The following projects are included with the lz4 distribution:

• cmake - CMake project
• VS2010 - Visual Studio 2010 project (which also works well with Visual Studio 2012, 2013, 2015)
• VS2017 - Visual Studio 2017 project

1. Install Visual Studio e.g. VS 2015 Community Edition (it's free).
2. Download the latest version of lz4 from https://github.com/lz4/lz4/releases
3. Decompress ZIP archive.
4. Go to decompressed directory then to build then VS2010 and open lz4.sln
5. Visual Studio will ask about converting VS2010 project to VS2015 and you should agree.
6. Change Debug to Release and if you have 64-bit Windows change also Win32 to x64.
7. Press F7 on keyboard or select BUILD from the menu bar and choose Build Solution.
8. If compilation will be fine a compiled executable will be in build\VS2010\bin\x64_Release\lz4.exe

The Visual Studio solution file lz4.sln contains many projects that will be compiled to the build\VS2010\bin\$(Platform)_$(Configuration) directory. For example lz4 set to x64 and Release will be compiled to build\VS2010\bin\x64_Release\lz4.exe. The solution file contains the following projects:

• lz4 : Command Line Utility, supporting gzip-like arguments
• datagen : Synthetic and parametrable data generator, for tests
• frametest : Test tool that checks lz4frame integrity on target platform
• fullbench : Precisely measure speed for each lz4 inner functions
• fuzzer : Test tool, to check lz4 integrity on target platform
• liblz4 : A static LZ4 library compiled to liblz4_static.lib
• liblz4-dll : A dynamic LZ4 library (DLL) compiled to liblz4.dll with the import library liblz4.lib
• fullbench-dll : The fullbench program compiled with the import library; the executable requires LZ4 DLL

The header files lib\lz4.h, lib\lz4hc.h, lib\lz4frame.h and the import library build\VS2010\bin\$(Platform)_$(Configuration)\liblz4.lib are required to compile a project using Visual C++.

1. The path to header files should be added to Additional Include Directories that can be found in Project Properties of Visual Studio IDE in the C/C++ Property Pages on the General page.
2. The import library has to be added to Additional Dependencies that can be found in Project Properties in the Linker Property Pages on the Input page. If one will provide only the name liblz4.lib without a full path to the library then the directory has to be added to Linker\General\Additional Library Directories.

The compiled executable will require LZ4 DLL which is available at build\VS2010\bin\$(Platform)_$(Configuration)\liblz4.dll.