Getting started with Eclipse

One - Get a JRE

Eclipse needs a Java Runtime, version 1.4 or superior, installed on your machine. If you don't already have one, you can choose a version appropriated for your system architecture here.

Two - Get Eclipse SDK

The SDK is an Eclipse distribution that includes the Eclipse Platform, Java development tools, and Plug-in Development Environment, including source and both user and programmer documentation. Download it here for Windows.

You can get Eclipse SDK in other versions or for different operating systems here.

Three - Learn about Eclipse

There is a wealth of information about Eclipse out there, from published books and articles to tutorials and screencasts hosted here on eclipse.org. You might want to start with these:

Technical Resources
Title	Type	Date

Four - Enhance Eclipse

Eclipse is designed from the ground up to be easely extended in multiple ways. There is a whole ecosystem of plugins for Eclipse, from editors and IDEs for a plethora of languages to communication tools.

To see the plugins available from Eclipse foundation projects, you can open Eclipse and go to Help > Software Updates > Find and Install. Or browse through the project web sites to find out more about them, starting here.

Many more third party plugins can be found in the Eclipse Plugin Central.