Setup IntelliJ on Windows System for Java Programming
The following video walks you through the entire process step by step to setup your computer and environment on Windows:
Setup IntelliJ on Mac for Java Programming
The following video walks you through the entire process step by step to setup your computer and environment for Macbook:
System Requirements
For all our courses, students need to bring their own laptop to class. Here are the basic requirements for your laptop:
– Operating System: either iOS (Macbook or Macbook Air/Pro) or Windows. No Chromebook.
– RAM: minimum 8 GM, recommended 16 GM.
– Disk space: minimum 128 GB, recommended 256+ GB.
– CPU: recommended Intel i5+/8th+ generation or equivalent (1.5 GHz)
Steps
Step 1. Download IntelliJ
Visit https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/download/ and make sure you select the COMMUNITY version, NOT the ULTIMATE version.
Step 2. Setup IntelliJ
- Follow the instruction at https://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/install-and-set-up-product.html up to (but not including) the section of “Register IntelliJ IDEA”.
Step 3. Test with a project and class
- Open up IntelliJ, select File->New->Project
- You should see this window opened up:
Pay attention to the “Project SDK” field, and make sure it shows a valid JDK version. It could be 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, …, which are all fine, and your setup is now complete.
If it displays a message that says “no SDK found”, then you need to manually download and install JDK, please follow the instructions below for step 4.
Step 4. Download and install JDK
- Visit https://www.java.com/en/download/ (You are still recommending JDK 8 because that is the official supported version from USACO)
- After downloading the correct JDK file, open it and follow the instructions to install. Write down which directory the JDK is installed into.
- After the installation is completed, go back to IntelliJ. In the screen shot window above, click on the “New” button near the upper right corner. You will see a drop down select list as shown below:
Choose “JDK”. You will see this window popped up: 
Navigate to the directory location that you installed JDK to (which you wrote down if you followed the instruction), select it, and click “OK”, and your IntelliJ should have the JDK installed and setup and ready to be used. That is it! Your setup is now complete. See you in class!