title: How do I move from the MSVC compiler to GCC on Windows?
body: <p>The reasons I want to move are:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Compile speed. About a minute with gcc, 15 minutes with MSVC. Admittedly, the code I'm compiling is a ball of spaghetti, but it is the code I have to work with on a daily basis. Sure, I don't expect gcc would magically take my compile times down to a minute, but I do expect it to compile files a lot faster.</li>
  <li>Slow debugging: Its been close to a year now, using VS2010 trying to debug on Windows is a nightmare - it is so slow, it is unusable. Yes, I've tried deleting my .suo, closing the autos window, unplugging myself from the network and dancing around a fire three times under the full moon, to no avail.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>So my question is: How do I get my code, which makes heavy use of the Windows APIs and MFCs to build on GCC? Rather, what would be the simplest route?</p>