How to Setup Android Development Environment on Windows

The following is a step by step guide on how to setup the new Android Developer Tools Bundle released recently, which contains a pre-configured version of Eclipse IDE with built-in ADT (Android Developer Tools) to streamline your Android App Development, for those of you who don’t have the Android Development Environment Setup.

Please take the following steps:

1.   Go to the Following URL and download adt-bundle-windows-x86_64.zip: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html#win-bundle
2.       Extract it in a location on your machine (preferably on C:\Android\ or a directory directly on the root).
3.       Navigate into the /eclipse directory and run “eclipse.exe” executable.
4.       When prompted with a security prompt, click “Run” and uncheck “Always ask before opening this file”.

5. When asked for the Workspace path, choose the default and check the “Use this as the default and do not ask again” checkbox:

6.       Go to File > New > Android Application Project to create a test Application: 

7.       Enter “HelloWorld” as the Application Name and accept all the default Minimum Required SDK, Target SDK, Compile With and Theme values:

 

8.       Click “Next” on the next 3 screen, followed by “Finish”. The application will download a few packages onto your machine. Allow it a few minutes to complete and initiate your Project (this only happens the first time you create a project)
9.       Close the Android IDE Welcome screen. You should now see the following:

10.   Click on the “Android Virtual Device Manager” icon in the top Menu Bar. This pops open a new window.
11.   Click on the “New” button to create a new Virtual Android Device (Emulator).
12.   On the “Create new Android Device (AVD)” screen, enter a name for the “AVD Name” field, choose a Device type (example “3.2” QVGA (ADP2) (320 x 480: mdpi), then choose a “Target” (example Android 4.2 – API Level 17). Lastly, enter a size for the SD Card field (example 768 MB) and hit “OK”.  Please note that different virtual devices require different SD Card sizes, so it may take some trial and error to determine the correct size for your virtual device.

 
13.   Close out of the Device Manager Screen, which should now show your new virtual device:

 

14.   Right-Click on the “HelloWorld” root folder, go to Run As > 1 Android Application to run your Application: 



15.   Give the emulator a minute to load. Once it is loaded, you should see a screen similar to the following:

Want to see a video of the whole thing? Take a look at this video:

That’s it! You are now ready to begin coding. Feel free to email me comments or questions as needed.

Thanks,

Pete Soheil

DigiOz Multimedia, Inc.

www.digioz.com

P.S. You also have the option of Developing Android Apps in Mac OS X or even Linux if you so desire. The instructions for those platforms are slightly different. Feel free to post any questions regarding those here as well.