Direct style: cl /EHsc /std:c++17 COMIntegration.cpp /link Shlwapi.lib /out:"..\Release\COMIntegration.exe" For a debug build with PDB: cl /EHsc /std:c++17 /Z7 /DEBUG:FULL COMIntegration.cpp /link Shlwapi.lib /out:"..\Release\COMIntegration.exe" CMake style: cmake ../COMIntegration~ -B ./build cmake --build ./build --config=release -- /p:OutDir=..