Issues with compiling SU2 on Windows 10

[GabrieleMorvillo]

Good evening, I am currently struggling with compiling SU2 from source code. After I have built the program I try to compile it using ninja.exe, but during the process I get the following error:

[443/454] Linking target SU2_DEF/src/SU2_DEF.exe
FAILED: SU2_DEF/src/SU2_DEF.exe
c++ @SU2_DEF/src/SU2_DEF.exe.rsp
C:/Program Files/mingw-w64/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/8.1.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\MPI\Lib\x64\msmpi
C:/Program Files/mingw-w64/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/8.1.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\MPI\Lib\x64\msmpi
C:/Program Files/mingw-w64/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/8.1.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\MPI\Lib\x64\msmpi
C:/Program Files/mingw-w64/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/8.1.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\MPI\Lib\x64\msmpi
collect2.exe: error: ld returned 1 exit status
[448/454] Compiling C++ object SU2_CFD/src/libSU2core.a.p/.._include_numerics_simd_CNumericsSIMD.cpp.obj
ninja: build stopped: subcommand failed.

I do not understand what causes the problem since MPI should have been correctly installed and the msmpi.lib file is present in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\MPI\Lib\x64.
I imagine this is a trivial problem due to my inexperience but I am not able to understand how to fix it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[pcarruscag]

Hi, can you try the process mentioned in #1471

[GabrieleMorvillo]

Hi, can you try the process mentioned in #1471

Good morning and thanks for the reply.
Even though I did not try the process you mentioned I did find another way to get around the problem: I went for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) installation and I used it to build SU2 in the same manner as I did on my Ubuntu partition.
Now everything works fine.
I will eventually try to follow the process from #1471 in the future.