Installing the GLFW library in Windows

There are two ways to install the GLFW library in Windows, both of which will be discussed in this section. The first approach involves compiling the GLFW source code directly with CMake for full control. However, to simplify the process, we suggest that you download the precompiled binary distribution.

Getting ready

We assume that you have successfully installed both Visual Studio 2013 and CMake, as described in the earlier section. For completeness, we will demonstrate how to install GLFW using CMake.

How to do it...

To use the precompiled binary package for GLFW, follow these steps:

1. Create the C:/Program Files (x86)/glfw-3.0.4 directory. Grant the necessary permissions when prompted.
2. Download the glfw-3.0.4.bin.WIN32.zip package from http://sourceforge.net/projects/glfw/files/glfw/3.0.4/glfw-3.0.4.bin.WIN32.zip and unzip the package.
3. Copy all the extracted content inside the glfw-3.0.4.bin.WIN32 folder (for example, include lib-msvc2012) into the C:/Program Files (x86)/glfw-3.0.4 directory. Grant permissions when prompted.
4. Rename the lib-msvc2012 folder to lib inside the C:/Program Files (x86)/glfw-3.0.4 directory. Grant permissions when prompted.

Alternatively, to compile the source files directly, follow these procedures:

1. Download the source package from http://sourceforge.net/projects/glfw/files/glfw/3.0.4/glfw-3.0.4.zip and unzip the package on the desktop. Create a new folder called build inside the extracted glfw-3.0.4 folder to store the binaries.and open cmake-gui.
2. Select glfw-3.0.4 (from the desktop) as the source directory and glfw-3.0.4/build as the build directory. The screenshot is shown as follows:
   
3. Click on Generate and select Visual Studio 12 2013 in the prompt.
   
4. Click on Generate again.
   
5. Open the build directory and double-click on GLFW.sln to open Visual Studio.
6. In Visual Studio, click Build Solution (press F7).
7. Copy build/src/Debug/glfw3.lib to C:/Program Files (x86)/glfw-3.0.4/lib.
8. Copy the include directory (inside glfw-3.0.4/include) to C:/Program Files (x86)/glfw-3.0.4/.

After this step, we should have the include (glfw3.h) and library (glfw3.lib) files inside the C:/Program Files (x86)/glfw-3.0.4 directory, as shown in the setup procedure using precompiled binaries.