Rust for Windows
Unofficial guide • Native Windows tooling

Rust for Windows — Install & Build Native Apps

Get Rust running on Windows, compile native apps with MSVC toolchain, use windows-rs bindings and package your release for distribution.

Installation guide Quickstart
Official bootstrapper: rustup-init.exe • Last updated: —

Why Rust on Windows?

Memory safety, modern tooling, and native performance for Windows desktop and system apps.

Windows Tooling

MSVC toolchain, Windows SDK, Visual Studio Build Tools and cargo ecosystem explained.

Packaging & Signing

How to create MSI/MSIX packages, sign your binaries and avoid SmartScreen warnings.

TL;DR

  1. Download the official rustup-init.exe (MSVC) using the button above.
  2. Run the installer and follow prompts to add MSVC toolchain.
  3. Open a Developer PowerShell, run cargo new and build your native app.

Related guides

Deep dives and troubleshooting for Windows developers — see navigation above.

What this site is

An independent, unofficial guide focused on getting Rust working smoothly on Windows systems and shipping native applications. Not affiliated with the Rust Foundation or rust-lang.org.

For the official rustup installer, we link directly to the official rust-lang distribution files.