Windows

When preparing your Windows machine, you have to decide between either using the MSVC toolchain or the GNU toolchain. If in doubt, go for MSVC since that is the default on Windows. You will want to go for the GNU toolchain if you depend on libraries that can only be compiled with the GNU toolchain.

MSVC toolchain

Install Rustup

Install the rust toolchain via rustup.

Remove residues from the GNU toolchain

If you used the GNU toolchain before, make sure to revert all changes you made to environment variables during the installation process.

Also set the rust toolchain back to msvc by executing:

rustup default stable-msvc

Visual Studio

Install Visual Studio Community from visualstudio.microsoft.com. Make sure to check the box "Desktop development with C++" during the installation process.

Git

Download git from gitforwindows.org.

Python

Download python from python.org. Make sure to opt-in to adding Python to your Path during the installation process.

Meson

Install meson by executing:

pip install meson ninja

Pkg-config

Download pkg-config-lite from sourceforge.net. Then extract and unpack it in C:/, so that the executable is in C:\pkg-config-lite-0.28-1\bin.

Update Path environment variable

  1. Go to settings -> Search and open Advanced system settings -> Click on Environment variables
  2. Select Path -> Click on Edit -> Add the following entries:
C:\pkg-config-lite-0.28-1\bin
C:\gnome\bin

Compile and install GTK 4

From the Windows start menu, search for x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2019. That will open a terminal configured to use MSVC x64 tools. From there, run the following commands:

cd /
git clone https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk.git --depth 1
cd gtk
meson setup builddir --prefix=C:/gnome -Dbuild-tests=false -Dmedia-gstreamer=disabled
meson install -C builddir

Set PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable

  1. Go to settings -> Search and open Advanced system settings -> Click on Environment variables
  2. Under User variables click on New and add:
  • Variable name: PKG_CONFIG_PATH
  • Variable value: C:\gnome\lib\pkgconfig

GNU toolchain

Install Rustup

Install the rust toolchain via rustup.

Remove residues from the MSVC toolchain

If you used the MSVC toolchain before, make sure to revert all changes you made to environment variables during the installation process.

MSYS2

Install MSYS2 from www.msys2.org

Install GTK 4

From the Windows start menu, search for MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit. That will open a terminal configured to use MinGW x64 tools.

There, execute the following commands to install GTK 4, pkgconf and gcc.

pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-gtk4 mingw-w64-x86_64-pkgconf mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc

Update Path environment variable

  1. Go to settings -> Search and open Advanced system settings -> Click on Environment variables
  2. Select Path -> Click on Edit -> Add the following three entries:
C:\msys64\mingw64\include
C:\msys64\mingw64\bin
C:\msys64\mingw64\lib

Setup the GNU toolchain for Rust

The default toolchain on windows is stable-msvc. To switch to stable-gnu, run the following commands from your terminal:

  1. rustup toolchain install stable-gnu
  2. rustup default stable-gnu

Please note that this command might change in the future. If it does not work anymore, please open an issue on our repo.