Install Flutter in Windows

https://flutter.dev/docs/get-started/install

System requirements
To install and run Flutter, your development environment must meet these minimum
requirements:

 Operating Systems: Windows 7 SP1 or later (64-bit), x86-64 based.

 Disk Space: 1.64 GB (does not include disk space for IDE/tools).
 Tools: Flutter depends on these tools being available in your environment.
o Windows PowerShell 5.0 or newer (this is pre-installed with Windows 10)

o Git for Windows 2.x, with the Use Git from the Windows Command Prompt
option.

If Git for Windows is already installed, make sure you can run git commands
from the command prompt or PowerShell.

Get the Flutter SDK

1. Download the following installation bundle to get the latest stable release of the
Flutter SDK:

1. For other release channels, and older builds, see the SDK releases page.

2. Extract the zip file and place the contained flutter in the desired installation location
for the Flutter SDK (for example, C:\Users\<your-user-name>\Documents).

Warning: Do not install Flutter in a directory like C:\Program Files\ that requires elevated
privileges.

If you don’t want to install a fixed version of the installation bundle, you can skip steps 1 and
2. Instead, get the source code from the Flutter repo on GitHub, and change branches or
tags as needed. For example:

C:\src>git clone https://github.com/flutter/flutter.git -b stable

You are now ready to run Flutter commands in the Flutter Console.

Update your path

If you wish to run Flutter commands in the regular Windows console, take these steps to
add Flutter to the PATH environment variable:

 From the Start search bar, enter ‘env’ and select Edit environment variables for your
account.
  Under User variables check if there is an entry called Path:
o If the entry exists, append the full path to flutter\bin using ; as a separator from
existing values.
o If the entry doesn’t exist, create a new user variable named Path with the full path to
flutter\bin as its value.

You have to close and reopen any existing console windows for these changes to take effect.

Note: As of Flutter’s 1.19.0 dev release, the Flutter SDK contains the dart command
alongside the flutter command so that you can more easily run Dart command-line programs.
Downloading the Flutter SDK also downloads the compatible version of Dart, but if you’ve
downloaded the Dart SDK separately, make sure that the Flutter version of dart is first in
your path, as the two versions might not be compatible. The following command tells you
whether the flutter and dart commands originate from the same bin directory and are
therefore compatible.

where flutter dart

C:\path-to-flutter-sdk\bin\flutter
C:\path-to-flutter-sdk\bin\flutter.bat
C:\path-to-dart-sdk\bin\dart.exe :: this should go after `C:\path-to-flutter-sdk\bin\` commands
C:\path-to-flutter-sdk\bin\dart
C:\path-to-flutter-sdk\bin\dart.bat

As shown above, the command dart from the Flutter SDK doesn’t come first. Update your
path to use commands from C:\path-to-flutter-sdk\bin\ before commands from C:\path-to-dart-
sdk\bin\ (in this case). After restarting your shell for the change to take effect, running the
where command again should show that the flutter and dart commands from the same
directory now come first.

where flutter dart

C:\dev\src\flutter\bin\flutter
C:\dev\src\flutter\bin\flutter.bat
C:\dev\src\flutter\bin\dart
C:\dev\src\flutter\bin\dart.bat
C:\dev\src\dart-sdk\bin\dart.exe

However, if you are using PowerShell, in it where is an alias of Where-Object command, so you
need to use where.exe instead.

where.exe flutter dart

To learn more about the dart command, run dart -h from the command line, or see the dart
tool page.

Run flutter doctor

From a console window that has the Flutter directory in the path (see above), run the
following command to see if there are any platform dependencies you need to complete the
setup:
C:\src\flutter>flutter doctor

This command checks your environment and displays a report of the status of your Flutter
installation. Check the output carefully for other software you might need to install or
further tasks to perform (shown in bold text).

For example:

[-] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices

• Android SDK at D:\Android\sdk
✗ Android SDK is missing command line tools; download from https://goo.gl/XxQghQ
• Try re-installing or updating your Android SDK,
visit https://flutter.dev/setup/#android-setup for detailed instructions.

The following sections describe how to perform these tasks and finish the setup process.
Once you have installed any missing dependencies, you can run the flutter doctor command
again to verify that you’ve set everything up correctly.

Note: If flutter doctor returns that either the Flutter plugin or Dart plugin of Android Studio
are not installed, move on to Set up an editor to resolve this issue.

