Windows users: where do you put Arduino?

Status
Not open for further replies.
PaulStoffregen

PaulStoffregen

Well-known member
I'm working on making the Teensyduino installer a little smarter about looking for Arduino and automatically initializing the file choice page if it's found.

So my question for everyone using Windows, is where do you put Arduino on your hard driver.

Arduino's installer defaults to C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino, so that's the first place I'm checking. Where else should the installer look, if it's not found there?
 
I'm aware that Windows seems to encourage people to put content in C:\Users\Username\My Little Pony (ok not the last bit, but My Pictures, My Documents and noddy names like that). I don't, because that seems like a dumb place to put stuff if you have more than a hundred files and also puts your data at risk if Windows gets hosed. Also, since the advent of SSD its common for drive C: to be fairly small and fast, while data goes on some other (spinning rust) drive. Mine is in D:/Arduino/

Also, putting programs in C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino (or C:\Program Files\Arduino if 64-bit) is fine but the data that goes with it, in particular libraries and sketches, should not go there due to the need for Admin-level access to write to those directories (unless changed), Windows also has a defence mechanism that catches what it thinks are changes to executables (Program Activation Protection? something like that) which can also give problems. There is some wierd mechanism in Win7 and above where writing there creates a virrtual filesystem in some place I can never find, so the user data files appear to be there but are actually not there when you navigate to the directory.

All problems that I avoid with D:\Arduino\ which then has sketches, arduino-1.0.5 and so on directories all in the one place.
I'm aware this may not be typical practice however.
 
My XP VM has it in C:\Program Files\Arduino, I would at least check "Program Files" in addition to "Program Files (x86)" for older installs.

You might also look at the Registry, it looks like "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Arduino file" has paths to the arduino.exe program in DefaultIcon, shell\edit\command, and shell\open\command. This key is present on both my XP VM and my Win8 laptop.
 
Just check the following reg keys...

HKLM/Software/Arduino/Install_Dir
HKLM/Software/WOw64Node/Arduino/Install_Dir

Regards,

Les
 
I've added "C:\arduino-1.0.5" to the installer's list of places to look.

Regarding registry keys, I tested on a clean Windows 7 install. I downloaded the zip file from arduino.cc, extracted it and ran the application. I did not find "HKLM/Software/Arduino/Install_Dir" in the registry afterward. I believe that key is being added by the installer but isn't necessarily created by only extracting the zip file.

I did find HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Arduino.document/shell/open/command. Does anyone knowledgeable about Windows Registry stuff know what this one means?
 
FYI:

HKLM/Software/Arduino/
does not exist in my Win7 Pro x64.
Nor does this one HKLM/Software/WOw64Node/Arduino/Install_Dir
but it is in
HKLM/Software/WOw6432Node/Arduino/Install_Dir
and points to C:\Arduino-1.0.5

Pete
 
PaulStoffregen said:
Regarding registry keys, I tested on a clean Windows 7 install. I downloaded the zip file from arduino.cc, extracted it and ran the application. I did not find "HKLM/Software/Arduino/Install_Dir" in the registry afterward. I believe that key is being added by the installer but isn't necessarily created by only extracting the zip file.?
Click to expand...

DOH! Bang goes that idea then

PaulStoffregen said:
I did find HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Arduino.document/shell/open/command. Does anyone knowledgeable about Windows Registry stuff know what this one means?
Click to expand...

That's probably for the file association, for when the user double clicks on .ino file. I don't have that key but have 'KEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Arduino file\shell\open\command'. Again that may only be added by the installer though.

Regards,

Les
 
I've published a third 1.17 release candidate that tries to look for the several locations where Arduino might commonly be found.

Please, if you're using Windows, I would really appreciate your help with testing. Windows is always the hardest system for me to support. I really want to improve the install experience on Windows.
 
Installed it on a Lenovo U310 w/Windows 8.1. Never have installed Arduino or Teensyduino on this computer. First, I installed Arduino in C:\Arduino. Then I installed Teensyduino 1.17R3. The select Arduino Folder dialog drop-down was set to C:/Users/myname/Documents/. But I selected C:\Arduino and the installation was successful, as was building the blink example.

Interesting, the Arduino install created a C:/Users/myname/Documents/Arduino folder with a Libraries folder containing readme.txt ("For information on installing libraries, see: http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/Libraries")...and that's all.

I've been in hand-to-hand combat with this computer and W8.1 for days trying to find my way around and do a Ubuntu dual boot without hosing the show.

Good luck. Great stuff you do Paul. Thanks !
 
farleysynth said:
I've been in hand-to-hand combat with this computer and W8.1 for days trying to find my way around and do a Ubuntu dual boot without hosing the show.
Click to expand...

OT (sorry Paul!) The wubi installer is, IMO, still the easiest/safest way to set up ubuntu on an already-running windows system. Not sure if it works w/ W8.x, but it's worth checking out if you haven't done so.

[edit]
Crap.. should have googled before making a reccomendation.. especially since I was going off-topic :(
http://askubuntu.com/questions/168608/how-to-boot-wubi-installed-ubuntu-within-windows-8

windows 8.x is a no-go for wubi unless you're on a MBR-based boot disk.
[/edit]
 
Last edited:
Hello all,
actually I am really happy to have found this topic as it covers the questions I have trying to use Teensduino.
Wherever i put the Arduino software, Teensduino won't set the 'Next' button active, so that i cant install it.

What did I do?
- First I placed Arduino in C:\Documents and Settings\Horst\My Documents\ and left the name untouched. It reads 'arduino-1.0.5'.
But the button stayed inactive.
- After some trying i just copied the whole folder into C:\.
Same here, installation impossible due to the inactive button

I already intalled Teensduino on both, Windows and Ububtu, several times, i had this problem some other times already, trying to help friends to get their stuff running.

