I have been programming with C++ using notepad on Windows, and want to use GLFW. All the guides for setting up GLFW I have found use Visual Studio, is this the only way to set it up?
Visual Studio is certainly the easiest way to build C++ projects on Windows, but there are other options.
You can continue to use notepad to edit your source code, and if you use cmake you can even ignore the visual studio project entirely and build on the command line. However you’d be missing out on some of the more advanced debugging features Visual Studio has.
You can use the free Visual Studio Community version (see the notes on who can use it at the end, but it’s free for individuals and small companies).