Flutter Installation & Setup

Operating System: Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit).
Disk Space: At least 2.5 GB (excluding IDE/Android Studio).
Git for Windows: Installed and configured in your System Path.

Guide for setting up the Flutter SDK and development environment on Windows.

1. Prerequisites

Before installing Flutter, ensure you have:

Download: Get the latest stable release of the Flutter SDK from the official website.
Extract: Extract the zip file to a permanent location (e.g., C:\src\flutter).
- Important: Do NOT install Flutter in a directory that requires elevated privileges (like C:\Program Files\).
Environment Variables:
- Win + S -> Search "Environment Variables".
- Under User variables, find "Path" and click Edit.
- Click New and add the full path to the flutter\bin folder (e.g., C:\src\flutter\bin).
Verification: Open a new Command Prompt or PowerShell and run:
```
flutter --version
```

Android Studio: Download and install Android Studio.
SDK Manager: Open Android Studio, go to Settings > Languages & Frameworks > Android SDK.
- Install the latest Android SDK (API 35 or newer).
- Go to SDK Tools tab and ensure Android SDK Command-line Tools (latest) is checked and installed.
Licenses: Run the following command in your terminal to accept the licenses:
```
flutter doctor --android-licenses
```

Install VS Code: If not already installed, download it from code.visualstudio.com.
Extensions: Go to the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X) and install:
- Flutter (this will automatically install the Dart extension).
Flutter Doctor: Run the final check to ensure everything is connected:
```
flutter doctor
```

Note: Address any [X] or [!] marks shown in the output.

To verify the installation works, create a test project:

flutter create my_test_app
cd my_test_app
flutter run