To make your own application fall back to build GTK 4 as a Meson subproject in case the system does not provide it, simply add the following subprojects/gtk.wrap file. C:\src>git clone https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtksourceview.git C:\src>cd gtksourceview C:\src\gtksourceview>meson setup build --prefix C:/gnome -Dinstall_tests=true C:\src\gtksourceview>meson compile -C build C:\src\gtksourceview>meson install -C build It is possible to also build GStreamer and all its dependencies, including FFmpeg, as Meson subprojects for GTK 4, or even your own application!