diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 913632fa3..0284f2bf6 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -220,6 +220,20 @@ if(ENABLE_MODELICA_COMPILER)
 endif()
 
 if (ENABLE_MODELICA_COMPILER OR ENABLE_COMPILER)
+  message(
+    "To get the compiler working on windows, you need: clang-10 custom build with appropriate version of MSVC" 
+    "; built with LLVM_ENABLE_PROJECTS=clang;lld LLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD=X86 LLVM_TOOL_LLD_BUILD=TRUE. Make sure NSIS is installed, and `make PACKAGE`."
+    "Note that downloading the official source package will not work, because it has symlinks. You have to clone the github repository, checkout 10.0.1, and configure "
+    "the llvm subdirectory. What else... oh right. You'll get a build error. Comment out line 181 in type_traits.h when you get there. It'll be fine. Trust me."
+    "Once the package is built, it should install fine, and be found by this script"  
+  )
+
+  # we only support llvm-10 right now
+  find_package(LLVM 10 REQUIRED CONFIG)
+  # We want to nudge cmake towards clang-10, so it doesn't find the wrong libclang
+  # we cannot use the version number because clang's cmake files don't have versioning
+  find_package(Clang REQUIRED CONFIG HINTS /usr/lib/cmake/clang-10 "C:/Program Files/LLVM/lib/cmake/clang")
+
   add_subdirectory(compiler)
 endif()
 
diff --git a/compiler/CMakeLists.txt b/compiler/CMakeLists.txt
index d7cae950a..47e7dd1f2 100644
--- a/compiler/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/compiler/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -3,20 +3,6 @@ target_link_libraries(spawn_exe_launcher ${CMAKE_DL_LIBS})
 
 add_library(compiler compiler.hpp compiler.cpp)
 
-message(
-  "To get the compiler working on windows, you need: clang-10 custom build with appropriate version of MSVC" 
-  "; built with LLVM_ENABLE_PROJECTS=clang;lld LLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD=X86 LLVM_TOOL_LLD_BUILD=TRUE. Make sure NSIS is installed, and `make PACKAGE`."
-  "Note that downloading the official source package will not work, because it has symlinks. You have to clone the github repository, checkout 10.0.1, and configure "
-  "the llvm subdirectory. What else... oh right. You'll get a build error. Comment out line 181 in type_traits.h when you get there. It'll be fine. Trust me."
-  "Once the package is built, it should install fine, and be found by this script"  
-)
-
-# we only support llvm-10 right now
-find_package(LLVM 10 REQUIRED CONFIG)
-# We want to nudge cmake towards clang-10, so it doesn't find the wrong libclang
-# we cannot use the version number because clang's cmake files don't have versioning
-find_package(Clang REQUIRED CONFIG HINTS /usr/lib/cmake/clang-10 "C:/Program Files/LLVM/lib/cmake/clang")
-
 
 target_include_directories(compiler PRIVATE "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}")
 target_include_directories(compiler PRIVATE "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}")