How to setup Flutter on Windows? – Complete Guide

Flutter is an open-source cross-platform development SDK, using it we can develop applications for Mobile, Web, and Desktop from a single codebase. Flutter is created by Google and uses dart as the language. In this tutorial, we will setup flutter for Windows.

Reasons to use Flutter :

• Multiple Platforms, Single Codebase
• Real Time Hot Reload
• User Friendly Language (Dart)
• Helpful Community

Setup

1. System Requirements:

2. Files Required:

• Flutter SDK: Download the latest stable version of Flutter SDK from here.

• Android Studio: Download the latest Android Studio from here. Android Studio is needed to download the Android SDK and Command Line Tools via the SDK manager. You can also create emulators using it easily, more on that here.

• Visual Studio Code: You can download the latest VS code from here. It’s an editor like Android Studio but uses less resources thus more preferred.

3. Setting up the software:

• Flutter SDK:

1. Extract the resources from the zip.
2. Place the files under the C directory as C\flutter or C\Users\{YourUserName}\flutter. This path will be required on a later step while setting environment varibles so copy it or note it beforehand.

NOTE: Don't place the Flutter SDK under any privileged folder. eg: C:\Program Files\

• Android Studio: (internet connection needed)

1. Run the setup of Android Studio.
2. Download the Android SDK and the Virtual Device as well for using the emulator.

3. Then open Android Studio and open the SDK manager.

4. Go to the SDK Tools tab and download the SDK Command Line Tools.

• Visual Studio Code: Install the executable of VS Code and download the following plugin.

You might also be interested in:

• Complete Guide to ValueNotifier
• Reduce number of imports
• Create Custom Snippets in Flutter

4. Setting up Environment Variables

1. Go to the directory where you pasted the Flutter SDK and copy the path of the bin folder. eg: C:\flutter\bin
2. Search Environment Variables on the start search menu and open the first result.

3. This will open the following page, under the system variables in double-click on the path.

4. Create a new environment variable and paste the path of the Flutter SDK.

5. Save the variables and open the command prompt and run the following command and you will see the following output.

flutter doctor

6. Run the following command to fix the error of android licenses:

flutter doctor --android-licenses

• You will see a couple of these, press ‘y’ and accept all.

Accept? (y/N):

7. After that you re-run the flutter doctor command and you will see the following output showing that everything is fine, and kudos you can now start building your apps with Flutter.

Next, you must take a look at these topics:

• App lifecycle in Flutter
• Sound null safety in Flutter
• Streams in Flutter
• Complete Guide to GetX in Flutter