[gcc] how to install gcc on windows 7 machine?

I have MinGW on my windows 7 machine. I wish to install and use complete gcc for C compiler. I found there is no single pre-compiled ready-made installation file for this purpose. I checked the following page : http://gcc.gnu.org/install/ It is difficult and I find it above my level of understanding. Could any one please provide me step by step guidance along with links?

1. Extract the package to C:\ from here and install it

2. Copy the path C:\MinGW\bin which contains gcc.exe.

3. go to Control Panel->System->Advanced>Environment variables, and add or modify PATH. (just concatenate with ';')

4. Then, open a cmd.exe command prompt (Windows + R and type cmd, if already opened, please close and open a new one, to get the path change)

5. change the folder to your file path by cd D:\c code Path

6. type gcc main.c -o helloworld.o. It will compile the code. for C++ use g++

7 type ./helloworld to run the program.

If zlib1.dll is missing, download from here

I use msysgit to install gcc on Windows, it has a nice installer which installs most everything that you might need. Most devs will need more than just the compiler, e.g. the shell, shell tools, make, git, svn, etc. msysgit comes with all of that. https://msysgit.github.io/

edit: I am now using msys2. Msys2 uses pacman from Arch Linux to install packages, and includes three environments, for building msys2 apps, 32-bit native apps, and 64-bit native apps. (You probably want to build 32-bit native apps.)

https://msys2.github.io/

You could also go full-monty and install code::blocks or some other gui editor that comes with a compiler. I prefer to use vim and make.

Download mingw-get and simply issue:

mingw-get install gcc.

See the Getting Started page.

Following up on Mat's answer (use Cygwin), here are some detailed instructions for : installing gcc on Windows The packages you want are gcc, gdb and make. Cygwin installer lets you install additional packages if you need them.