@arsenetar Thanks! I'll set myself up with a windows 7 VM and try it. As for x86 and x64, you mean that we would need to supply one package per arch? I'm fine with that.

I hope to find the time to do that before next week.

@hsoft You would need one package per arch, but what I had meant was that if you installed both x86 and x64 versions they would conflict over some registry keys and if installed for just one user the default installation directory. I need to look over my plans for negating this to make sure they make sense before I implement them. The solution is basically to use different registry keys (for installation information), different default install location when not installed machine wide, and a different uninstall entry. I am not sure when I will get to it and wanted to keep this moving forward as the application is working and most people probably do not install both versions on the same machine.

What do you use to provide make to your windows environment? I know that there's tons of programs like cygwin, msys32 and others but I'm not sure of which is needed to build something that works. Could this be added to the Dependencies section?

I was using msys2 when using make msys and other versions should work as well but I did not test them. I did mention it in the Windows.md file. However, I found it easier to just forego using make and run the respective commands instead.

Oops, I did not even read the whole thing. I only saw make and the lack of prerequisite that provide it. Sorry.

I get an error during build:

Building PE Modules
running build_ext
building '_block' extension
creating build\temp.win-amd64-3.6
creating build\temp.win-amd64-3.6\Release
creating build\temp.win-amd64-3.6\Release\core
creating build\temp.win-amd64-3.6\Release\core\pe
creating build\temp.win-amd64-3.6\Release\core\pe\modules
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\BIN\x86_amd64\cl.exe /c /
nologo /Ox /W3 /GL /DNDEBUG /MD -IC:\Users\win7\src\dupeguru\env\include -IC:\Us
ers\win7\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\include -IC:\Users\win7\AppData\
Local\Programs\Python\Python36\include "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visua
l Studio 14.0\VC\INCLUDE" "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\include\sha
red" "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\include\um" "-IC:\Program Files
(x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\include\winrt" /Tccore\pe\modules\block.c /Fobuild\temp.w
in-amd64-3.6\Release\core\pe\modules\block.obj
block.c
c:\users\win7\appdata\local\programs\python\python36\include\pyconfig.h(59): fat
al error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'io.h': No such file or directory
error: command 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\\VC\\BIN\\
x86_amd64\\cl.exe' failed with exit status 2

I've installed Visual Studio 2015 build tools and python 3.6, amd64.

Also, shouldn't Visual Studio be listed as a dependency? Python is particularly picky about VS versions. There should be better instructions about which one to choose, where to download it, etc..

Yeah, I will get some updates on that, I have had that part setup for quite some time and had not thought about it. I was building with 3.5 as well on my machines, not sure if that ends up making a difference. I will look at that. It looks like they might be recommending Visual Studio 2017 build tools now, but I had used 2015 just fine. Since I have both the windows 10 sdk and windows 8.1 sdk it seems like my builds of those modules are using the windows 10 sdk.

Just tested 3.6 x64 bit and it seems to work fine on my system for the build again, I know we are not using exactly the same versions but from what I can tell either sdk should work. I also finally had the chance to run the installer and program on a windows 7 computer and it seems to be working fine there as well. It did have the Visual C++ Redistributables already installed, which I wonder if those would cause issues if absent even though the packaging bundles the dll.

I haven't tried it again, but could it simply be that I ran from cmd.exe instead of the command line from VS ( https://stackoverflow.com/a/43098806 )? If yes, it might be worth mentioning in the docs.

Possible, mine works without needing that, I think python's setuptools should call the respective visual studio bits from my understanding. I've had something like that happen before outside of python but I don't remember the solution... I might have reinstalled the visual studio tools and sdks.

I can't believe how long it is to install all updates on a win7 machine. And then comes the VS build tools which also takes forever!

And now I have cryptic linking error. grrr! I give up. I already spent hours on this and I hate myself for having wasted this time in Windows.

Would you mind supplying builds yourself? There's still a trust issue due to the fact that I don't know you, but what the hell, I'll host it anyway with a "at your own risk" notice.

I have no problem supplying builds. Yeah, I had issues at work with getting windows 7 all setup for building software. Luckily windows 10 seems to have less issues for me, still doesn't beat Linux though.

Thanks! Then I'd be ready to merge and wait for your builds for v4.0.3 (I think my email server will handle this size). Just a couple of questions:

1. I was planning on eventually phasing out build.py entirely and only have a Makefile approach. I see that you consider the make approach an alternative rather than the main way to build. Would that be a big problem for you if we got rid of build.py?
2. Considering that I prefer to avoid Windows, would you mind being assigned all windows-related issues?

Also: you mentioned earlier problems with x86 and amd64 running together. Considering that, IIRC, Windows installs in 64-bit by default since v7, I wouldn't even bother building a x86 version. If you want to, fine, but if that was me, I wouldn't bother.

1. That would probably work out, would you be keeping package.py? I have found build.py to be easier just since it does not need msys2 and just seemed to work more consistently for me when I was initially getting everything working (it might have just been how I was doing stuff though). Just have to keep in mind depending on what changes are needed to phase out to just the Makefile, there might be additional things in the makefile to handle some windows differences.
2. That should be fine, I should probably take a look at them to see what is all there.

I can build a x86 version as it is pretty quick to do so no big deal there, but yeah most people are probably running x64 by now.

Yes, package.py will stay.

As for issues, they're not very well labeled. I've labeled "Windows" anything that had a windows traceback, but most of them are probably not windows-specific.

I don't think that there's many windows-specific tasks in the backlog. My question was more in reference of possible future windows-specific issues. I'll assign them to you if they arise.

Just commenting I cleaned up my master to fix how I was doing PRs. Changes which made this PR up are now in https://github.com/arsenetar/dupeguru/tree/393. This is probably not needed as they are preserved here. But just in case I have moved them there.