Question: This could be an annoying question. But I was hoping someone could provide me with step by step instructions on how to get GLPK up and running on a Windows machine. I have Windows 7 64-bit.

I have tried looking at some instructions on various websites but keep running into problems. I am not very versed in creating directories, working with binaries (e.g. what is a binary), etc.... Even running commands is a little foreign to me. 

To get an idea of what kind of detail I need in the instructions, here are some I have tried (and failed) to use:

<http://winglpk.sourceforge.net/>

<http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/GLPK/Windows>

As you can see, I need something fairly detailed. I have read an example of a GLPK program in action, and I believe that once I get the program up and running I should be able to write the code to use it.

Can anyone help me? I would be so grateful. 

EDIT: As a parallel question, I would also be interested in suggestions for other programs that will do the similar things as GLPK, but are more straightforward to install and use.

Answer: 
**here an easy step-by-step explanation of "how to make glpk work":**

To download GLPK , first go to the GLPK windows download page and then follow the instructions here from [1](https://practicaleconomics.org/installing-python-anaconda-pyomo-and-glpk-the-only-economic-modelling-software-youll-ever-need/):

1. Go to control panel to determine whether you have 32-bit or 64-bit Windows (assume 64-bit from now on).
2. Download the latest version of GLPK, 4.65 at the time of writing, from the following address [Sourceforge](https://sourceforge.net/projects/winglpk/).
3. Extract the Zip folder by: right clicking on the folder and then>> 7-Zip >> Extract Here as shown. Move the glpk-4.65 folder from your downloads folder to your C: drive.
4. Assuming you’re using 64-bit Windows, click on the C:\glpk-4.65 folder in Windows explorer, click on the w64 folder, and select and copy the file path, which should be C:\glpk-4.65\w64.
5. Search and open your Control Panel, select System and Security>>System>>Advanced system settings>>Environment Variables. Then click on ‘path’ in the top window, click the ‘Edit’ button, then ‘New’.
6. Paste the file path you copied above and save.

DONE.
Here are a few suggestions to get you moving forward:

1. If you are having difficulty with running Windows command-line, then maybe GLPK (installing by yourself) is not the best bet.
	* See if you can find someone more experienced in Windows help you with the installation? (Once installed the LP modules are fairly easy to use, no more complex than any of the others)
	* Do you have access to any commercial solvers? (MATLAB and CPLEX can be great)
	* If you are going to be working with Windows for some time to come, it is a good idea to invest some time to learn how to download and install software
2. [This SO question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/502102/best-open-source-mixed-integer-optimization-solver) has links to lots of other LP/IP solvers such as Gurobi and COIN-OR.
3. If you don't mind learning a bit of R programming language, I'd recommend downloading R and RStudio, both of which are straightforward. Next, what you want is the [lpSolveAPI](http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/lpSolveAPI/lpSolveAPI.pdf) package. The examples are decent and you can get going in a day or two. (You'll have to learn the basics of R)

If none of these help you progress, post some details of where you are getting stuck in the GLPK download (post the errors you are getting) and someone will try and assist you.

Hope that helps