Installing Microsoft C compiler (Visual Studio 2010 and older, or Windows SDK 7.1 and older)
The Microsoft C compiler is now freely available by downloading the Windows SDK. Below you will find a description on how to set up the Microsoft SDK so that you can compile C code on Windows.
Windows SDK
The first thing to do is to download the Windows SDK from Microsoft's web site: Windows SDK setup.exe
Configuring C compiler to compile from the command line
The only thing you need to do is to configure some environment variables. The best way to configure them is to use the `setenv.cmd' batch file included in the Windows SDK:
cmd.exe /V:ON /K "C:\apps\Windows\v6.0\bin\setenv.cmd" /Release
After executing this command you can invokes the C compiler. Note that the prompt will change color, you may want to use `color 07' to restore to the default white on black.
Replace c:\apps\Windows\v6.0 by the location where you installed the Windows SDK.