The OpenJDK 7 build process on the Windows platform has undertaken major improvements in comparison to Version 6. Despite that, the build environment setup is still much more complex than on Linux and Mac OS X. Much of the complexity of the build comes from its usage of a Unix-like build environment through Cygwin tools.

The official compiler requirement for i586 builds is Microsoft Visual Studio C++ 2010 Professional Edition. The Express Edition of Visual Studio 2010 also may be used for the i586 build. While this edition is free (as in "free beer") it has an evaluation period of 30 days and requires registration after that. While registration is also free, this requirement may be problematic for some usage scenarios (for example, automated build services).

Instead of Visual Studio 2010, we will use Microsoft Windows SDK Version 7.1 for Windows 7. This SDK is also available for free from the Microsoft website and may be used without registration...