Getting Started with Arduino

Installing Drivers: Windows

Plug the Arduino board into the computer; when the Found New Hardware Wizard window comes up, Windows will first try to find the driver on the Windows Update site.

Windows XP will ask you whether to check Windows Update; if you don't want to use Windows Update, select the "No, not at this time" option and click Next.

On the next screen, choose "Install from a list or specific location" and click Next.

Check the box labeled "Include this location in the search", click Browse, select the folder where you installed Arduino, and select the Drivers\FTDI USB Drivers folder as the location. Click OK, and Next.

Windows Vista will first attempt to find the driver on Windows Update; if that fails, you can instruct it to look in the Drivers\FTDI USB Drivers folder.

You'll go through this procedure twice, because the computer first installs the low-level driver, then installs a piece of code that makes the board look like a serial port to the computer.

Once the drivers are installed, you can launch the Arduino IDE and start using Arduino.

Next, you must figure out which serial port is assigned to your Arduino board—you'll need that information to program it later. The instructions for getting this information are in the following sections.