Warning: The flutter tool uses Google Analytics to anonymously report feature usage
statistics and basic crash reports. This data is used to help improve Flutter tools over time.

Flutter tool analytics are not sent on the very first run. To disable reporting, type flutter config
--no-analytics. To display the current setting, type flutter config. If you opt out of analytics, an
opt-out event is sent, and then no further information is sent by the Flutter tool.

By downloading the Flutter SDK, you agree to the Google Terms of Service. Note: The
Google Privacy Policy describes how data is handled in this service.

Moreover, Flutter includes the Dart SDK, which may send usage metrics and crash reports to
Google.

Android setup
Note: Flutter relies on a full installation of Android Studio to supply its Android platform
dependencies. However, you can write your Flutter apps in a number of editors; a later step
discusses that.

Install Android Studio

1. Download and install Android Studio.

2. Start Android Studio, and go through the ‘Android Studio Setup Wizard’. This installs the
latest Android SDK, Android SDK Command-line Tools, and Android SDK Build-Tools, which
are required by Flutter when developing for Android.
3. Run flutter doctor to confirm that Flutter has located your installation of Android Studio. If
Flutter cannot locate it, run flutter config --android-studio-dir <directory> to set the directory
that Android Studio is installed to.
Set up your Android device

To prepare to run and test your Flutter app on an Android device, you need an Android
device running Android 4.1 (API level 16) or higher.

1. Enable Developer options and USB debugging on your device. Detailed instructions are
available in the Android documentation.
2. Windows-only: Install the Google USB Driver.
3. Using a USB cable, plug your phone into your computer. If prompted on your device,
authorize your computer to access your device.
4. In the terminal, run the flutter devices command to verify that Flutter recognizes your
connected Android device. By default, Flutter uses the version of the Android SDK where
your adb tool is based. If you want Flutter to use a different installation of the Android SDK,
you must set the ANDROID_SDK_ROOT environment variable to that installation directory.

Set up the Android emulator

To prepare to run and test your Flutter app on the Android emulator, follow these steps:

1. Enable VM acceleration on your machine.

2. Launch Android Studio, click the AVD Manager icon, and select Create Virtual Device…
o In older versions of Android Studio, you should instead launch Android Studio >
Tools > Android > AVD Manager and select Create Virtual Device…. (The Android
submenu is only present when inside an Android project.)
o If you do not have a project open, you can choose Configure > AVD Manager and
select Create Virtual Device…
3. Choose a device definition and select Next.
4. Select one or more system images for the Android versions you want to emulate, and select
Next. An x86 or x86_64 image is recommended.
5. Under Emulated Performance, select Hardware - GLES 2.0 to enable hardware acceleration.

6. Verify the AVD configuration is correct, and select Finish.

For details on the above steps, see Managing AVDs.

7. In Android Virtual Device Manager, click Run in the toolbar. The emulator starts up and
displays the default canvas for your selected OS version and device.

Agree to Android Licenses

Before you can use Flutter, you must agree to the licenses of the Android SDK platform. This
step should be done after you have installed the tools listed above.

1. Make sure that you have a version of Java 8 installed and that your JAVA_HOME
environment variable is set to the JDK’s folder.

Android Studio versions 2.2 and higher come with a JDK, so this should already be
done.
 2. Open an elevated console window and run the following command to begin signing licenses.

2. flutter doctor --android-licenses

3.
4. Review the terms of each license carefully before agreeing to them.
5. Once you are done agreeing with licenses, run flutter doctor again to confirm that you are
ready to use Flutter.

Windows setup
Warning: Beta (Win32) and Dev (UWP)! This area covers Windows desktop support, which
is available in beta release (Win32) and alpha release (UWP).

The Win32 variant still has notable feature gaps, including accessibility support, while the
UWP variant is still in very active development.

You can try a beta snapshot of Win32 desktop support on the stable channel, or you can
keep up with the latest changes to desktop on the beta channel. For Windows UWP you
need to be on the dev channel.

For more information, see the Desktop section in What’s new in Flutter 2.2, a free article on
Medium.

Additional Windows requirements

For Windows desktop development, you need the following in addition to the Flutter SDK:

 Visual Studio 2019 (not to be confused with Visual Studio Code). For Win32 you need the
“Desktop development with C++” workload installed, including all of its default components.
For UWP you need the “Universal Windows Platform development” workload installed, with
the optional UWP C++ tools.

