Installing Mantid On Windows
From MantidProject
Before installing Mantid please ensure you have installed Python 2.5 (not a later version) from here.
Installing Mantid using the automated installer is then straightforward.
As one word of caution: please be careful and take note where Mantid proposes to install itself.
The installer will look for the drive with the most space free and this may be an external USB device. Installing and uninstalling from these devices is extremely slow.
Compiling your own algorithms
If you wish to compile your own C++ algorithms for use within Mantid then you will need to install additional software from Microsoft or have Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 with C++ installed.
Please note that later versions of visual studio will not work, including 2005 Service Pack 1
If you already have Visual Studio 2005, then you should be able to compile simply by double-clicking on the build.bat file in your MantidInstall\UserAlgorithms folder.
If you don't have Visual Studio you can download a free version of the Visual C++ Express 2005 compiler from here. The optional components are not required to compile algorithms, only if you wish to use Visual Studio's graphical code editor.
After installing this you also need to install the Windows® Server 2003 SP1 Platform SDK from here. Choose the appropriate installer for your system from the Files in This Download section. e.g. PSDK-x86.exe in most cases. (If you know what you are doing then you can avoid installing most of the components of this sdk and simply install the core routines to reduce the amount of disk space and speed up the installation.)
To do the compilation you need to go to your Start menu and select Programs -> Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2 -> Open Build Environment Window -> Windows XP 32-bit Build Environment -> Set Windows XP 32-bit Build Environment (Retail).
In the command window that appears, you need to navigate to enter cd C:\MantidInstall\UserAlgorithms (or wherever you Mantid installation is) followed by build.bat. The algorithms should then compile and install, and will be available the next time you start Mantid.
