I know Pd wants me to use viual studio (i'm on windows, i will switch to linux when i havue time for it) to compile externals. It also wants me to use a shell, but idk how to do that. i opened a powershell window in the external that i wanted to compile, but when i entered in "nmake" and "pd_nt" there nothing happended. The external was downloaded on SourceForge and i unzipped it twice to get out the contents.

Can somebody explain how to compile an external as much as practically possible?

Also, where should i put my externals? is it in "lib", "extra", something else or should i make a new folder for externals? I currently made a new folder to externals called "externals" because i saw a youtuber having a folder named that for his externals.

@4zz4 here is a video that explain how to use the externals folder:

there you also have to put your compiled externals.
You can download most of the externals from Deken.
But if you want to compile them by yourself: In my own experience it is easier with Linux than with Windows. Mostly you have a makefile for Linux and a .sln file for Windows/Visual Studio.
It is different from external to external, most of the time there is helpful information in the readme/install file of the external.
If you have problems with compiling a certain library it would be good to know which library and where (which error), then it is easier to help.

@Jona thanks!