# Setting up a new OCaml environment in 2026 is not yet a fluid experience

**URL:** <https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/setting-up-a-new-ocaml-environment-in-2026-is-not-yet-a-fluid-experience/17650>\
**Category:** Ecosystem\
**Created:** [January 1, 2026, 2:38am UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/setting-up-a-new-ocaml-environment-in-2026-is-not-yet-a-fluid-experience/17650 "2026-01-01T02:38:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 87

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**Author:** ![dbuenzli](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ocaml.org/dbuenzli/32/18_2.png) [@dbuenzli](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/dbuenzli)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 3:59pm UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/setting-up-a-new-ocaml-environment-in-2026-is-not-yet-a-fluid-experience/17650/87 "2026-01-08T15:59:35Z")

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> [@digitallysane](#):
>
> TBH, I think we can very much say that. OCaml’s environment it not a “native” Windows one, and this causes a ton of problems.

Yes.

Note also that the official `opam` Windows experience is rather new. Packages are tested in the `opam-repository` CI only since about a year and a failure there is not a refusal to merge (IIRC).

For upstream package devs on Unix it’s also a bit difficult to easily get a testing environment (see point 2. [here](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ann-state-of-ocaml-platform-on-windows/16540/2)) and further complicated for some of us on arm laptops by the fact that [`opam` Windows on arm](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/playing-with-windows-on-arm64/15875) is not an official reality.

But I recently made great progress towards that [here](https://erratique.ch/software/telvm/doc/index) with an elaborate [bootstrap procedure](https://erratique.ch/software/telvm/doc/manual.html#bootstrap) requiring you only to type two commands in a QEMU window with a graphical cmd.exe. This then allows you to generate bespoke Windows Validation OS images unattended in which you can login to a `cmd.exe` prompt followed by `pwsh` via the SAC console. But I’m hitting a wall (and soon timing out on that for now) on trying to install winget on these images – I’ll try to sum up the problems in a couple issue and see if any of my trusted Windows devs can shed better light.

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