Installing Eclipse Luna on Windows 10

I have recently been playing around with the insider preview of Windows 10. Love it so far, and since everyone will likely upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 10, I thought I’d write some articles using it.

This article explains how to install Eclipse Luna on Windows 10. Eclipse is unique to most IDE’s in that it doesn’t have an installer.

Download and Install Eclipse

First, go to www.eclipse.org and click Download.

Assuming you are using a 64 Bit version of Windows, choose Windows 64 Bit next to Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers. I like this edition because it seems to come with the most complete set of tools pre build in.

Choose a mirror from the screen presented to download Eclipse.

While it is downloading it would be a good time to create the directory where you want to place your Eclipse installation into. My preference is to create a folder called Applications within my users home folder (in my case, C:\Users\mark\). If you can’t find your user directory you can press Windows Key + R and type %USERPROFILE% and hit enter to load it. Right click the white space and select New > Folder.

Now give the folder the name Applications.

Now, assuming you have a half decent internet connection, Eclipse Luna should be downloaded. (If not, then go make a cup of green tea). Navigate to your downloads and right click the eclipse-jee-luna zip file and select Extra All…

In the Extract Compressed (Zipped) Folders screen, select Browse to choose the location to extract the files to.

Navigate to the Applications folder we created earlier.

Select Extract to begin extracting the files to the directory.

If done correctly, the files will begin extracting.

Navigate to the location where you extracted Eclipse too. Double click on the Eclipse folder.

Here you will see all of Eclipse’s files. Right Click on the Eclipse executable and select Send to > Desktop (create shortcut) to create a shortcut on your home screen.

Double click on Eclipse. If it loads then that’s great, you are all done, however chances are you will get the below error message if you do not have the Java Development Kit (JDK) installed.

Download and Install Java JDK

To install Java, go to the Java download page: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html. Then select Download above where it says Java Platform (JDK). (The JDK is important).

On the next screen you will be presented with the different download options. First, have a lawyer read the Oracle Binary Code License Agreement for Java SE thoroughly and click Accept License Agreement if you agree to the terms. Then choose the Windows x64 version if you have 64 bit, or Windows x86 if you have a 32 bit version.

Once the installer is downloaded, navigate to your downloads folder and double click on the downloaded file jdk-8u45-windows-x64 (Note: the version might be different depending on when you downloaded it).

The Java SE Development Kit 8 Update 45 (64-bit) – Setup window should appear. Choose Next > on the first screen.

In the Custom Setup page, review the settings and select Next >.

I recommend leaving the Destination Folder default, and clicking Next >.

Now, the Progress bar will move until it’s complete.

After the installation completes successfully, you will see the Complete screen. Click on Close to close the screen.

Load Eclipse

Now go back to your Eclipse installation and double click on Eclipse. This time, it should load.

You will be prompted to Select a workspace. This is the location where the working files for your projects will be stored. By default, it will be C:\Users\<user>\workspace, however I recommend appending eclipse_luna to the end of this, because I like to use the same workspace folder for many different IDE’s and this will prevent them conflicting.

When eclipse first loads, it will look like this.

There you have it, Eclipse is now installed and ready to rock and roll!