Andrew, I was going to chastise you for being the only Windows developer who has problems with MinGW / MSYS and spreading that unpleasant internet commodity "FUD". However, I've just gone back to mingw.org and its gone from "somewhat confusing" circa the last time I installed (Christmas 2009) to "frankly abysmal". So while is was easy to install MinGW / MSys a year ago I'll willing concede that it is difficult now. [A side issue - anyone who thinks socializing Hackage is a good idea should pay mingw.org a visit...] I followed this guide the last time I installed: http://www.mingw.org/faq/How_do_I_install_MSYS Having a slightly out-of-date installation shouldn't be a problem for Haskell development. Another side issue, commentators seem to be point to be pointing to TDM-GCC for a sanely packaged version of MinGW, but it isn't accompanied by MSys so wouldn't work for Haskell development.