The Ruby on Rails Windows Troubleshooting tips & Survival Guide is a random catalogue of issues I faced working with Ruby on Rails on Windows (Windows 7 specifically). This guide is not exhaustive, but covers many of the challenges that causes Windows Ruby developers to jump ship to Linux or Mac. If you're reading this guide then you're probably new to Ruby/Rails, so also included is more general beginner advice to help you get going.
Before you follow this guide, I strongly recommend you consider using Linux or Mac OS X for Ruby Development instead. Looking to prove a point as a challenge, I ignored this strongly given advice while learning Ruby/Rails. While I eventually did succeed in getting Ruby on Rails to work in Windows, it was not easy, and I easily lost 40+ hours on StackOverFlow to Windows/Ruby configuration issues--time I could have devoted to learning more about th