Environment setup for windows

This is a basic environment set up from a clean build of Windows 7. I used the trial version (Windows 7 Enterprise) and installed it in a VMWare Player.

• First, decide where you want to install software. Many installer packages will default to installing in C:\Program Files, but others will avoid that to avoid problems with spaces in path names or the way Windows deals with a large file name. I prefer to avoid the problem and force a common simple path. I'll use c:\dev for this setup.

• Install Ruby. You've got a bunch of options for getting ruby. I'll use the RubyInstaller. Download and run the desired installer and make sure you change the default install location. This installer will update the PATH for you. I used the following installer:

http://dl.bintray.com/oneclick/rubyinstaller/rubyinstaller-2.0.0-p353.exe

• Install Rake. Rubygems comes with the installer, but you'll need to get rake:

gem install rake

• Install the Java JDK. Again, change the default install location. I typically create a java directory to put the JDK and JRE inside. I used the following installer:

http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/7u51-b13/jdk-7u51-windows-i586.exe

• Install Ant. Select a mirror to download from. Here you're just downloading an archive, so you'll need to extract it into C:\dev. I used the following archive:

http://mirror.reverse.net/pub/apache//ant/binaries/apache-ant-1.9.3-bin.zip

• And now get Android. I ended up just using the archive. The installer failed to find the JDK I had installed (even when it was in the PATH), so I'm guessing it just checks the default installation location. Extract the archive into c:\dev. Open up the android-sdk_r15-windows directory and move the android-sdk-windows directory up into c:\dev, and then remove android-sdk_r15-windows. I used the following archive:

http://dl.google.com/android/android-sdk_r15-windows.zip

• Add the following information to your Environment (Start -> Computer -> Properties -> Advanced system settings -> Environment Variables...):

DEV_HOME=c:\Dev
ANDROID_HOME=%DEV_HOME%\android-sdk-windows
JAVA_HOME=%DEV_HOME%\Java\jdk1.7.0_51
ANT_HOME=%DEV_HOME%\apache-ant-1.9.3
ANT_OPTS=-Xmx256M

• And append the following to your Environment's PATH (Ruby has already been added by the installer):

;%ANDROID_HOME%\tools;%ANDROID_HOME%\platform-tools;%JAVA_HOME%\bin;%ANT_HOME%\bin

• Run android and install the tools and platforms or run from the command line:

android update sdk -u -t platform-tool
android update sdk -u -t platform