How To Setup Eclipse for C/C++ development on Windows

1. Download Eclipse for C/C++ Developers

   Be careful to get the Windows version. Some of us, including me, would have appreciated this advice earlier.

2. Download Nuwen’s special MinGW distribution

   This is a great MinGW distribution that adds a lot of useful libraries, including C++ Boost Libraries.

3. Extract the Eclipse ZIP file to a directory with no spaces.

   I recommend something like:

   C:\eclipse\

4. Now extract the MinGW ZIP file to a directory, again: no spaces.

   C:\MinGW\

5. Now you need to add MinGW’s bin folder to the System’s Path.
   • Go to Control Panel > System, select the Advanced tab and then click on the Environment Variables button.
   • On the System Variables list, select the Path variable and clic the edit button.
   • Be careful to add at the end of the current string ;C:\MinGW\bin (Don’t forget the starting semicolon).
6. Run Eclipse.
   Open the folder where you extracted Eclipse and run the eclipse.exe file.
7. Create a new C++ project.
   On Eclipse, go to File > New > C++ Project. On the Toolchains list you should see now MinGW GCC on the list.