First Steps:

1. We need to download the Mingw-64 from here. The images of the correct choices and the downloading of file are given for illustration.

Next Steps:

1. After the download has happened, it is important to understand how does VScode support compiling, executing and debugging a C/C++ file.
2. The Vs code needs to be made aware of the libraries available to provide intellisense and other benefits to the entire process. This is ensured by the c_cpp_properties.json file that has details about the libraries and files required to run a .cpp or .c file. ( covered in Setting up Libraries section )
3. The action of compiling and execution for a C/C++ file are commands entered via command line ( powershell or normal command line for windows ). This is ensured by the tasks.json file in the VScode. ( covered in Setting up compilation commands section ).
4. The debugging of C/C++ programs using a GUI can be arranged using the file launch.json. ( covered in Setting up a debugging configuration section).

Setting Up Libraries

1. First of all, verify if after installation of Mingw, you can navigate to the include folder easily in your choice of directory. For this example, the Mingw has been installed on Desktop, in a folder called Mingw.
2. The usual path is ..//lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/7.2.0/include/c++ where initial directory is denoted by ..// .
3. In the simplest c_cpp_properties.json, there is a json object with two properties, configurations and versions

4. The configurations object holds configurations for different environments, viz. Linux, Mac and Win32. For Linux and Mac, this file is automatically populated as the c/c++ libraries come pre-installed. In case of Windows, this configuration has to be manually filled. An example of such config is as below.

5. Here the Mingw library is installed in the Desktop and relevant libraries are included in the configuration.

Setting up compilation commands

1. Now after setting up the libraries it is time to write and run some code. So following is a very simple program to print the sum, difference and product of two numbers.

2. Now to run this program, first we should enter a path variable as follows, add the following Path to the environment variables as shown below. This is true for the system I am using, you should modify the path accordingly.

Path: C:\Users\i323460\Desktop\Mingw\mingw64\bin

3. Before moving forward, just check if you can execute the g++ command from the command prompt.

4. Now the way to compile a cpp file named hello_add.cpp is as follows.

g++ hello_add.cpp -o hello_add.exe

But in order to debug the file, the command is modified to following, to enable debugging. ( More information here ).

g++ -g hello_add.cpp -o hello_add.exe

The generated file, hello_add.exe is execute by the following command.

./hello_add.exe

This is a convention to name the executable and the .cpp file with same name in this post.

5. Now the above 2 commands need not be run every time there. VSCode provides a concept of task which is a set of commands that can be run via keyboard shortcuts and need to be configured.

6. This configuration is done in the tasks.json file.

7. The following command is executed every time for the file hello_add.cpp. To understand this completely , refer to this link.

g++ -g hello_add.cpp -o hello_add.exe ; ./hello_add.exe

8. To run the command, press Ctrl+ Shift + B. Following results are obtained. Make sure you are in the pane of hello_add.cpp .

Setting up the debugging configuration

1. Now that we have seen the way to write and run C code in VSCode, we should check how to debug it.
2. A new file named launch.json is created. Its contents are as follows.

3. The “name” property of the launch is “(gdb) launch” and it is used to identify the debug configuration. The other property values are self explanatory and mostly defaults, except the “miDebuggerPath” which points to the gdb.exe file in the Mingw folder.

4. To start debugging, put a break point by clicking in the left of any line and select the debug button.

5. The debugger is run and break-point is obtained at the expected position and thus the program can be debugged.

Hence this concludes the exercise of setting up a GUI debugger and a development environment for C/C++ development on Windows. This setup is pretty basic and it is not intended for large complex projects for which better tools are available. Mostly some simple C/C++ code can be run/debugged via this setup. Nonetheless, this provides a very conclusive base for getting started with C/C++ development in a Windows environment. Since this is my first post, any advice, comments, suggestions etc. are truly welcome.