**Note that installing all the development prerequisites and libraries will require about 30 GB of free disk space. Please ensure this space is available on your `C:` drive before proceeding.**
This guide assumes you are on a 64-bit system. You might need to manually search out alternate download links should you desire to build chatterino on a 32-bit system.
Download and install [Visual Studio 2017 Community](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/). In the installer, select "Desktop development with C++" and "Universal Windows Platform development".
Notes:
- This installation will take about 17 GB of disk space
- You do not need to sign in with a Microsoft account after setup completes. You may simply exit the login dialog.
## Boost
1. First, download a boost installer appropriate for your version of Visual Studio.
- Visit the downloads list [on Bintray](https://dl.bintray.com/boostorg/release/).
- Select the latest version from the list and navigate into the `binaries/` directory.
Visual Studio versions map as follows: `14.1` in the filename corresponds to MSVC 2017, `14.0` to 2015, `12.0` to 2013, `11` to 2012, `10` to 2010, `9` to 2008 and `8` to 2005. _Only Visual Studio 2015 and 2017 are supported. Please upgrade should you have an older installation._
**Convenience link for Visual Studio 2017: [Boost 1.68.0-MSVC-14.1](https://dl.bintray.com/boostorg/release/1.68.0/binaries/boost_1_68_0-msvc-14.1-64.exe)**
2. When prompted, install it to any arbitrary empty directory.
3. When prompted, copy the OpenSSL DLLs to "The OpenSSL binaries (/bin) directory".
4. Copy the OpenSSL 1.0 files from its `/bin` folder to `C:/local/bin` (You will need to create the folder)
5. Then copy the OpenSSL 1.1 files from its `/bin` folder to `C:/local/bin` (Overwrite any duplicate files)
6. Add `C:/local/bin` to your path folder ([Follow guide here if you don't know how to do it]( https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000549.htm#windows8))
- Creating/linking an account with your Qt installation is entirely optional, you may simply click "Skip" in the installer instead of entering any information.
- Installing the latest Qt version is advised for new installations, but if you want to use your existing installation please ensure you are running **Qt 5.10 or later**.
4. Under the "Tools" tree element (at the bottom), ensure that `Qt Creator X.X.X` and `Qt Creator X.X.X CDB Debugger Support` are selected. (they should be checked by default)
5. Continue through the installer and let the installer finish installing Qt.
Note: This installation will take about 2 GB of disk space.
## Compile with Breakpad support (Optional)
Compiling with Breakpad support enables crash reports that can be of use for developing/beta versions of Chatterino. If you have no interest in reporting crashes anyways, this optional dependency will probably be of no use to you.
1. Open up `lib/qBreakpad/handler/handler.pro`in Qt Creator
2. Build it in whichever mode you want to build Chatterino in (Debug/Profile/Release)
3. Copy the newly built `qBreakpad.lib` to the following directory: `lib/qBreakpad/build/handler` (You will have to manually create this directory)
## Run the build in Qt Creator
1. Open the `chatterino.pro` file by double-clicking or by opening it via Qt Creator.
2. You will be presented with a screen that is titled "Configure Project". In this screen, you should have at least one option present ready to be configured, like this:
Build results will be placed in a folder at the same level as the "chatterino2" project folder (e.g. if your sources are at `C:\Users\example\src\chatterino2`, then the build will be placed in an automatically generated folder under `C:\Users\example\src`, e.g. `C:\Users\example\src\build-chatterino-Desktop_Qt_5_11_2_MSVC2017_64bit-Release`.)
- Note that if you are building chatterino purely for usage, not for development, it is recommended that you click the "PC" icon above the play icon and select "Release" instead of "Debug".
If you build chatterino, the result directories will contain a `chatterino.exe` file in the `$OUTPUTDIR\release\` directory. This `.exe` file will not directly run on any given target system, because it will be lacking various Qt runtimes.
To produce a standalone package, you need to generate all required files using the tool `windeployqt`. This tool can be found in the `bin` directory of your Qt installation, e.g. at `C:\Qt\5.11.2\msvc2017_64\bin\windeployqt.exe`.
To produce all supplement files for a standalone build, follow these steps (adjust paths as required):
1. Navigate to your build output directory with windows explorer, e.g. `C:\Users\example\src\build-chatterino-Desktop_Qt_5_11_2_MSVC2017_64bit-Release`
2. Enter the `release` directory
3. Delete all files except the `chatterino.exe` file. You should be left with a directory only containing `chatterino.exe`.
4. Open a `cmd` window and execute:
cd C:\Users\example\src\build-chatterino-Desktop_Qt_5_11_2_MSVC2017_64bit-Release\release
You can now create a zip archive of all the contents in `releases` and distribute the program as is, without requiring any development tools to be present on the target system. (However, the vcredist package must be present, as usual - see the [README](REAMDE.md)).
