MinGW vs MSVC

For Windows, Strawberry provides two different versions, MinGW and MSVC. These are compiled using two different compilers.

Unlike previous versions, the MinGW and MSVC now has all the same features, so it does not matter much which one you use.

Both releases features the latest versions of all libraries compiled by the Strawberry project. It always uses the latest versions of Qt 6, OpenSSL 3, Glib 2 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.

• More likely to be picked up by anti-virus software as false-positive.
• Debug versions of the setups are available and includes the GDB debugger.

None of them currently has device and CD-support.