Software involved:
Windows XP
Arduino-1.0.5
Teensduino 1.17

Thank you
 
Please download a fresh copy of Arduino 1.0.5. Delete the old copy before you extract the zip file. If your copy is modified or corrupted somehow, simply extracting the zip file "on top of" the bad copy is not necessarily enough to fix it. Completely delete that copy, or just extract the zip file to a new, empty location, and then point the installer at that fresh 1.0.5.

If the installer still won't recognize that, please reply here and I'll put XP onto my Windows test partition (currently has Win 7) and give it a try here.
 
Hello Paul,
thank you for your reply.

Meanwhile I installed both, Arduino 1.0.5 and Teensduino 1.7 on a WinXP inside of a VM-Ware without any problems as described in this topic.
Teensyduino recognized the Arduino install location without any issues by its first attempt and got installed properly.
All worked good so far.

Now I am back on my "regular" XP and did as you just mentioned above.
I removed my Arduino 1.0.5 folder from it location on C:\ completely after I saved my libraries and sketchbook.
Then I downloaded Arduino 1.0.5 right away from arduino.cc, watched the proceed bar while installation, and did the same with Teensyduino.
Installation now was easy and and without any complaints.

After starting Arduino the first time, the result is, that there are no more Arduino boards available from the tools menu.

See it yourself.
arduino_teensy01.png
 
Last edited:
I just went through this process on a previously unused Windows XP machine. Here is result:

sc3.png

One part that's noticeably different from your screenshot is the official Arduino boards. Your screenshot doesn't have any Arduino boards at all, only the Teensy ones.

My best guess is you've got a boards.txt somewhere in your sketchbook folder. Perhaps the Arduino IDE is using the boards.txt from that location, and ignoring the one within Arduino (the one the Teensyduino installer writes)?

Of course, the one other obvious thing to check is that you're using version 1.17, not 1.17-rc1, 1.17-rc2, or 1.17-rc3.

sc1.png

Just for completeness of screenshots (since I re-imaged my Windows test partition with XP), the installer auto-selected C:\arduino-1.0.5.

sc2.png
 
Last edited:
PaulStoffregen said:
Your screenshot doesn't have any Arduino boards at all, only the Teensy ones.

My best guess is you've got a boards.txt somewhere in your sketchbook folder.
Click to expand...

Yes, you are right, no Arduino boards visible. Thats why i posted this issue. :)

I did a search in my Arduino folder and this is the result:
arduino_teensy02.png

From the top, the first one holds all the Arduino boards, the second one refers to the Teensy boards.

I am sure to have installed Arduino 1.0.5 and Teensy 1.17.

What can I do now?


Until today I have installed Teensyduino for more than 20 times on WinXP, Win7, Ubuntu and Ubuntu studio, but was able to succeed in one go just 2 or 3 times only.
As someone mentioned before it would be a nice thing-to-have if Teensy could automatically installed with the Arduino software.
Any chance for that in the future?
 
I'm trying to understand where you're at right now?

Are you saying you've tried installing 20 times on 4 different operating systems, and all 20 have resulted in a wrong result? Or 17 or 18 went wrong?

I'm trying to understand why this isn't working for you, but there's just not enough information available here. Obviously something is very wrong with your setup if you are seeing a Tools > Boards menu without ANY official Arduino boards. I don't even know how that's possible, unless you edit or delete the boards.txt file.
 
Hello Paul,
yes, what i say is that in most cases i experienced diffculties installing Teensyduino.
I dont want to say anything bad or complain or such. I just want to express the issues I have.

Ok, again.
WinXP SP3, Arduino 1.0.5 and Teensyduino are involved.
Windows is a quite "used" or "older" installation.
Today I downloaded Arduino 1.0.5 and Teensyduino to ensure to get the recommended versions and did everything as it has to be done.
But it doesnt worked because Teensyduino didnt see the Arduino 1.0.5 software and therefore the 'Next' button was greyed out.

After that I followed your latest recommendation to just delete everything and did it again.
The result is shown in the picture of my previeous post.

I am familiar with Windows since 1997 and think I can say "to know a bit", but I cant help myself in this case.
 
I just downloaded 1.18 RC1 and personally I don't like the way I am forced to install in the Arduino folder on Windows. While automatically finding the correct folder is good and makes installation easier, forcing the install location is not always a good idea.

I have added custom Joysticks for both the Teensy 3 and the Teensy++ 2.0, some of those additions would be overwritten by a new installation. I just wanted to install somewhere else then manually merge stuff. (This actually is another problem because with your installer, the file dates are the installation dates for both date created and date modified. Is there a list of what actual files have changed in each release?)

In the end I just copied the Arduino folder somewhere else and deleted the teensy folders, so not a major biggy.

Just my thoughts anyway.

Regards,

Les
 
Hello friends,
I'm trying to get my Teensy 3.1 on my new 64-bit Windows 8.1 PC, but have encountered the same problem with Teensyduino install not recognizing the Arduino install location. After finding this thread, I definitely tried to install using fresh builds (arduino-1.0.6 and teensduino 1.19) to no avail as the 'next' button is still grayed out when I navigated to C:/ProgramFiles (x86)/Arduino. I did not get any error messages about failing to install arduino driver because of Missing Digital Signature. Naturally, Arduino Tools-->Board menu doesn't show any Teensy items. I have tried these steps multiple times.

Deep thanks in advance.
Vin
 
Thank you, Paul

With this latest version, Teensyduino 1.20, I was able to get all my stuff running on my Ubuntu running with its first attempt.
And this also with "No opportunity to use the help". :)
I am so happy now.

Also, for the first time the "PlaySythMusic" sketch compiled without error messeges.
I love it.

Thank you.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top