Enable desktop support

At the command line, perform the following command to enable Win32 desktop support:

flutter config --enable-windows-desktop

For Windows UWP desktop support perform the following commands to switch to the dev
channel, upgrade Flutter, and enable UWP.

flutter channel dev

flutter upgrade
flutter config --enable-windows-uwp-desktop

For more information, see Desktop support for Flutter

Web setup
Flutter has support for building web applications in the stable channel. Any app created in
Flutter 2 automatically builds for the web. To add web support to an existing app, follow the
instructions on Building a web application with Flutter when you’ve completed the setup
above.

Next step
Set up your preferred editor.

Set up an editor
1. Docs

2. Get started

3. Set up an editor

You can build apps with Flutter using any text editor combined with our command-line
tools. However, we recommend using one of our editor plugins for an even better
experience. These plugins provide you with code completion, syntax highlighting, widget
editing assists, run & debug support, and more.

Follow the steps below to add an editor plugin for Android Studio, IntelliJ, VS Code, or
Emacs. If you want to use a different editor, that’s OK, skip ahead to the next step: Test
drive.

 Android Studio and IntelliJ

 Visual Studio Code

 Emacs

Install Android Studio

Android Studio offers a complete, integrated IDE experience for Flutter.

 Android Studio, version 3.0 or later

Alternatively, you can also use IntelliJ:

 IntelliJ IDEA Community, version 2017.1 or later

 IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate, version 2017.1 or later

Install the Flutter and Dart plugins

The installation instructions vary by platform.
Mac

Use the following instructions for macos:

1. Start Android Studio.

2. Open plugin preferences (Preferences > Plugins as of v3.6.3.0 or later).
3. Select the Flutter plugin and click Install.
4. Click Yes when prompted to install the Dart plugin.
5. Click Restart when prompted.

Linux or Windows

Use the following instructions for Linux or WIndows:

1. Open plugin preferences (File > Settings > Plugins).

2. Select Marketplace, select the Flutter plugin and click Install.

Test drive
1. Docs

2. Get started

3. Test drive

This page describes how to create a new Flutter app from templates, run it, and experience
“hot reload” after you make changes to the app.

Select your development tool of choice for writing, building, and running Flutter apps.

 Android Studio and IntelliJ

 Visual Studio Code

 Terminal & editor

Create the app

1. Open the IDE and select Create New Flutter Project.
2. Select Flutter Application as the project type. Then click Next.
3. Verify the Flutter SDK path specifies the SDK’s location (select Install SDK… if the text field is
blank).
4. Enter a project name (for example, myapp). Then click Next.
5. Click Finish.
6. Wait for Android Studio to install the SDK and create the project.

Note: When creating a new Flutter app, some Flutter IDE plugins ask for a company domain
name in reverse order, something like com.example. The company domain name and project
name are used together as the package name for Android (the Bundle ID for iOS) when the
app is released. If you think that the app might be released, it’s better to specify the package
name now. The package name can’t be changed once the app is released, so make the name
unique.

The above commands create a Flutter project directory called myapp that contains a simple
demo app that uses Material Components.

Tip: The code for your app is in lib/main.dart. For a high-level description of what each code
block does, see the comments at the top of that file.

Run the app

1. Locate the main Android Studio toolbar:

2. In the target selector, select an Android device for running the app. If none are listed as
available, select Tools > AVD Manager and create one there. For details, see Managing
AVDs.
3. Click the run icon in the toolbar, or invoke the menu item Run > Run.

After the app build completes, you’ll see the starter app on your device.
 Starter app

Try hot reload

Flutter offers a fast development cycle with Stateful Hot Reload, the ability to reload the
code of a live running app without restarting or losing app state. Make a change to app
source, tell your IDE or command-line tool that you want to hot reload, and see the change
in your simulator, emulator, or device.

1. Open lib/main.dart.

2. Change the string

'You have pushed the button this many times'

to
 2. 'You have clicked the button this many times'

Important: Do not stop your app. Let your app run.

3. Save your changes: invoke Save All, or click Hot Reload .

You’ll see the updated string in the running app almost immediately.

Profile or release runs

Important: Do not test the performance of your app with debug and hot reload enabled.

So far you’ve been running your app in debug mode. Debug mode trades performance for
useful developer features such as hot reload and step debugging. It’s not unexpected to see
slow performance and janky animations in debug mode. Once you are ready to analyze
performance or release your app, you’ll want to use Flutter’s “profile” or “release” build
modes. For more details, see Flutter’s build modes.

Important: If you’re concerned about the package size of your app, see Measuring your
app’s size.