Setup your Windows machine to run Java and Spring applications on VS Code.

In this blog, I will be showing you how you can setup your personal computer to work with Spring Boot using Java. If you are new to Java development and just bought a new computer, then this blog will teach you just that and set your laptop/computer up for development purposes.

System Requirements :-

1. Windows 7 or 10
2. 64 bit Operating System
3. At least 2 GB of Ram (4 GB recommended)
4. 8 GB of free disk space

Software, Programs and Tools to Download :-

Needless to say, but if you are trying to work with Java, you’ll obviously need the Java Development Kit (JDK) to code, run, test and build Java programs and applications. Note that you must have an Oracle account to be able to download JDK 11 installer. If not, creating one is free. So the first program that we are downloading is

Java Development Kit - download JDK version 11 that is compatible with your operating system and install it with default settings and configurations.

The next thing you need to do to run java programs is to add environment and path variables so that you can execute Java commands in the Windows Terminal or Command Prompt (CMD) from anywhere in the operating system. To know more about how to add environment and path variables watch this video. NOTE :- the JDK version might vary in the video. You only have to copy the process of adding the variables rather than the exact text and paths that are shown in the video.

Assuming you have successfully downloaded and installed JDK and were able to run the ‘java -version’ command in the command prompt, we now need an editor to type Java code so that it helps us in building Java applications and also provide us with automatic code completion feature which makes the development process faster and also helps in debugging our code. There are many editors out there, but the one we are using is

Visual Studio Code - download the VS Code editor that is compatible with your operating system and install it in your preferred location.

Hold on, before you start typing any Java code in the VS Code editor, there are some extensions you need to download to make VS Code compatible with Java. For this, head over to the link given below and click the install button

Java Extension Pack - this extension pack will download 6 individual VS Code extensions automatically and make your editor compatible to run Java programs.

We are almost done here, by now you should be able to run Java programs in the editor without facing any problems. The last thing that remains is to download the

Spring Extension Pack - this extension will enable us to build Spring Boot applications with maven dependencies right from the VS Code editor without having the need to visit start.spring.io and importing the Spring Initializr project into the editor.

Congratulations! You have successfully completed all the required tasks to make your computer develop and run Spring Boot applications. At this point your system is ready to create and run Spring Boot applications without any issues.

If you liked this blog and found it helpful, definitely stay tuned for the next blog where I will be teaching you how you can create and build your first Spring Boot application that runs on your local server on your machine.

Having said that, I bring my article to an end and bid you adieu. Hope this article helps you in ways I intend it to.
Support my work by giving a clap to this blog and share it ahead with people who you think might find it helpful. Do let me know in the comments down below if you liked my writing. I am open to constructive criticism and suggestions on how I can improve my blogs and articles so that it helps convey my message in a better way. Thank you.