This is an opinionated tutorial that shows you how to set up a development environment for the RP2040 on Windows using only open source tools. You should start at the beginning of this tutorial, but you don't have to follow ALL of the instructions: you can stop after completing any level and leave with something that is useful.
Download and install [MSYS2], the best system for developing open source software on Windows.
Use "Edit environment variables for your account" in the Windows Control Panel to add an environment variable for your user named HOME
with a value like C:\Users\david
(but with david
replaced by your actual Windows user name). Do NOT add an extra slash on the end. MSYS2 uses this variable to determine where your home directory is. If you don't set it, MSYS2 defaults to using a home directory like /home/USERNAME
which actually lives inside the MSYS2 installation. That is not your true home directory, and you shouldn't get in the habit of storing files t