half of the windows newbie guide written

docs/index.rst

@@ -111,6 +111,9 @@ our `Github Homepage`_.
 packages and don't want to have to compile anything yourself**, head to the
 :doc:`installing` page.
 
+**Running Windows and not familiar with the command line?** Head to the
+:doc:`windowsguide` page.
+
 **If you would like to build the Overviewer from source yourself (it's not that
 bad)**, head to the :doc:`Building <building>` page.
 
@@ -145,6 +148,7 @@ Documentation Contents
    building
    running
    options
+   windowsguide
    faq
    design/designdoc
 

docs/windowsguide.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+====================
+Windows Newbie Guide
+====================
+If you're running Windows and aren't as familiar with the Windows command
+prompt as the rest of the documentation assumes you are, this page is for you!
+
+The Overviewer is a *command line* tool, which means you will need to use the command line to run it.
+
+**First step:** Open the command line.
+    Open your Start menu and type in the box 'cmd' and press enter. If you're
+    running XP you'll go to the "run" option instead and then type 'cmd' and
+    press enter. This should bring up the *command prompt*, a black window with
+    a prompt where you can type *commands*.
+
+Now that you know how to open a command line, and haven't been scared off yet,
+the next step is to download the latest Overviewer.
+
+**Step 2:** Download Overviewer
+    Go to the `Downloads Page
+    <https://github.com/overviewer/Minecraft-Overviewer/downloads>`_ and
+    download the *latest* version for your architecture, either 32 bit or 64
+    bit.
+
+    *This is important. If you don't know which to choose, 32 or 64,* then you
+    can find out by clicking on the start menu, *right clicking* on the
+    "Computer" icon or "My Computer" icon (depending on your version of
+    Windows, and then selecting "Properties." Somewhere among the information
+    about your computer it should tell you if you're running a *32 bit
+    architecture* or *64 bit architecture*. I forget exactly the wording, but
+    look for a *32* or *64*.
+
+    You'll want to download the latest version. We make small changes all the
+    time, and a new version is uploadeded to that page for every change we
+    make. It's usually best to just get the latest.
+
+Okay, you've got a command prompt open. You've got The Overviewer downloaded.
+We're half way there!
+
+**Step 3:** Extract the Overviewer zip you downloaded.
+    This is easy. I assume you know how to unzip things. Unzip the contents to
+    somewhere you can find easily. You'll need to find it in the command
+    prompt. It may help to leave the window with the unzipped contents open so
+    you can remind yourself where it is.
+
+    *Keep all those files together!* They're all needed to run The Overviewer
+    (well except w9xpopen.exe. Unless you're running windows 95 lol!)
+
+**Step 4:** Navigate in the command prompt to the location of overviewer.exe
+    You remember that file you just extracted? Cool. We're going to *change
+    directory* to that directory with the command prompt. Bring the command
+    prompot window back up. The command we're going to use is called ``cd``, it
+    stands for ... *change directory*!
+
+    I'm going to illustrate this with an example. Let's say you extracted
+    Overviewer to the directory
+    ``c:\users\imauser\Downloads\overviewer-0.4.22-win64``. Here is exactly
+    what you'll type into the command prompt and then press enter::
+
+        cd c:\users\imauser\Downloads\overviewer-0.4.22-win64
+
+    Okay, did it work? Your command *prompt* should now have the *current
+    working directory* in it. If your prompt changed to the directory that you
+    just cd'd to, then your current directory changed successfully! You're ready
+    for the next step!
+
+Okay before we actually run Overviewer for real, let's do a checkpoint. You
+should have *cd*'d to the directory where overviewer.exe is. To test, type this
+in and you should see the help text print out::
+
+    overviewer.exe --help
+
+note the two hyphens before "help". You should see something like this:
+
+.. image:: overviewer_win_1.png
+
+The help text displays the *usage* of overviewer.exe, or the parameters it takes
+to run it.
+
+::
+
+    Usage:
+    overviewer.exe [OPTIONS] <World # / Name / Path to World> <tiles dest dir>
+
+Command line tool usage convention says that items in [square brackets] are
+*optional*, while items in <angled brackets> are *required*.