register as .md Viewer...	Add MDView to the Open With list
File	Unregister as .md Viewer	Remove MDView from Open With
Help	About MDView	Version and license info

Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.75 or later
• Windows 10/11 with WebView2 Runtime

Build Commands

# Build release version (x64)
cargo build --release

# Build x86 version (for 32-bit Total Commander)
cargo build --release --target i686-pc-windows-msvc

# Run tests
cargo test

Output Files

After building, copy the following files for distribution:

File	Description
target/release/mdview.exe	Standalone viewer (x64)
target/release/mdview_wlx.dll	Rename to mdview.wlx64 for TC plugin (x64)
target/i686-pc-windows-msvc/release/mdview_wlx.dll	Rename to mdview.wlx for TC plugin (x86)

Troubleshooting

Debug Logging

If the plugin hangs or doesn't work correctly, enable debug logging:

1. Set environment variable: set MDVIEW_DEBUG=1
2. Start Total Commander from that command prompt
3. Try to view a markdown file
4. Check log file: %TEMP%\mdview_debug.log

The log shows WebView2 initialization steps and helps identify where issues occur.

Common Issues

Issue	Solution
Plugin hangs	WebView2 has a 30-second timeout; check debug log
Blank display	Ensure WebView2 Runtime is installed
F3 opens WebView search	Update to latest version (F3 now passed to TC)

Requirements

• Windows 10 version 1803 or later
• WebView2 Runtime (usually pre-installed on Windows 10/11)

License

This project is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

Author

Remko Weijnen

Acknowledgments

• pulldown-cmark - Markdown parsing
• webview2-com - WebView2 bindings for Rust