## Using the Windows installer

A pre-compiled version of MRtrix is available for Windows, provided and maintained by Ben Jeurissen. The installer can be found on the NITRC website, under the name `mrtrix-0.2.X-win32.exe`. Simply download and execute the file, then follow the on-screen instructions.

Note that this version is provided for convenience only, and there is no active development of MRtrix under Microsoft Windows. If you experience problems that are specific to this version, it is unlikely that we will be able to help.

If you do decide to use the Windows version, you may find it helpful to use a more Unix-like command interpreter than that provided by Microsoft. One decent such alternative is MSYS, although other good choices no doubt exist.

## Building from source

MRtrix can be built from source on Microsoft Windows using the MinGW compiler, although it is a much more challenging task than on Unix systems due primarily to the difficulty of finding appropriate versions of the dependencies. While we do not provide precise instructions for doing this here, the following information may prove helpful for users who wish to do so.

The following tools are required for the compilation process, and pre-compiled Windows versions are available for download:

- MinGW: http://www.mingw.org/
- Python 2.6: http://www.python.org/getit/windows/

Pre-compiled versions of the dependencies are also available for download:

- GTK: http://www.gtk.org/download-windows.html
- gtkmm: http://www.gtkmm.org/en/download.html
- GtkGLExt: http://sourceforge.net/projects/gtkglext/files/gtkglext/1.0.6/
- GSL: http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/gsl.htm

The compilation process involves the same steps as described in the Unix installation instructions.