diff --git a/docs/build_notes_windows.md b/docs/build_notes_windows.md
index 5e9e465e..d1b2f81f 100644
--- a/docs/build_notes_windows.md
+++ b/docs/build_notes_windows.md
@@ -1,86 +1,245 @@
-Building i2pd for Windows
+Building i2pd on Windows
=========================
-!!! WARNING This file may be outdated.
+There are two approaches available to build i2pd on Windows. The best
+one depends on your needs and personal preferences. One is to use
+msys2 and [unix alike infrastructure](build_notes_unix.md). Another
+one is to use Visual Studio. While there might be no difference for
+end users of i2pd daemon, developers, however, shall be wary of
+differences in C++ name mangling between the two compilers when making
+a choice to be able to link their software against libi2pd.
+
+If you are a stranger to C++ with no development tools installed on
+your system and your only goal is to have i2pd up and running from the
+most recent source, consider using msys2. Although it relies on
+command line operations, it should be straight forward.
+
+In this guide, we will use CMake for both approaches and we will
+assume that you typically have your projects in C:\dev\ as your
+development location for the sake of convenience. Adjust paths
+accordingly if it is not the case. Note that msys uses unix-alike
+paths like /c/dev/ for C:\dev\.
+
+msys2
+-----
+
+Get it from https://msys2.github.io and update it as described
+there. Use the installer appropriate for the bitness of your Windows
+OS. You will be able to build 32-bit applications if you install
+64-bit version of msys2. For 64-bit, use *mingw-w64-x86_64* prefix
+instead of *mingw-w64-i686* for the packages mentioned below, and use
+*/mingw64* as CMake find root.
+
+Install all prerequisites and download i2pd source:
+
+```bash
+pacman -S mingw-w64-i686-boost mingw-w64-i686-openssl mingw-w64-i686-gcc mingw-w64-i686-miniupnpc cmake git
+mkdir -p /c/dev/i2pd
+cd /c/dev/i2pd
+git clone https://github.com/PurpleI2P/i2pd.git
+cd i2pd
+```
+
+Check with `git status` that you are on *openssl* branch. If it is not
+the case, do `git checkout openssl`.
+
+```sh
+git pull origin openssl --ff-only # to update sources if you are rebuilding after a while
+mkdir -p mingw32.build # CMake build folder
+cd mingw32.build
+export PATH=/mingw32/bin:/usr/bin # we need compiler on PATH which is usually heavily cluttered on Windows
+cmake ../build -G "Unix Makefiles" -DWITH_UPNP=ON -DWITH_PCH=ON \
+ -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=../mingw32.stage -DCMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH=/mingw32
+```
+
+If your processor has
+[AES instruction set](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AES_instruction_set),
+you may try adding `-DWITH_AESNI=ON`. No check is done however, it
+will compile but will crash with `Illegal instruction` if not supported.
+
+Make sure CMake found proper libraries and compiler. This might be the
+case if you have Strawberry Perl installed as it alters PATH and you
+failed to override it like mentioned above. You should see something
+like
+
+```
+-- The C compiler identification is GNU 5.2.0
+-- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 5.2.0
+-- Check for working C compiler: /mingw32/bin/gcc.exe
+-- Check for working C compiler: /mingw32/bin/gcc.exe -- works
+-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
+-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
+-- Detecting C compile features
+-- Detecting C compile features - done
+-- Check for working CXX compiler: /mingw32/bin/c++.exe
+-- Check for working CXX compiler: /mingw32/bin/c++.exe -- works
+-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
+-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
+-- Detecting CXX compile features
+-- Detecting CXX compile features - done
+-- Performing Test CXX11_SUPPORTED
+-- Performing Test CXX11_SUPPORTED - Success
+-- Performing Test CXX0X_SUPPORTED
+-- Performing Test CXX0X_SUPPORTED - Success
+-- Looking for include file pthread.h
+-- Looking for include file pthread.h - found
+-- Looking for pthread_create
+-- Looking for pthread_create - found
+-- Found Threads: TRUE
+-- Boost version: 1.59.0
+-- Found the following Boost libraries:
+-- system
+-- filesystem
+-- regex
+-- program_options
+-- date_time
+-- thread
+-- chrono
+-- Found OpenSSL: /mingw32/lib/libssl.dll.a;/mingw32/lib/libcrypto.dll.a (found version "1.0.2d")
+-- Found MiniUPnP headers: /mingw32/include
+-- Found ZLIB: /mingw32/lib/libz.dll.a (found version "1.2.8")
+-- ---------------------------------------
+-- Build type : RelWithDebInfo
+-- Compiler vendor : GNU
+-- Compiler version : 5.2.0
+-- Compiler path : /mingw32/bin/c++.exe
+-- Install prefix: : ../mingw32.stage
+-- Options:
+-- AESNI : OFF
+-- HARDENING : OFF
+-- LIBRARY : ON
+-- BINARY : ON
+-- STATIC BUILD : OFF
+-- UPnP : ON
+-- PCH : ON
+-- ---------------------------------------
+-- Configuring done
+-- Generating done
+-- Build files have been written to: /c/dev/i2pd/i2pd/mingw32.build
+```
+
+Now it is time to compile everything. If you have a multicore processor
+you can add `-j` flag.
