How to install GnuPlot on windows?

Question

A Unix (mac/Linux) user who has been forced to work on a windows machine here :)

I have scripted loads of work in GnuPlot and don't want to switch to other programs at this moment. I would appreciate if you could help me know how to install GnuPlot On windows (more specifically windows 10). questions:

1. I know there are two options according to this page, Cygwin and MinGW. which one is better?
2. I have MinGW installed and I know I need to install one of the options from this page but I don't know which one(s)! and how.
3. I have searched the internet but it seems most of the search results are for compiling. I don't want to go through compiling and all the hassle.
4. I tried installing the binary from this link, and when I try to run the program this is the error I get:

Unable to execute file:

C:\Program Files\gnuplot\bin\wgnuplot.exe

CreatProcess failed; Code267.

The directory name is invalid.

I would appreciate if you could give me very simple stepwise installation (1 2 3 ...), preferably with visuals, instructions.

P.S. A nice way to install Free, Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) on Windows and keep them updated, is to use package managers like Chocolatey. There is a GnuPlot chocolatey package here. Just install choco as instructed here. Then use choco install Gnuplot to have the software installed.

Answer 1

You don't have to install MinGW or Cygwin. Actually packages compiled in MinGW are compatible with Windows. Just download the binary of gnuplot from Their repo and you are good to go.

Additional points:

• When installing, check which terminals you want to set up; also check if you want the installer to add the PATH variable to your system. Also, create a desktop shortcut.
• After installation, you should see the desktop shortcut. Clicking on it should open a terminal-based gnuplot (which hopefully you are familiar with).

Please note that I have used the x11 terminal (you can get this working by installing xming). There are other options such as windows and qt terminals, but I am not an expert on using these.