In addition to Vim, you'll need PSCP (which you can download from ) and diff.exe. If you are using Pageant you will not even have to worry about passwords. Add to your vimrc: " paj using PSCP on Windows. Works best with Pageant. if ($OS =~ "Windows") let g:netrw_scp_cmd="\"c:\\Program Files\\PuTTY\\pscp.exe\" -q -batch" endif C:\>vim -d \path o\vimfiles\colors\primitive.vim scp://user@my.host/path/to/.vim/colors/primitive.vim