+
+ make -j4 install
+
+You should be able to run ./i2pd . If you need to start from the new
+shell, consider starting *MinGW-w64 Win32 Shell* instead of *MSYS2 Shell* as
+it adds`/minw32/bin` to the PATH.
+
+### Caveats
+
+It is important to restrict PATH as described above. If you have
+Strawberry Perl and/or Mercurial installed, it will pick up gcc &
+openssl from the wrong places.
+
+If you do use precompiled headers to speed up compilation
+(recommended), things can go wrong if compiler options have changed
+for whatever reason. Just delete `stdafx.h.gch` found in your build
+folder, note the file extension.
+
+If you are an Arch Linux user, refrain from updating system with
+`pacman -Syu`. Always update runtime separately as described on the
+home page, otherwise you might end up with DLLs incompatibility
+problems.
+
+
+Using Visual Studio
+-------------------
Requirements for building:
-* Visual Studio 2013 (tested with VS2013 Update 1, Update 3, and Update 4)
-* Boost (tested with 1.56, 1.57, and 1.58)
-* Crypto++ (tested with 5.6.2)
+* [CMake](https://cmake.org/) (tested with 3.1.3)
+* [Visual Studio Community Edition](https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/products/visual-studio-community-vs.aspx) (tested with VS2013 Update 4)
+* [Boost](http://www.boost.org/) (tested with 1.59)
+* Optionally [MiniUPnP](http://miniupnp.free.f) (tested with 1.9), we need only few client headers
+* OpenSSL (tested with 1.0.1p and 1.0.2e), if building from sources (recommended), you'll need as well
+ * [Netwide assembler](www.nasm.us)
+ * Strawberry Perl or ActiveState Perl, do NOT try msys2 perl, it won't work
-Building Boost (32-bit)
------------------------
+## Building Boost
-Open a Visual Studio x86 command prompt and run the following:
+Open a Command Prompt (there is no need to start Visual Studio command
+prompt to build Boost) and run the following:
- cd C:\path\to\boost\sources
+ cd C:\dev\boost
bootstrap
- b2 toolset=msvc-12.0 --build-type=complete --libdir=C:\Boost\lib\Win32 install --with-filesystem --with-program_options --with-regex --with-date_time
+ b2 toolset=msvc-12.0 --build-type=complete --with-filesystem --with-program_options --with-regex --with-date_time
+If you are on 64-bit Windows and you want to build 64-bit version as well
-Building Boost (64-bit)
------------------------
+ b2 toolset=msvc-12.0 --build-type=complete --stagedir=stage64 address-model=64 --with-filesystem --with-program_options --with-regex --with-date_time
-Open a Visual Studio x64 command prompt and run the following:
+After Boost is compiled, set the environment variable `BOOST_ROOT` to
+the directory Boost was unpacked to, e.g., C:\dev\boost.
- cd C:\path\to\boost\sources
- bootstrap
- b2 toolset=msvc-12.0 --build-type=complete --libdir=C:\Boost\lib\x64 architecture=x86 address-model=64 install --with-filesystem --with-program_options --with-regex --with-date_time
-
-After Boost is compiled, set the environment variable `BOOST` to the directory
-Boost was installed to. If you followed the instructions outlined here, you
-should set it to `C:\Boost`. Additionally, set the BOOSTVER variable to the
-version of Boost that you're using, but instead of a '.' use a '_'. For
-example, I have `BOOSTVER` set to `1_58`.
