Installation Guide for Windows

This guide supplies step-by-step instructions for installing the required tools for the course.

Before You Begin

First, create accounts for the following services if you have not already:

Additionally, accept the invite for your section on Slack. You will receive the link to your class-specific channel during orientation.

Microsoft Excel

Excel will not be used for activities, assignments, or assessments, but you may need to use Excel to open files. We suggest using the free trial version of Microsoft Office 365.

Microsoft Office 365 trial period is a month-long; we recommend initiating the free trial on the first day of class. Follow the link and install Office 365. You will not be charged anything as long as you cancel before the free trial period ends.

There are also several free alternatives to Microsoft Excel, such as Google Sheets and Apache OpenOffice. You are more than welcome to use one of these, but be aware that we will be using Excel in class and there may be some differences in commands and functionality.

VS Code

  1. Go to the setup page on the VS Code website and select Windows as your platform.

  2. When the download is complete, run the installer file VSCodeSetup-version.exe.

Note For a 64-bit machine, VS Code is installed under C:\Program Files \(x86\)\Microsoft VS Code.

Git and Git Bash

Follow these instructions to set your Git username for every repository on your computer and set your email address for every repository on your computer.

  1. Go to the Git Downloads page. Select the download for Windows. It should automatically download the most up to date version.

  2. Click Next to progress through the installation until you get to the screen that asks you to choose a default editor for Git. Select Use Visual Studio Code as Git's default editor.

Git set up window selecting "Use Visual Studio Code as Git's default editor."

  1. When you see a prompt like this, select Checkout as-is, commit Unix-style line endings.

Git set up window, selecting "Checkout as-is, commit Unix-style line endings"

  1. Finally, select Use Windows' default console window.

Git set up window, selecting "Use Windows' default console window"

Any settings not mentioned here can be left in their default mode.

Install pgAdmin and Postgres

Coding with SQL requires an editor with the ability to execute the scripts that are created by developers. This section guides you through the process of installing pgAdmin and Postgres on a Mac.

Install pgAdmin and Postgres

Install Anaconda for Python

We just have one more tool to download before you are ready to go. Use the following link to install Anaconda for Python:

Install Anaconda for Python

You're Done!

That's all for the installations. Your machine has everything it needs to hit the ground running on the first day of class!