Building with VS2015 Community

1. Install a git client (e.g. Github for Windows) and obtain a copy of the PuTTYTray code.
2. Install Visual Studio 2015 Community. There's no reason the build shouldn't work with non-Community versions, but it's not been tested.
3. You will need the "C++"-related features and the tools for building "Desktop applications for Windows 8.1".
4. Install a perl interpreter, such as Strawberry Perl.
5. 5.18 tested, but newer versions should work.
6. The one shipped with msysGit does not have the necessary modules.
7. The cygwin one has had issues in the past, so you might want to avoid it.
8. Start a command prompt in the PuTTYTray directory, and run perl mkfiles.pl. This should print nothing, and create a load of files.
9. You can open PuTTYTray\windows\VS2012\putty.sln in VS2015.
10. It will ask you to "Upgrade VC++ Compiler and Libraries", which you want to do.
11. Right-click "putty" (not "plink") in the Solution Explorer, and choose "Set as startup project".
12. Press "▶ Local Windows Debugger" (F5).
13. PuTTY should start, although it will lack proper themes.
14. You might have to tell Visual Studio it where the 8.1 header files are (because it's rubbish), or it will complain it can't find winsock2.h:
15. Open the "putty" project properties.
16. VC++ directories.
17. Add C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Include\shared and C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Include\um to the "Include Directories".
18. Alternatively, you can use the command-line build:
19. Start the "Developer Command Prompt for VS2015", previously known as "Windows SDK X.X Command Prompt", or "Visual Studio (XXX) Command Prompt".
20. cd windows
21. build-debug
22. This should eventually emit a putty.exe, which you can run or debug.
23. The release script requires a version, and will attempt to sign the build, etc. If you want to investigate further, I suggest running nmake by hand.