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+Building CoreFX on Windows
+==========================
+
+You can build .NET Core either via the command line or by using Visual Studio.
+
+## Required Software
+
+Visual Studio 2015 is required.
+
+The following free downloads are compatible:
+* [Visual Studio Community 2015](http://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/downloads/visual-studio-2015-downloads-vs)
+
+Note: In order to build our C++ projects be sure to select "Programming Languages | Visual C++ | Common Tools for Visual C++ 2015" while installing VS 2015 (or modify your install to include it).
+
+We also require that [Visual Studio 2015 Update 1](https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/news/vs2015-update1-vs.aspx) be installed.
+
+[CMake](https://cmake.org/) is required to build the native libraries for Windows. To build these libraries cmake must be installed from [the CMake download page](https://cmake.org/download/) and added to your path.
+
+## Building From the Command Line
+
+Open a [Visual Studio Command Prompt](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms229859(v=vs.110).aspx).
+
+- `build.cmd` - Will cause basic tool initialization and build the default configuration for refs, libs, and packages.
+- `build-tests.cmd` - Will build and run tests for the default configuration.
+
+For information on different configurations see [project-guidelines](../coding-guidelines/project-guidelines.md).
+
+**Note**: Before working on individual projects or test projects you **must** run `build.cmd` from the root once before beginning that work. It is also a good idea to run `build.cmd` whenever you pull a large set of unknown changes into your branch.
+
+Visual Studio Solution (.sln) files exist for related groups of libraries. These can be loaded to build, debug and test inside
+the Visual Studio IDE.
+
+Note that when calling the script `build.cmd` attempts to build both the native and managed code.
+Only use it when the parameters that you are passing to the script apply for both components. Otherwise, use the scripts `build-native.cmd` and `build-managed.cmd` respectively.
+
+For more information about the different options when building, run `build.cmd -?` and look at examples in the [developer-guide](../project-docs/developer-guide.md).
+
+### Running tests from Visual Studio
+
+1. Open solution of interest
+2. Right click test project and select 'Set as startup project'
+3. Ctrl+F5 (Run)
+
+### Debugging tests in Visual Studio
+
+1. Install VS 2015 Preview or later including Web Developer Tools
+2. Open solution of interest in VS 2015
+3. Right click test project and select 'Set as startup project'
+4. Set breakpoint appropriately
+5. F5 (Debug)
+
+For advanced debugging using WinDBG see [Debugging CoreFX on Windows](https://github.com/dotnet/corefx/blob/master/Documentation/debugging/windows-instructions.md)
+
+### Notes
+* Running tests from using the VS test explorer does not currently work after we switched to running on CoreCLR. [We will be working on enabling full VS test integration](https://github.com/dotnet/corefx/issues/1318) but we don't have an ETA yet. In the meantime, use the steps above to launch/debug the tests using the console runner.
+
+* VS 2015 is required to debug tests running on CoreCLR as the CoreCLR
+debug engine is a VS 2015 component.
+
+* If the Xamarin PCL profiles are installed, the build will fail due to [issue #449](https://github.com/dotnet/corefx/issues/449).  A possible workaround is listed [in the issue](https://github.com/dotnet/corefx/issues/449#issuecomment-95117040) itself.