Click on the "DOWNLOAD ANDROID STUDIO FOR WINDOWS" button. Check the box that you agree to the terms and conditions, and then click the download button again.
Run the .exe file that is being download. Go through the installer.
Once the installer is finished, make sure you have a shortcut to launch Android Studio. If you didn't select that during install, you can go to the location that Android Studio was installed to (by default, it's C:\Program Files\Android\Android Studio\), and then go into the \bin\ folder, then create a shortcut for the "studio64.exe file". Right click and go to "Send to > " and then "Desktop (create shortcut)", or right click and choose "Create shortcut" and then drag it to the desktop.
Double click and run the shortcut. If it runs without error, you can stop the tutorial here. But if you receive the following error (common), continue onto the next steps.
The error above is because Android Studio cannot locate the JDK directory on your computer. So the first thing you have to do is make sure you have a JDK (not just JRE) downloaded to your computer. The three most common places in your computer are: C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\ (32-bit), C:\Program Files\Java\ (64-bit) or (unlikely) C:\Java\. Make sure that inside the Java folder, you have a JDK downloaded (not just a JRE).
Another way to check if you even have a JDK is to open up Windows Command Prompt (cmd.exe) and type javac -version
Go here to download the JDK (x86 is for 32-bit operating systems and x64 is for 64-bit).
The next thing you have to do is link your JAVA_HOME environment variable to point to the JDK folder.
Open up the start menu and type "edit envir" or something along those lines to search for "Edit evironment variables for your account" and then select that.
You should then see this pop up:
You should at least have TEMP and TMP variables. If you don't have a JAVA_HOME variable, click "New..." and create one with the variable name as JAVA_HOME and the variable value as the location of your JDK folder. For example, the value might be C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_31. You can copy that location in Windows Explorer by navigating to it and copying the address bar. Make sure the you are using backslashes.
If you already have a PATH variable, you can append to it. Click on it and then click "Edit...". Separate each location with semi-colons (;). For example, if your PATH value is already C:\Some Location, then you can put a semi-colon at the end of it, and then a new location. For example, it would then be C:\Some Location;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_31.
Run the program and start learning!
Android Eclipse (outdated and not advised)
Download Android Eclipse (ADT-Plugin for Eclipse) at the following links:
32-bit, 64-bit. The difference between 32-bit and 64-bit is important because it has to be the same bit version that you used to download your JDK, or are going to use when downloading your JDK.
Or you can download just the ADT-Plugin (means you already have to have Eclipse and are just updating it). The developer instructions are here.
Extract the zip file. Open up the zip file in WinRar and click "Extract To". Then choose a place to extract the folder to on your computer (contains your Eclipse files).
Or right click on the zip file and click "Extract files..." or "Extract here".
Create a shortcut to run Eclipse. Go into the folder where you extracted it to. Go into the "eclipse" folder and find "eclipse.exe". Right click on "eclipse.exe" and click "Create shortcut" (and then move the shortcut to desktop) or click "Send to > " and then "Desktop (create shortcut)".
Double click and run the shortcut. Let the launcher load and then the Workspace Launcher should appear. This is where you pick a workspace for your first project to be in. If that runs without error, you can stop the tutorial here. But if you receive the following error (common), continue onto the next steps.
The error above is because Eclipse cannot locate the JDK directory on your computer. So the first thing you have to do is make sure you have a JDK (not just JRE) downloaded to your computer. The three most common places in your computer are: C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\ (32-bit), C:\Program Files\Java\ (64-bit) or (unlikely) C:\Java\. Make sure that inside the Java folder, you have a JDK downloaded (not just a JRE).
Another way to check if you even have a JDK is to open up Windows Command Prompt (cmd.exe) and type javac -version
Go here to download the JDK (x86 is for 32-bit operating systems and x64 is for 64-bit).
The next thing you have to do is link your PATH environment variable to point to the JDK's bin folder (location of javaw.exe).
Open up the start menu and type "edit envir" or something along those lines to search for "Edit evironment variables for your account" and then select that.
You should then see this pop up:
You should at least have TEMP and TMP variables. If you don't have a PATH variable, click "New..." and create one with the variable name as PATH and the variable value as the location of your JDK's bin folder. For example, the value might be C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_31\bin. You can copy that location in Windows Explorer by navigating to it and copying the address bar. Make sure the you are using backslashes.
If you already have a PATH variable, you can append to it. Click on it and then click "Edit...". Separate each location with semi-colons (;). For example, if your PATH value is already C:\Some Location, then you can put a semi-colon at the end of it, and then a new location. For example, it would then be C:\Some Location;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_31\bin.
Run the program and start learning!
Common Errors
For Android Eclipse, there is this error ("Failed to load the JNI shared library"):
This error is from not having compatible bit versions. So if you downloaded a 32-bit JDK and a 64-bit Eclipse, that's going to be the reason for this error. So just make sure you have compatible bit versions and this error should go away.
Created: June 5, 2015
Completed in full by: Michael Yaworski
