Ok, i searched my system for vimrc exmaples and found one and copied it to my root as .vimrc.
Code:
if &t_Co > 2 || has("gui_running")
syntax on
set hlsearch
endif
It has this code in it which is apparently for color syntax highlighting but it's still not working...Either that if statement failed or something else is wrong. Could it be my ssh client (putty) settings? Also, if i ever do get this working, what kind of files will this syntax highlighting work for?