Introduction

This document explains how to compile AltDrag. There are two distinct parts that you have to compile separately, the 32-bit part and the 64-bit part.

Your first task is to download the AltDrag source code, instructions here.

Compiler

I use mingw-w64 to build AltDrag. Contrary to its name, there is also a 32-bit compiler available. You need the 32-bit toolchain to build 32-bit binaries, and the 64-bit toolchain to build 64-bit binaries. So if you want to build for both 32-bit and 64-bit, you will need to get both toolchains.

The mingw-w64 file download section is a mess, so to find the files you want, search for the prefix mingw-w32-1.0-bin_i686-mingw to get the correct 32-bit download and mingw-w64-1.0-bin_i686-mingw for the 64-bit download.

It doesn't matter where you extract them, but I usually use C:\mingw-w32 and C:\mingw-w64.

I previously used the normal MinGW to build the 32-bit part of AltDrag, but moved from it because they never update it anymore. Note that you should still be able to build the 32-bit part with MinGW, but you must modify build.bat. You do need mingw-w64 if you want to compile the 64-bit part.

Note that the mingw-w32 and mingw-w64 toolchains have prefixed binaries, e.g. the name of gcc for mingw-w32 is i686-w64-mingw32-gcc and for mingw-w64 is x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc. The normal MinGW binaries does not have any prefixes. This means that you can have MinGW, mingw-w32 and mingw-w64 installed and all three in PATH without any conflicts. It does make it a bit annoying to type manually though, but I have a build script that will make it easier.

Missing function definitions

Note that in previous versions of MinGW, there were some missing library definitions for the subclassing API. The latest version should be fine however. If you get errors about DefSubclassProc and RemoveWindowSubclass, be sure to check that you have the latest version.

Configure PATH

After downloading the compilers, you need to add them to the PATH variable so the build script can use the them. Do this by right clicking on the Computer desktop icon, go to the Advanced tab, press the Environment variables button, locate the PATH variable and add <mingw-w32 path>\bin to the list, and press ok on all the dialogs. If you want to build the 64-bit part, add mingw-w64 to the PATH as well.

Here is an example of my PATH variable: C:\mingw-w32\bin;C:\mingw-w64\bin

If you had the terminal open when you changed the PATH variable, you must restart it.

32-bit part

The 32-bit part is AltDrag.exe and hooks.dll. They are compiled by mingw-w32 or MinGW. To compile the 32-bit part run build.bat. It's convenient to run build in a terminal so you can see any error messages. You can also run build run to automatically run AltDrag after it has been built.

64-bit part

The 64-bit part is HookWindows_x64.exe and hooks_x64.dll. These files are only used if you enable HookWindows and are running x64. They need to be 64-bit so that they can hook into 64-bit processes. To compile them you must use mingw-w64. Run build x64 to build the files.

Note that AltDrag.exe and hooks.dll are not supposed to be compiled as 64-bit programs. You still need a 32-bit component to be able to use HookWindows for 32-bit processes, and because there is a prevalence of 32-bit programs that we use even on 64-bit Windows, it doesn't make sense to make AltDrag 64-bit only (yet).

GUI

The configuration dialog was made with ResEdit, a compact resource editor. ResEdit is not needed to build AltDrag.

Installer

To build the installer you need to download NSIS Unicode and the AccessControl plug-in. Put NSIS in PATH, then run build all in the terminal to automatically build the installer. Run build all x64 to build and include the 64-bit part in the installer.

Video walkthrough

If you don't get it working, it might help to watch this video. In it I explain how to compile another program of mine, SuperF4. These instructions should work just as well with AltDrag.

Add a comment if you need help.