This file is included in the Windows binary package. Compile instructions for Linux and Windows can be found in RELEASE_NOTES. cpuminer is a console program that is executed from a DOS command prompt. There is no GUI and no mouse support. Choose the exe that best matches you CPU's features or use trial and error to find the fastest one that doesn't crash. Pay attention to the features listed at cpuminer startup to ensure you are mining at optimum speed using all the available features. Architecture names and compile options used are only provided for Intel Core series. Pentium and Celeron often have fewer features. AMD CPUs older than Piledriver, including Athlon x2 and Phenom II x4, are not supported by cpuminer-opt due to an incompatible implementation of SSE2 on these CPUs. Some algos may crash the miner with an invalid instruction. Users are recommended to use an unoptimized miner such as cpuminer-multi. Exe name Compile opts Arch name cpuminer-sse2.exe -march=core2 Core2 cpuminer-sse42.exe -march=corei7 Nehalem cpuminer-aes-sse42.exe -maes -msse4.2" Westmere cpuminer-aes-avx.exe -march=corei7-avx" Sandybridge, Ivybridge cpuminer-aes-avx2.exe "-march=core-avx2" Haswell, Broadwell, Skylake, Kabylake cpuminer-4way.exe "-march=core-avx2 -DFOUR_WAY" 4way requires a CPU with AES and AVX2. It is still under development and only a few algos are supported. See change log in RELEASE_NOTES in source package for supported algos. There is no binary support available for SHA on AMD Ryzen CPUs.