Windows 7 - 'make' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

Question

I have Windows 7 and tried to use the 'make' command but 'make' is not recognized as an internal or external command.

I did Start -> cmd -> run -> make, which outputs:

'make' is not recognized as an internal or external command,operable program or batch file.

Then I typed 'mingw32-make' instead of 'make' (Start -> cmd -> run -> mingw32-make) and I get the same output:

'mingw32-make' is not recognized as an internal or external command,operable program or batch file.

What shall I do next in order to fix this problem?

Answer 1

Your problem is most likely that the shell does not know where to find your make program. If you want to use it from "anywhere", then you must do this, or else you will need to add the full path each time you want to call it, which is quite cumbersome. For instance:

"c:\program files\gnuwin32\bin\make.exe" option1=thisvalue option2=thatvalue 

This is to be taken as an example, it used to look like something like this on XP, I can't say on W7. But gnuwin32 used to provide useful "linux-world" packages for Windows. Check details on your provider for make.

So to avoid entering the path, you can add the path to your PATH environment variable. You will find this easily. To make sure it is registered by the OS, open a console (run cmd.exe) and entering $PATH should give you a list of default pathes. Check that the location of your make program is there.

Answer 2

In Windows10, I solved this issue by adding C:\MinGW\bin to Path and then called it using MinGW32-make not make.