This file is included in the Windows binary package. Compile instructions for Linux and Windows can be found in RELEASE_NOTES. This package is officially avalable only from: https://github.com/JayDDee/cpuminer-opt No other sources should be trusted. cpuminer is a console program that is executed from a DOS or Powershell prompt. There is no GUI and no mouse support. Miner programs are often flagged as malware by antivirus programs. This is a false positive, they are flagged simply because they are cryptocurrency miners. The source code is open for anyone to inspect. If you don't trust the software, don't use it. Choose the exe that best matches you CPU's features or use trial and error to find the fastest one that works. Pay attention to the features listed at cpuminer startup to ensure you are mining at optimum speed using the best available features. Architecture names and compile options used are only provided for Intel Core series. Budget CPUs like Pentium and Celeron are often missing some 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. More information for Intel and AMD CPU architectures and their features can be found on Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_CPU_microarchitectures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_CPU_microarchitectures Exe file name Compile flags Arch name cpuminer-sse2.exe "-msse2" Core2, Nehalem cpuminer-aes-sse42.exe "-march=westmere" Westmere cpuminer-avx.exe "-march=corei7-avx" Sandybridge, Ivybridge cpuminer-avx2.exe "-march=core-avx2 -maes" Haswell(1) cpuminer-avx512.exe "-march=skylake-avx512" Skylake-X, Cascadelake cpuminer-avx512-sha.exe "-march=cascadelake -msha" Rocketlake(2) cpuminer-avx512-sha-vaes.exe "-march=icelake-client" Icelake, Tigerlake(3) cpuminer-zen.exe "-march=znver1" AMD Zen1, Zen2 cpuminer-zen3.exe "-march=znver2 -mvaes" Zen3(4) (1) Haswell includes Broadwell, Skylake, Kabylake, Coffeelake & Cometlake. (2) Rocketlake build uses cascadelake+sha as a workaround until Rocketlake compiler support is avalable. (3) Icelake & Tigerlake are only available on some laptops. Mining with a laptop is not recommended. (4) Zen3 build uses zen2+vaes as a workaround until Zen3 compiler support is available. Zen2 CPUs should use Zen1 build. Notes about included DLL files: Downloading DLL files from alternative sources presents an inherent security risk if their source is unknown. All DLL files included have been copied from the Ubuntu-20.04 installation or compiled by me from source code obtained from the author's official repository. The exact procedure is documented in the build instructions for Windows: https://github.com/JayDDee/cpuminer-opt/wiki/Compiling-from-source Some DLL filess may already be installed on the system by Windows or third party packages. They often will work and may be used instead of the included file. Without a compelling reason to do so it's recommended to use the included files as they are packaged. If you like this software feel free to donate: BTC: 12tdvfF7KmAsihBXQXynT6E6th2c2pByTT