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Submitted by Xenoveritas on
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Compiling Mozilla under Windows requires a C++ compiler. Previously the only way to compile Mozilla under Windows without having to pay big bucks for the Visual C++ environment was to use the free Cygwin utilities, but those didn't include all the features that Microsoft's compiler did and didn't offer all the features that Mozilla has to offer under Windows.

Microsoft has since released the build environment (but not the GUI tools) to allow developers to write software under Windows without paying large amounts of money for Visual Studio. However, the process for doing this is fairly poorly explained. (And for good reason, it's long, annoying, and impossible unless you do some extra credit which is dubiously legal.)

Before you can compile Mozilla, you will need to install a few pieces of Microsoft software.

First, let's grab the C++ compiler itself.
Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003

Next, you'll need to go to the Platform SDK download page, which is listed in the Related Downloads.
Platform SDK Update

If you're already using Mozilla, you'll be told you need IE 5.0 or higher. But there'll be two options below; pick the one appropriate for your system (which is most likely the XP SP2 full SDK option).

If you decide to just use IE, then you'll go to the Platform SDK Update page. Choose the platform that's right for you (most likely Windows XP SP2 SDK), and hit "Install XPSP2 SDK." (Or you can choose the "download FULL" option, which is exactly the same as Mozilla users will have to choose.)

Next up you'll need Cygwin. The Mozilla build system is based around UNIX utilities, which Cygwin provides.
Cygwin

You'll need to make sure the following packages are selected (they won't all be selected by default):

  • ash
  • coreutils
  • diffutils
  • findutils
  • gawk
  • grep
  • make
  • perl
  • sed
  • unzip
  • zip

I'd continue, but it's been five hours since I started writing this, and it still won't build.

Suffice it to say that you can't actually build it for free under Windows yet. *sigh*