I haven't done much coding in C++, but I? noticed that I have to run these build scripts for everything. HOw do people do these on windows machines? I am thinking about running a virtual machine anyway, so I don't have to fill my machine with python and other such installations.
How does everyone else on windows do it?
MinGw comes with a gcc-compatible Compiler and Make System. So if you want to use makefiles, this is a possible way. If you need an IDE, Eclipse CDT might be for you.
However, I prefer Visual Studio, mainly for personal reasons (experience gathered over years) and debugging seemed to work somewhat better.
You might also want to look at CMake for a platform independet build tool.
AFAIK you can simply get the python executable and put them somewhere where the scripts can access them, inside your project code. That way you don't have to install it in the system and you don't have to use a virtual machine either.