GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) is a free and open source compiler for C and C++ (and other languages like Objective-C, Fortran, D). MinGW-w64 is a free and open source C library for targetting Windows 64-bit and 64-bit platforms. The combination of these results in a free C/C++ compiler for Windows. Even though GCC and MinGW-w64 can be used on other platforms (e.g. Linux) to generate Windows executables, the WinLibs project only focusses on building versions that run natively on Windows.

GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) is a free and open source compiler for C and C++ (and other languages like Objective-C, Fortran, D). MinGW-w64 is a free and open source C library for targetting Windows 64-bit and 64-bit platforms. The combination of these results in a free C/C++ compiler for Windows. Even though GCC and MinGW-w64 can be used on other platforms (e.g. Linux) to generate Windows executables, the WinLibs project only focusses on building versions that run natively on Windows.