diff --git a/FasterBuilds.md b/FasterBuilds.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..896344221b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/FasterBuilds.md
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+# Faster Builds for Developers
+
+When you run `./gradlew build`, it builds EVERYTHING. This means debug and release builds for desktop and all installed cross compilers. For many developers, this is way too much, and causes much developer pain.
+
+To help with some of these things, common tasks have shortcuts to only build necessary things for common development and testing tasks.
+
+## Development (Desktop)
+
+For projects `wpiutil`, `ntcore`, `cscore`, `hal` `wpilibOldCommands`, `wpilibNewCommands` and `cameraserver`, a `testDesktopJava` and a `testDesktopCpp` task exists. These can be ran with `./gradlew :projectName:task`, and will only build the minimum things required to run those tests.
+
+For `wpilibc`, a `testDesktopCpp` task exists. For `wpilibj`, a `testDesktopJava` task exists.
+
+For `wpilibcExamples`, a `buildDesktopCpp` task exists (These can't be ran, but they can compile).
+
+For `wpilibjExamples`, a `buildDesktopJava` task exists.
diff --git a/shared/cppDesktopTestTask.gradle b/shared/cppDesktopTestTask.gradle
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..04b7224df4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shared/cppDesktopTestTask.gradle
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+model {
+    tasks {
+        def ts = $.testSuites
+        project.tasks.register('testDesktopCpp') { testTask->
+            def systemArch = getCurrentArch()
+            def found = false
+            ts.each {
+                if (it in GoogleTestTestSuiteSpec && it.name == "${nativeName}Test") {
+                    it.binaries.each {
+                        if (found) return
+                        def arch = it.targetPlatform.name
+                        if (arch == systemArch && it.buildType.name == 'debug') {
+                            testTask.dependsOn it.tasks.run
+                            found = true
+                        }
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/shared/javaDesktopTestTask.gradle b/shared/javaDesktopTestTask.gradle
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..766fa50bb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shared/javaDesktopTestTask.gradle
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+tasks.register('testDesktopJava') {
+  dependsOn test
+}
diff --git a/shared/javacpp/setupBuild.gradle b/shared/javacpp/setupBuild.gradle
index 4e6dba77f4..04086ad4e5 100644
--- a/shared/javacpp/setupBuild.gradle
+++ b/shared/javacpp/setupBuild.gradle
@@ -141,6 +141,9 @@ model {
     }
 }
 
+apply from: "${rootDir}/shared/cppDesktopTestTask.gradle"
+apply from: "${rootDir}/shared/javaDesktopTestTask.gradle"
+
 tasks.withType(RunTestExecutable) {
     args "--gtest_output=xml:test_detail.xml"
     outputs.dir outputDir
diff --git a/shared/jni/setupBuild.gradle b/shared/jni/setupBuild.gradle
index 7622d0eef8..6c6148cfe4 100644
--- a/shared/jni/setupBuild.gradle
+++ b/shared/jni/setupBuild.gradle
@@ -275,6 +275,9 @@ model {
     }
 }
 
+apply from: "${rootDir}/shared/cppDesktopTestTask.gradle"
+apply from: "${rootDir}/shared/javaDesktopTestTask.gradle"
+
 ext.getJniSpecClass = {
     return JniNativeLibrarySpec
 }
diff --git a/wpilibc/build.gradle b/wpilibc/build.gradle
index 8730824523..4ee57667d6 100644
--- a/wpilibc/build.gradle
+++ b/wpilibc/build.gradle
@@ -231,6 +231,8 @@ model {
     }
 }
 
+apply from: "${rootDir}/shared/cppDesktopTestTask.gradle"
+
 tasks.withType(RunTestExecutable) {
     args "--gtest_output=xml:test_detail.xml"
     outputs.dir outputDir
diff --git a/wpilibcExamples/build.gradle b/wpilibcExamples/build.gradle
index 12279df38f..c6c1dfff3c 100644
--- a/wpilibcExamples/build.gradle
+++ b/wpilibcExamples/build.gradle
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ apply plugin: 'visual-studio'
 apply plugin: 'edu.wpi.first.NativeUtils'
 apply plugin: ExtraTasks
 
+evaluationDependsOn(':hal')
+
 apply from: '../shared/config.gradle'
 
 ext.examplesMap = [:]
@@ -222,6 +224,25 @@ model {
 }
 apply from: 'publish.gradle'
 
+model {
+    tasks {
+        def c = $.components
+        project.tasks.register('buildDesktopCpp') { compileTask->
+            def systemArch = getCurrentArch()
+            c.each {
+                if (it in NativeExecutableSpec && it.name) {
+                    it.binaries.each {
+                        def arch = it.targetPlatform.name
+                        if (arch == systemArch && it.buildType.name == 'debug') {
+                            compileTask.dependsOn it.tasks.link
+                        }
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 ext {
     templateDirectory = new File("$projectDir/src/main/cpp/templates/")
     templateFile = new File("$projectDir/src/main/cpp/templates/templates.json")
diff --git a/wpilibj/build.gradle b/wpilibj/build.gradle
index cf6c4e5855..b2e22fb39d 100644
--- a/wpilibj/build.gradle
+++ b/wpilibj/build.gradle
@@ -170,3 +170,5 @@ test {
         showStandardStreams = true
     }
 }
+
+apply from: "${rootDir}/shared/javaDesktopTestTask.gradle"
diff --git a/wpilibjExamples/build.gradle b/wpilibjExamples/build.gradle
index 651d8e5d24..2016632531 100644
--- a/wpilibjExamples/build.gradle
+++ b/wpilibjExamples/build.gradle
@@ -39,6 +39,10 @@ gradle.projectsEvaluated {
     }
 }
 
+tasks.register('buildDesktopJava') {
+    it.dependsOn tasks.withType(JavaCompile)
+}
+
 apply from: 'publish.gradle'
 
 ext {