Installing Arduino Software and Drivers on Windows 7

Created on: 6 November 2012

Step-by-step instructions on how to download and install the Arduino software for Windows. How to install the drivers for an Arduino Uno on Windows 7 and then load a sketch to test the installation.

Download and Install the Arduino Software

1. Download

Go to the Arduino website and click the download link to go to the download page. On the download page, click the Windows link to download the Arduino software for Windows as shown below.

2. Install

After downloading, locate the downloaded file on the computer and extract the folder from the downloaded zipped file. Copy the folder to a suitable place such as your desktop.

Install the Arduino Windows Drivers

1. Plug the Arduino Into the PC

Plug the Arduino board into the PC. Windows will try to install drivers, but will fail.

2. Start the Windows Device Manager

Click the Windows Start menu button.

Right-click Computer on the menu and then click Properties from the pop-up menu:

Click the Device Manager link to start the device manager:

The Device Manager will open and display the Arduino Uno:

3. Install the Device Driver

In the Device Manager Window, right-click the Arduino board and then click Update Driver Software... on the pop-up menu:

The Update Driver Software dialog box will pop up. Click Browse my computer for driver software:

Next, click the Browse... button:

Navigate to the drivers folder in the Arduino folder that you downloaded:

After selecting the driver folder, click the Next button:

In the dialog box that pops up, click Install this driver software anyway:

After some time, the driver installation will finish and you will see the following dialog box. Take note of the port that the Arduino was configured as. In this case it was COM3.

4. Setting up the Arduino Software

The setup will only need to be done once, unless you change the board type or port that the Arduino is connected to.

Navigate to the folder that you downloaded and start the Arduino software IDE by double-clicking the Arduino application:

Check that the correct Arduino board is selected. Change if necessary:

Now check that the correct serial port is selected and change if necessary. This is the serial port that you took note of after installing the Arduino driver.

5. Testing the Installation

Open the Blink sketch in the Arduino IDE:

Click the Arduino Upload button to load the sketch to the Arduino. This sketch will flash the on-board LED on the Arduino. If the sketch runs then you know that you have successfully installed the Arduino software and driver.