# Windows Compilation Instructions

**NOTE: Outdated. Windows users should be just fine following along with instructions on the main README.**

Compiling on Windows requires access to the MinGW toolchain. The easiest way to get the necessary libraries is by installing [MSYS2](https://www.msys2.org/) which provides a package manager: pacman.

1. Download the latest version of MSYS2 from [here](https://www.msys2.org/).

2. Open the Start Menu and launch "MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit" to open a terminal window.

3. Run `pacman -Syu` until all packages are up to date

4. From here, follow the Unix instructions. The command to install dependencies in MSYS2 is

```
$ pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc mingw-w64-x86_64-ncurses make
```

5. (optional) Embedding an icon will require the `windres` tool. This is enabled by default, but can be disabled as part of the configuration:

```
$ ./configure --disable-embed-icon
```

Open File Explorer in the current directory (can be done by running `explorer .` in MSYS2 terminal) and double click the generated executable in `src/` to run the program. If your MSYS2 `/bin` is set in your system PATH (see below), then you can also follow the Unix installation instructions to install `terminal-media-launcher` on your Windows system.

## Resolving Missing .dll Files

You may receive an error message upon trying to run the compiled executable that looks something like this:

```
The code execution cannot proceed because
libwinpthread-1.dll was not found. Reinstalling the program
may fix this problem
```

This is usually the result of the MSYS2 MinGW libraries not being in your PATH. There are generally two ways to fix this problem:

### 1. Edit PATH (Recommended)

Add the following entry to your PATH environment variable: `C:\msys64\mingw64\bin` (replace `C:\msys64` with the location that MSYS2 was installed to). This will help Windows to find the library it thinks it is missing and the program should now lauch without an error.

### 2. Compile with -static flag

If you do not want to edit your PATH, you can simply compile statically. Keep in mind that this will increase the size of your executable.

1. Run `make clean`

2. Run `make CC="gcc -static"`

The resulting executable should launch without an error

---

These instructions were written with 64-bit architecture in mind. Although I have not tested on a 32-bit architecture, I suppose these instructions would also work, as long as you replace every reference to `64` with `32`

---

## Building an Installer

Support for building an NSIS installer is in development (it currently will not work, as it is missing the installation of certain dependencies).

1. First, follow the above instructions to compile the project
2. Run `cd nsis && make installer`
    - You may want to specify a path to search for dlls that the project depends on. To do so, pass an argument to the make command, for example: `make installer SEARCHPATH="/usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/bin"`
3. Run the generated `nsis/terminal-media-launcher-Setup.exe` file

Please note that support for building a Windows installer is still experimental!