Where should I place .h and .lib files so that I can just write #include <mylib.h> (or "mylib.h") and the compiler and linker will find them for all my c++ projects?
Where should I place .h and .lib files so that I can just write
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Where should I place .h and .lib files so that I can just write #include <mylib.h> (or "mylib.h") and the compiler and linker will find them for all my c++ projects?
There is no one single place on the computer where you can put .h / .lib files and expect them to be included in all C++ projects. The directories which are searched for .h / .lib files is a completely configurable item. Hence there is no one true include directory.
A potential option is changing the global MSBuild files for the machine. C++ projects inherit a portion of their settings from this file and it could be used to force down a set of includes to the vast majority of projects. However it’s a bit of a sledge hammer option and won’t be 100% effective. Any individual project can still override these defaults (or simply not use MSBuild).
It is possible though to have a unified .h / .lib directory on your machine and then manually point every C++ project at that directory
/I c:\path\to\unified\include