Installing Qt and getting it to work - must you install MSVC2012 IDE?

Question

So, like many others I've found on the net, I have installed Qt (Qt 5.2.1 for Windows 64-bit (VS 2012, OpenGL, 553 MB)) and realized that I do not have the MSVC2012 compiler that was used to build this version of Qt.

I come here to ask, is it necessary to literally install the entire MSVC2012 IDE in order to get this version of Qt to work, or can I somehow just install the needed compiler? If so, where might that be available for download? I have done searches and cannot find just the compiler. I have found the compiler bundled with various other software that I do not think I need, but I do not want to go through great effort to find out that I made another mistake.

Alternatively, Qt compiled with minGW is also available, but only for 32 bit. I understand that some 32 bit programs will run on 64 bit machines, but how can you know for sure?

Answer 1

You can install Visual Studio 2012 Express which is free and contains the necessary compiler. After that, you have to also install Windows Kits to get the standalone debugger. Alternatively, you can install Windows 7.1 SDK which does not come with IDE but with compilers and debuggers. Windows 7.1 SDK correspond to Visual Studio 2010. But beware, Windows 7.1 SDK has many bugs, and I would not recommend it unless you are targeting Windows XP.

As for MinGW, yes you can also run 32bit programs on 64 bit, but I personally advise you against MinGW. Its integration with Windows is flaky, and its compile speed is far inferior to MSVC's.