Monday, January 24, 2011

3-min. Quickie: Compiling C++ Projects using only the Windows SDK and the Command Prompt

I have received a couple questions about "How do you build C++ projects in Windows without installing Visual Studio?".  This video demonstrates the process but to explain it in a couple short steps:

Download and Install the Windows SDK*
Open the Windows SDK command prompt**
Browse to your project folder
run "vcupgrade <projectname>.vcproj"
run "msbuild <projectname>.vcxproj

*Make sure that you check to enable the Windows Native Code Development section on the installer.
** Although it is not a best practice, I elevated my priviledges for the command prompt when I did the demo because I wanted to show that projects build right out of the SDK. Had I copied the folder to my desktop, I would not have needed to run the Windows SDK command prompt priviledged.

Read more: Channel9