Windows

On Microsoft Windows platforms, you can pick from one of the following downloads:

• Self-extracting installer
• Archive distribution

Using the Windows Installer

Once you have downloaded the installer file, double-click the file to start the installation wizard. The installer enables you to specify:

• the Java™ 2 Software Development Kit to run the IDE on.
• which directory to install NetBeans IDE into.
• whether to associate .java and .nbm (NetBeans module files) with the IDE.

To launch NetBeans IDE, do one of the following:

• Double-click the NetBeans IDE icon on your desktop.
• Select NetBeans IDE | NetBeans IDE 3.6 | NetBeans IDE from the Start menu.

Using Archive Installations on Windows Machines

While the installer described above is the preferred method of installation on Microsoft Windows machines, you can also install NetBeans IDE using a tar.gz or zip file. Common archive utilities like Winzip can work with both of these file types.

To install NetBeans IDE:

1. Locate the archive that you have downloaded and double-click it to open your archive file tool.
2. Using your archive tool, extract all files to an empty directory, such as C:\NetBeans IDE 3.6.

To launch NetBeans IDE:

1. Navigate to the bin subdirectory of your NetBeans IDE installation.
2. Double-click runide.exe to start NetBeans IDE.

Solaris™ Operating System (Solaris OS) and Linux Platforms

On the Solaris and Linux platforms, you can pick from one of the following downloads:

• Binary installer
• Archive distribution

Using the Solaris and Linux Installers

To install NetBeans IDE:

1. From a command prompt, navigate to the directory that contains the installer.
2. If necessary, change the permissions to make the binary executable by typing $ chmod +x NetBeans.bin (replacing NetBeans.bin with the actual filename of the distribution that you downloaded).
3. Start the installer by typing $ ./NetBeans.bin (replacing NetBeans.bin with the actual filename of the distribution that you downloaded).
   

The installer will search for any installed J2SDKs and prompt you for which NetBeans IDE should use. You can specify a J2SDK at the command line, which might speed the installation process. For example:

$ ./NetBeans.bin -is:javahome path_to_your_jdk

Using Archive Installations on UNIX® platforms

To install NetBeans IDE:, use the appropriate tools on your platform to untar or unzip the archive distribution to a clean directory. For example, type the following from a command prompt:

$ gzip -d NetBeans.tar.gz
$ tar xf NetBeans.tar

(replacing NetBeans.tar.gz and NetBeans.tar with the actual file names).

Note: Solaris users should use GNU tar for tar.gz files to ensure that the whole archive is unpacked.

To launch NetBeans IDE, change directories to the bin subdirectory of your installation and execute the runide.sh launcher script.

Macintosh OS X

On the Macintosh OS X platform, you can pick from one of the following downloads:

• Disk image format (.dmg) file
• Archive distribution

Note: Mac OS users should use the .dmg file, which has a patch to fix the problem that is cited in issue 39780. If you install an archive distribution of the IDE on Mac OS, you could have problems properly shutting down the IDE.

Using the disk image format (.dmg) file

Once you have downloaded the image file, double-click the file to mount the file in your system.

To launch NetBeans IDE, run the NetBeansLauncher application.

Using Archive Installations on the Mac OS platform

To install NetBeans IDE:

• Open the Terminal application and change directories to where you would like to install the IDE. On the command line type:

gnutar -xvzf netbeans.tar.gz

(replacing NetBeans.tar.gz with the actual filename of the distribution that you downloaded).

To launch NetBeans IDE, change directories to the bin subdirectory of your installation and execute the runide.sh launcher script.

Other Operating Systems

Using Archive Installations
Unpack your archive using the utilities appropriate for your system.

To launch NetBeans IDE, navigate to the bin subdirectory of your NetBeans IDE installation and execute the launcher that is appropriate for your system. The following launchers are available:

runide.exe - Windows
runidew.exe - Windows (no console window)
runide.sh - UNIX
runideos2.cmd - OS/2
runideopenvms.com - OpenVMS

If there is no launcher for your specific operating system, you might need to try to create one by modifying whatever script is most appropriate. If your machine supports JDK 1.4 or greater, you should be able to run the IDE.

Note: If you create a launcher, you could contribute it to the project.

Installing on beta versions of Java™ 2 Software Development Kit (J2SDK), v. 1.5

You can run the IDE on betas of J2SDK v. 1.5, but the installer will not run if that is the only J2SDK that you have on your system. You must also have J2SDK v. 1.4.1 or compatible installed to run the installer. Once the installer is running, you can specify that the IDE should run on J2SDK v. 1.5 beta.