- Git - [Git for Windows] (https://git-scm.com/install/windows)
Download and install Visual Studio 2022 or Visual Studio 2026.
We recommend the free Community edition.
During installation, select the Desktop development with C++ workload.
- Download openFrameworks 0.12.1 or later from the download page or from github.
- If you got openFrameworks from git: https://github.com/openframeworks/openFrameworks
- Run
scripts/android/download_libs.shto download libraries. - Use the Project Generator to generate Visual Studio project files for examples.
- Run
If missing any libraries or want to update them run the script at vs/scripts/
- download_libs.sh
- Open the Project Generator (ofxImGui interface).
- Enter your Project name.
- Choose your Project path.
- Under Platforms, select Windows (Visual Studio).
- Under Template:
- For Visual Studio 2022 → leave the Template field empty (default)
- For Visual Studio 2026 → select
vs2026from the dropdown
- Click Generate.
You can run by clicking Open in IDE in Project Generator or Open Folder to access directory.
Your project solution file is located at:
openFrameworks/apps/[yourFolder]/[projectName]/[projectName].sln
Double-click the .sln file to open it in the matching version of Visual Studio (2022 or 2026).
Press F5 to build and run in Debug mode.
- Debug — best while developing (full error info).
- Release — smaller and faster (use when finished).
Switch between them using the dropdown at the top of Visual Studio.
- Targets are x86_64 - x64 - Default Windows
- ARM64 - for arm64 processors (native arm)
- ARM64EC - a mixture of both x64/arm64 for Windows 11
Hit Esc to close the window, then edit your code in src/ofApp.cpp and src/ofApp.h.
