diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index eb8ee90..ba70dfb 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -5,3 +5,4 @@ dist
 *.o
 *.pyc
 *.so
+venv
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c8a901a..6c14dc3 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -61,17 +61,23 @@ brew install pkg-config poppler python
 
 ### Windows
 
-Currently tested only when using conda:
-
- - Install the Microsoft Visual C++ Build Tools
- - Install poppler through conda:
-   ```
-   conda install -c conda-forge poppler
-   ```
-
-
-## Install
-
-```
-pip install pdftotext
-```
+ - Install using `conda`. Make sure you hae anaconda installed and its working.
+
+    - Install the Microsoft Visual C++ Build Tools
+    - Install poppler through conda:
+    ```
+    conda install -c conda-forge poppler
+    ```
+    - Install with pip
+    ```
+    pip install pdftotext
+    ```
+ - Install using `pip`. If you have installed python official binary and want to
+   install `pdftotext`, make sure you have `Visual Studio` installed along with
+   c/c++ build tools. Also you will need to download `poppler` binaries and
+   configure your system. You can download `poppler` windows binaries from here -
+   [https://github.com/oschwartz10612/poppler-windows](https://github.com/oschwartz10612/poppler-windows). Download a release zip file. Extract it somewhere. Set the full path of the extracted folder (where bin, include
+   and lib directories are in) as `POPPLER_PREFIX` environmental variable. 
+   And also add this to your `PATH` variable - `%POPPLER_PREFIX%\bin` . Then 
+   install via `pip` or you can directly download the source code of this repo
+   and run `python setup.py install` to install it.
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 741bea4..875f2d2 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -5,8 +5,24 @@
 from setuptools import Extension
 from setuptools import setup
 
+include_dirs = None
+library_dirs = None
+
 
 def poppler_cpp_at_least(version):
+    # return True if platform is windows plus include and library dirs
+    # are non-empty. pkg-config may not be avaiable in windows systems
+    if platform.system() == "Windows":
+        if include_dirs and library_dirs:
+            return True
+        else:
+            print("         On windows platform, install via conda or make sure")
+            print("         POPPLER_PREFIX environmental variable points to the")
+            print("         folder where you've put the poppler build containing")
+            print("         bin, include and library dirs. In the later case add")
+            print("         %POPPLER_PREFIX%\\bin to your environmantal PATH")
+            print("         variable.")
+            return False
     try:
         subprocess.check_call(
             ["pkg-config", "--exists", "poppler-cpp >= {}".format(version)]
@@ -16,12 +32,9 @@ def poppler_cpp_at_least(version):
     except OSError:
         print("WARNING: pkg-config not found--guessing at poppler version.")
         print("         If the build fails, install pkg-config and try again.")
-    return True
+    return False
 
 
-include_dirs = None
-library_dirs = None
-
 # On some BSDs, poppler is in /usr/local, which is not searched by default
 if platform.system() in ["Darwin", "FreeBSD", "OpenBSD"]:
     include_dirs = ["/usr/local/include"]
@@ -30,9 +43,14 @@ def poppler_cpp_at_least(version):
 # On Windows, only building with conda is tested so far
 if platform.system() == "Windows":
     conda_prefix = os.getenv("CONDA_PREFIX")
+    poppler_prefix = os.getenv("POPPLER_PREFIX")
     if conda_prefix is not None:
         include_dirs = [os.path.join(conda_prefix, r"Library\include")]
         library_dirs = [os.path.join(conda_prefix, r"Library\lib")]
+    elif poppler_prefix is not None:
+        include_dirs = [os.path.join(poppler_prefix, r"include")]
+        library_dirs = [os.path.join(poppler_prefix, r"lib")]
+
 
 extra_compile_args = ["-Wall"]
 extra_link_args = []