I appreciate that! One thing to add is that you don't already need a Steem account to mine, finding proof of work makes an account for you. So if anyone reads this and doesn't have a Steem account and doesn't use Facebook or Reddit, you can mine for your account. That's how I got mine. Edit: Check https://steemd.com/@your-desired-account-name before committing to a name, as there can't be duplicates.
Another thing missing is setting mining-threads in the config.ini. Put mining-threads = X where X is the number of threads your CPU supports. If you're not sure, press CTL+Shift+ESC to open the Task Manager and click the Performance tab. The number of graph boxes under CPU usage history is the number of threads your CPU supports.
Edit: I'd also add how to get a WIF private key. My preferred method is saving the HTML from https://www.bitaddress.org and running it locally: After the mouse entropy is done, click on Bulk Wallet and uncheck the "Compressed addresses?" option, then press the Generate button. The WIF key(s) are the second string on each text line below.
Alternatively you can use the command suggest_brain_key in cli_wallet.exe.
Finally, to those that mine on Windows, please post your CPU model, speed, and hashrate! I'd like to see how it compares to Linux while using optimized libraries.
RE: [UPDATED 7/6] How-To Mine Steem Power in Windows