So, I'm upgrading from XP to Windows 7 after giving it a test run last week. I thought maybe it's also time to bite the bullet and start using MSVC.

To those of you that choose to explicitly use MSVC over MinGW (or vice versa), why do you use that compiler?

I don't care about the Visual Studio IDE, because I would never use it anyways. I'll just use codeblocks or compile from the command line (or the monstrosity that microsoft pawns off as a "command line").

I second Kitty Cat's response. Since MinGW uses the same GNU gcc and g++ compiler, you're more likely to get the same warnings and errors when you compile code with it on Windows, Mac, and Linux/Unix. MSVC lets you get away with some things, and then doesn't let you get away with others, which gives you the cross-compatibility hiccups.

I'd probably choose to go with MSVC if/when I need to compile DLLs, program the XNA framework, or do a few other things that MSVC has its niche for. Since it's designed "for Windows," I'd imagine that it has some tweaks that lets its programs play "as nice as possible" within the Windows environment, where gcc and g++ "work" but not as optimally. I just don't know, though.

My biggest reason for MinGW is reason #1.

Which is worse? A McLaren F1 or a Pencil Sharpener? I have no intention of driving the car, I just need to sharpen a pencil. So I don't need the chrome, I'm just going to stick a pencil in the engine.

The debugger is probably the main reason I'd stick with MSVC even if I nuked my current system (the original reasons were "I upgraded my computer, MinGW was left to bit rot by incompetent devs, and I needed MSVC anyway for first university and then jorb"). GDB isn't even playing in the same league.
Other reasons include the IDE, that it seems just plain faster and last but not least, that library compatibility is - in my experience - actually better. When an open source library or utility claims to be compatible with both Linux and Windows, they usually in fact mean either "GCC/Linux and Cygwin" - in which case they can take their software and shove it - or "GCC/Linux and MSVC/Windows". Wading for hours through dependency hell just to find out that, despite what's claimed, you can't actually compile $LIBRARY under MinGW gets old fast.

And I haven't noticed any real difference in standards compliance between the two (when I need to go cross-platform I can compile on my EEE or a shell account at Uni) - and I'm using MSVC 8, which is 4 years old now. In my experience, they simply warn on different dodgy constructs.

If you work on a solo project with 10 or 20 files in it, it's not going to matter what you use. Well, except when you need to debug, and the msvc debugger is pretty nice. But if it's 200 files of code someone else wrote, the IDE is going to save you a lot of time.

I do relatively few coding, mostly some simple Allegro related programs, and I use MinGW simply because it suits my needs so I see no point in changing it. I also like the fact that you can pretty much just take it to another computer and use it right away.