+If you are planning on building only particular variant, e.g. Debug
+only and static linking, and/or you are out of space/time, you might
+consider `--build-type=minimal`. Take a look at
+[appveyor.yml](../appveyor.yml) for details on how test builds are done.
-Building Crypto++
+Building OpenSSL
-----------------
-* Open the crypttest Solution in VS2013
-* Visual Studio will ask to update the Solution/Project. Allow it.
-* Build the `cryptopp` project, both the Debug and Release targets and for both
- Win32 and x64.
-* Create a folder called `cryptopp` in the crypto++ source directory, then copy
- the header files to this new directory.
-* Set the `CRYPTOPP` environment variable pointing to the Crypto++ source directory.
+Download OpenSSL, e.g. with git
+ git clone https://github.com/openssl/openssl.git
+ cd openssl
+ git checkout OpenSSL_1_0_1p
-Building i2pd
+Now open Visual Studio command prompt and change directory to that with OpenSSL
+
+ set "PATH=%PATH%;C:\Program Files (x86)\nasm"
+ perl Configure VC-WIN32 --prefix=c:\OpenSSL-Win32
+ ms\do_nasm
+ nmake -f ms\ntdll.mak
+ nmake -f ms\ntdll.mak install
+
+You should have it installed into C:\OpenSSL-Win32 by now.
+
+Note that you might consider providing `-DOPENSSL_ROOT_DIR` to CMake
+and/or create a symlink (with mklink /J) to C:\OpenSSL if you plan on
+maintaining multiple versions, e.g. 64 bit and/or
+static/shared. Consult `C:\Program Files
+(x86)\CMake\share\cmake-3.3\Modules\FindOpenSSL.cmake` for details.
+
+Get miniupnpc
-------------
-## Prep work ##
+If you are behind a UPnP enabled router and don't feel like manually
+configuring port forwarding, you should consider using
+[MiniUPnP](http://miniupnp.free.fr) client. I2pd can be built capable
+of using miniupnpc shared library (DLL) to open up necessary
+port. You'd want to have include headers around to build i2pd with
+support for this. Unpack client source code in a sibling folder,
+e.g. C:\dev\miniupnpc . You may want to remove version number from
+folder name included in downloaded archive.
+
+Note that you might need to build DLL yourself for 64-bit systems
+using msys2 as 64-bit DLLs are not provided by the project.
-I strongly advise setting up your own `INCLUDES` and `LIBS` instead of relying
-on the settings in the i2pd project file. By using your own settings, if the
-i2pd devs change the paths in the project file, your builds will still work.
-To do this, create or edit the file
-`%localappdata%\Microsoft\MSBuild\v4.0\Microsoft.Cpp.Win32.user`.
+Creating Visual Studio project
+------------------------------
-For comparison, my file is reproduced below:
+Start CMake GUI, navigate to i2pd directory, choose building directory, e.g. ./out, and configure options.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- $(CRYPTOPP)\$(Platform)\Output\$(Configuration);$(BOOST)\lib\$(Platform);$(LibraryPath)
- $(CRYPTOPP);$(BOOST)\include\boost-$(BOOSTVER);$(IncludePath)
-
-
-
-
+Alternatively, if you feel adventurous, try that from the command line
+```
+cd
+mkdir out
+cd out
+cmake ..\build -G "Visual Studio 12 2013" -DWITH_UPNP=ON -DWITH_PCH=ON -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=C:\dev\Debug_Win32_stage
+```
-If you want to build x64 binaries as well, you'll want to edit or create the
-file `%localappdata%\Microsoft\MSBuild\v4.0\Microsoft.Cpp.x64.user`. If you
-followed the steps outlined earlier you can copy (or link) the win32 file to
-the x64 one.
+WITH_UPNP will stay off, if necessary files are not found.
-## Anti-Climatic End ##
+Building i2pd
+-------------
-After following the above instructions, you'll be able to build Debug Win32,
-Debug x64, Release Win32, and Release x64 i2pd binaries.
+You can open generated solution/project with Visual Studio and build
+from there, alternatively you can use `cmake --build . --config Release --target install` or
+[MSBuild tool](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd293626.aspx)
+`msbuild i2pd.sln /p:Configuration=Release`.