# CLion on Windows, basic setup **URL:** \ **Category:** General JUCE discussion\ **Created:** [December 1, 2019, 5:23pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/clion-on-windows-basic-setup/36451 "2019-12-01T17:23:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nikolaiaudios](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/77aa72/32.png) [@nikolaiaudios](https://forum.juce.com/u/nikolaiaudios)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2019, 5:23pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/clion-on-windows-basic-setup/36451/1 "2019-12-01T17:23:24Z")
Hi I’m using Clion on OSX, and it works great. I would like to use Clion also on windows, but there I have some issues making it work. I am probably missing some key components. I have installed the latest version of clion. I have added a Clion exporter in Projucer, but it is greyed out. I have added a code::blocks exporter (as I read that this is where the clion exporter gets its settings) I have Visual Studio installed, and working fine. What else do I need? Is there a guide I can follow? ---
**Author:** ![mcmartin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/mcmartin/32/7432_2.png) [@mcmartin](https://forum.juce.com/u/mcmartin)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2019, 9:34pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/clion-on-windows-basic-setup/36451/2 "2019-12-01T21:34:25Z")
Hi @Nikolai, If you want to use the CLion exporter of Projucer on Windows, you need a port of gcc for Windows (commonly called “MinGW”). The easiest way to get it is to install the [Code::Blocks](http://www.codeblocks.org/) IDE, which bundles that compiler. You can also get gcc for Windows (without installing the Code::Blocks IDE) from: - [the MinGW project](http://www.mingw.org/) - [the Mingw-w64 project](http://mingw-w64.org/) - [the MSYS2 project](https://www.msys2.org/) If you want to use CLion with the MSVC compiler (which comes with Visual Studio), you can’t use the CLion exporter of Projucer. You can try using [FRUT](https://github.com/McMartin/FRUT) (I’m the author), to convert your `.jucer` project into a CMake project, and then open it in CLion. I don’t use CLion, so I can’t guarantee that it would work, but I’m happy to help (here, via PM, or on GitHub) if you get into issues. I hope this helps! ---
**Author:** ![adamwilson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/adamwilson/32/1387_2.png) [@adamwilson](https://forum.juce.com/u/adamwilson)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2019, 11:02pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/clion-on-windows-basic-setup/36451/3 "2019-12-01T23:02:55Z")
Does anyone else find compilation using MinGW on Windows achingly slow? Any tips on improving compile times? ---
**Author:** ![nikolaiaudios](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/77aa72/32.png) [@nikolaiaudios](https://forum.juce.com/u/nikolaiaudios)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 7:51pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/clion-on-windows-basic-setup/36451/4 "2019-12-03T19:51:03Z")
Thank you. I will try to go down the msvc road. ---
**Author:** ![rbuskov](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/rbuskov/32/7408_2.png) [@rbuskov](https://forum.juce.com/u/rbuskov)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 12:01pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/clion-on-windows-basic-setup/36451/5 "2019-12-05T12:01:31Z")
I use FRUT with CLion and I can only recommend this approach… much better than the projucer target in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![eyalamir](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/eyalamir/32/2978_2.png) [@eyalamir](https://forum.juce.com/u/eyalamir)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 2:00pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/clion-on-windows-basic-setup/36451/6 "2019-12-05T14:00:55Z")
Can you please explain what’s easier/works better in the FRUT generated version compared to the Projucer CLion exporter? ---
**Author:** ![adamwilson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/adamwilson/32/1387_2.png) [@adamwilson](https://forum.juce.com/u/adamwilson)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 4:06pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/clion-on-windows-basic-setup/36451/7 "2019-12-05T16:06:27Z")
I imagine because it can use the MSVC compiler instead of GCC… ? ---
**Author:** ![eyalamir](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/eyalamir/32/2978_2.png) [@eyalamir](https://forum.juce.com/u/eyalamir)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 8:53am UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/clion-on-windows-basic-setup/36451/8 "2019-12-06T08:53:06Z")
At least last time I checked (I use CLion mostly on Mac), you couldn’t use the debugger with MSVC, so that option wasn’t very effective. ---
**Author:** ![PluginPenguin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/pluginpenguin/32/10203_2.png) [@PluginPenguin](https://forum.juce.com/u/PluginPenguin)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 10:25am UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/clion-on-windows-basic-setup/36451/9 "2019-12-06T10:25:36Z")
> [@eyalamir](#): > > At least last time I checked (I use CLion mostly on Mac), you couldn’t use the debugger with MSVC I had the same experience. However since Visual Studio supports CMake as an alternative project format, I loaded my CMake based projects directly in Visual Studio to do some windows debugging, which worked unexpectedly straightforward out of the box. However those were hand-written CMake files that I developed with CLion on MacOS and Linux, no Projucer generated CLion Projects ---
**Author:** ![rbuskov](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/rbuskov/32/7408_2.png) [@rbuskov](https://forum.juce.com/u/rbuskov)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 12:10pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/clion-on-windows-basic-setup/36451/10 "2019-12-08T12:10:27Z")
> [@eyalamir](#): > > Can you please explain what’s easier/works better in the FRUT generated version compared to the Projucer CLion exporter? With FRUT, you can modify the build as you wish… add targets for test projects and what not. I’m taking advantage of this now while I’m building my first plugin, and I imagine it will become even more usefull when I start setting up CI/CD pipelines for various formats and platforms. With the projucer, any change you make will be overwritten. I think the Projucer is a great starting point if you are new to audio development (like I was) but it doesn’t support professional software engineering practices. I work mostly on a Mac and and I don’t think I have had the need to debug on Windows since I switched to FRUT. Loading the CMake file in Visual studio sounds like a good way to go though.