title: How to use pip to install packages using MinGW-w64 compiler on Windows 7?
body: <p>I'm using Python 3.4.1 64 bit on Windows 7. When I tried to install scikit-image using pip, I ran into the popular problem: "unable to find vcvarsall.bat".  I made sure that I have both Visual Studio 2009 and 2010 redistributable installed and also added VS90COMNTOOLS and VS100COMNTOOLS to environment variable. But that didn't help. The same error persisted. </p>
  
  <p>Then I decided to give MinGW-w64 a try. So I installed it. Add the bin folder to PATH. Then create a distutils.cfg file that has this code</p>
  
  <pre><code>[Build]
  compiler = mingw-w64
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Then I get this error message: "don't know how to compile C/C++ code on platform 'nt' with 'mingw-w64' compiler". How should I solve this? </p>
  
  <p>P.S I know I can download binaries from Christoph Gohlke's page, but I'd still like to know how to do this on my own. </p>