Windows XP

Java Development Kit (JDK)

Configuration

Instructions

1. Go to http://java.sun.com

2. Click on “Java SE” on the right (under “Popular Downloads”.)

3. On the page that loads, scroll down until you see “Java SE

Development Kit (JDK).” Click on the “Download” button to

the right.

NOTE: At the time of writing (January 2009) the latest version

of the JDK is 6 Update 11.

4. On the page that loads, choose Windows as your platform,

set language to Multi-Language, and select the checkbox.

Finally, click the orange “Continue >>” button.

NOTE: If you are confident that you are on a 64-bit Windows

installation, you can select Windows x64 as your platform.

5. On the next screen that loads click to download the “Java SE

Development Kit.”

NOTE: You may be requested to use the Sun Downloader to

download Java. I advise just using the directly linked full

download.

6. Chose to save the file.

7. Downloading the file may take a couple of minutes based on

your connection speed.

8. Go to where you downloaded the JDK.

9. Launch the installer. If given a security warning click the

“Run” button.

10. The installer should begin loading. Please be patient.

11. Eventually you will be presented with an End User License

Agreement (EULA). Read it before clicking the “Accept >”

button.

12. For this course, a default installation is completely fine, so

just click the “Next >” button.

NOTE: Pay attention to the “Install to:” location, you will

need it later.

13. Be patient while Java installs the JDK.

14. You will then be asked to install the Java Runtime Engine

(JRE.) Click the “Next >” button.

15. Be patient while Java installs the JRE.

16. You are now done installing Java. All that is left is

configuration.

Note: You may be asked to reboot your computer at this

point. If you are, please do so.

17. Now load the System Properties panel by right clicking on

“My Computer” in the start menu and selecting

properties.

Note: This step can be done in other ways too. Such as…

Right clicking on My Computer on the desktop and

selecting properties.

Holding the Windows-key () on your keyboard and

pressing the “Pause” key. (This may require holding

FN on some laptops.)

18. The System Properties dialog should load.

19. Click on the “Advanced” tab.

20. Click on “Environment Variables” button.

21. The “Environment Variables” dialog should load.

22. In the “System variables” region, scroll down until you see

the “Path” variable.

23. Click the lower “Edit” button.

24. You should now be editing the “Path” variable.

25. Remember the “Install to:” location on Step 12? That is the

line you need to add to the end of the path. Be sure to

prefix the location with a ; and post fix it with bin

Therefore you want to add:

;<YOUR_INSTALL_LOCATION>bin

On MY computer, that meant:

;c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_11\bin

WARNING: BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO OVERWRITE ALL THE

EXISTING ENTRIES IN YOUR PATH!

26. Click the “OK” button to confirm your change.

27. Click the “OK” button in the Environment Variables dialog.

28. Click the “OK” button in the System Properties dialog.

29. Now to test our changes. Open the “Command Prompt” by

going to:

Start All Programs Accessories Command Prompt

Note: This step can be done in other ways too. Such as…

Opening the Run Dialog and entering the command

“cmd” (without the quotes.)

30. The command prompt should load.

31. Enter the command “path” (without the quotes) and press

enter. You should see the new path location, which

includes your update.

32. Enter the command “java -version” (without the quotes)

and press enter. You should see the JRE version you have

installed.

33. Enter the command “javac -version” (without the quotes)

and press enter. You should see the JDK version you have

installed.

34. Close the command prompt by click on the x on the top

right or typing “exit” (without the quotes) and pressing

enter.

At this point, you can delete the JDK installer that you

downloaded on step 6.

THE END

(CONGRADULATIONS)