A quick table of freely available compilers capable of targeting Windows. Digital Mars C/C++ and MinGW (GCC), not listed here, may also be an option.
| Compiler | Version | Limitations/Notes | Download
| Visual C++
| 2003
| Visual C++ 2003 Toolkit + Windows Server 2003 SP1 Platform SDK
provides most of what you need to build Win32 applications and can
target Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0. It only supports using the
statically linked C Runtime (/MT) and doesn't include cvtres.exe but
Microsoft had the Visual Studio 97 SP3 version of that available for
download which may be sufficient
|
Visual C++ 2003 Toolkit | Windows Server 2003 SP1 Platform SDK cvtres.exe update for Visual Studio 97 SP3 Visual C++
| 2008
| Available in the Windows SDK 7.0
| DVD ISOs
| Visual C++
| 2010
| Available in the Windows SDK 7.1
| DVD ISOs
| OpenWatcom
| 1.9
| Suports DOS, Win16, Win32 and OS/2. Plus NetWare if you've got an SDK.
Previous versions
also available
| Download | Manuals |