RenderDOT.ps1 is a PowerShell script that renders a Graphviz DOT file as a PNG image and displays the image in a simple window with zoom controls.

In order to completely hide the PowerShell console window, the file extension is associated with the PsRunArg.vbs script, which launches an invisible PowerShell instance. The PsRunArg script was adapted from PsRun.

Install Graphviz, so the command dot is available on the system path.

Download this repository as a ZIP file and extract it into a new folder at a permanent location, or git clone the repository at a location of your choice.

Run INSTALL.cmd with admin privileges and follow the instructions. The install script calls assoc and ftype to create the file associations for .gv and .dot files. Note that Windows 10 onwards will require consent from the user before the program is actually used as default. After running the install script, double click the example.gv file, check the checkbox to always use the Script Host for this file type, and confirm opening the file.

After installing, you should be able to double click .gv/.dot files to open a simple image viewer with default zoom hotkeys.

The following additional hotkeys are available:

• Ctrl + S: save the rendered image to a PNG file, or export to a SVG/PDF file.
• Ctrl + C: copy the rendered image into the clipboard.
• Ctrl + E: open the rendered image in the default external viewer.
• Esc: Close viewer.

Download this repository as a ZIP file and replace the old files with the new files. If you've installed using git clone, you can just use git pull to update.

It's not necessary to run INSTALL.cmd again, unless file associations are missing or broken. You may need to do this after some major Windows upgrades, as those sometimes reset some file associations.

Run UNINSTALL.cmd with admin privileges and follow the instructions.

Delete the folder.