MinGW vs MSVC

For Windows, Strawberry provides two different versions, MinGW and MSVC.

It's basically two different builds using two different compilers, MSVC is Microsoft Visual C++ while the other one is from a free software project called GNU ported to Windows.

Both releases use the current latest versions of libraries such as Qt, OpenSSL, Glib and GStreamer.

MSVC - Microsoft Visual C++

MSVC is Microsoft Visual C++, a proprietary compiler by Microsoft.

• Requires Microsoft Visual C++ runtime (redistributable).
• Has GStreamer WASAPI2 support.
• Has experimental ASIO support.
• Has Spotify support.
• More unlikely to be picked up by anti-virus software as false-positive.

When using the MSVC version, always make sure you have up-to-date Visual C++ runtime (Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable). If not, Strawberry will crash on start, or can crash later in the program. You get get the latest version here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170#latest-microsoft-visual-c-redistributable-version Usually it's automatically installed through the Strawberry installer, but it won't be installed automatically if you already have the Visual C++ runtime, and an older version might cause instability.

MinGW-W64 - Minimal GCC for Windows

MinGW is a port of GCC to Windows. GCC is a free compiler by the GNU Project, usually found on all major Linux distributions.

• Debug version of the setups are available and includes the GDB debugger which makes debugging a crash easier.
• Lacks WSAPI exclusive mode and ASIO support.
• No spotify support.
• More likely to be picked up by anti-virus software as false-positive.

None of them currently has device and CD-support.