Checking Out SVN

Note: XBMC is open source (GPL) software and as so the source code is available for anyone to modify and/or compile (under the rules of the GPL).

Prerequisites

Microsoft Windows XP operating-system installed on an x86-based computer or virtual machine.
Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2003 or Visual Studio .NET 2003 (Compiler and IDE) Note: VC/VS 2005 or later is not compatible with the XDK. Also note that XBMC is not coded in C++ (and not in a .NET programming-language as the names of these Visual Studio versions might indicate).
DirectX 9.0 SDK Update (Summer 2004)
Microsoft Xbox Software Development Kit (a.k.a. XDK) Note: If you installed Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio (or otherwise modified the installed files), you need to run the XDK setup with the /s flag.
TortoiseSVN (or a other SVN client of your choosing if you prefer).

If you already have installed TortoiseSVN then you can skip the first two steps below.

Get TortoiseSVN installer from the TortoiseSVN site
Install TortoiseSVN
Right click in a directory and click "SVN Checkout"
Enter URL of repository: https://xbmc.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/xbmc/trunk/XBMC in the dialogue window. (Note this will only download main XBMC trunk. If you also want the full source documentation and MPlayer source, then omit the last "/XBMC")

Lastly click "OK" and wait for all the source tree to download. (Expect a 250-300 MB download the first time you checkout!)

Building with build.bat is a very simple process

This is the way of just building default.xbe, which is only recomended for advanced users who are debugging problems.

Open up the "xbmc.sln" file with Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2003 or Visual Studio .NET 2003.
Select "Release" or "Debug" from the Build Manager (depending on which type of build you are making).
Select "Compile", and then wait for the compiling to complete.
Depending on if you selected Release or Debug, the default.xbe would be in that sub directory.