- download the Android SDK from here: Android SDK | Android Developers

- choose the download package for your particular platform

- if you are using Windows and chose the .exe installer, you'll be prompted to select a Destination folder (for example, the c:\android-sdk-windows folder)


-if you are not using Windows or downloaded a .zip or .tgz package, extract the android-sdk_r##-windows.zip to a new folder or the top of the C:\ drive; if you use Winzip or WinRAR, you can do an "Extract Here" and the files will be extracted to the c:\android-sdk-windows folder

- either run "tools\android.bat" from the Windows Command (DOS) prompt or double-check the "tools\android.bat" from Windows Explorer; here's the screen that will be displayed:


- when the "Android SDK and AVD Manager" launches, click on the "Available packages" entry in the left-hand pane/column.


- click on the arrow that's to the left of the "Android Repository" line to expand the list of packages available for download


- check the box to the left of "Android SDK Platform-tools, revision #"


- click on the "Install Selected" button at the bottom right of the window


- another window will be displayed, showing the package(s) that you've selected to install; go ahead and click the "Install" button


- the Android SDK Platform-tools will now be installed (progress will be shown)


- click the "Close" button when the package is finished installing


- the "adb.exe" utility will have now been installed in the "c:\android-sdk-windows/platform-tools" folder

- the complete, current documentation for the (adb) Android Debug Bridge can be found here:

Android Debug Bridge | Android Developers

- before you can actually use the adb utility with your Android device, you'll need to turn on USB debugging on your Android device

- launch the Settings application and navigate to Applications -> Development and make sure the checkbox for USB debugging is selected/checked


- connect your Android device to your PC using the appropriate USB cable

- to use the adb utility, start a Windows Command Prompt (DOS window) and change (cd) to the platform-tools directory under the Android SDK's installation folder (i.e., where the adb.exe utility resides); here are some sample commands:

If you have problems establishing a connection via adb (i.e., "adb devices" does not "see" your Android device), its likely you forgot to enable USB debugging or you do not have the adb USB drivers properly installed. Don't worry, you won't be the first or last to have had either of these problems. Please consult with the experts in your device's all-things-root sub-forum for help in identifying and installing the proper adb USB drivers.

Usage / instructions:

- download the sdk-tools.zip attachment: sdk-tools.zip

(here are the contents of the sdk-tools.zip file):

• adb.exe - Windows adb utility
• fastboot.exe - Windows fastboot utility
• fastboot-windows.exe - Windows fastboot utility
• AdbWinApi.dll - adb link library for Windows
• AdbWinUsbApi.dll - adb link library for Windows
  
  
• adb-linux - Linux adb utility
• fastboot-linux - Linux fastboot utility
  
  
• adb-mac - Mac adb utility
• fastboot-mac - Mac fastboot utility

- extract the contents to a folder / directory of your choice (make note of it for later)

- for Windows, start a Windows Command Prompt (old DOS window) or for Mac, Linux, start a Terminal session

- navigate, using the cd command to the extraction folders's location

++ in Windows, for example, if you extracted the files to c:\sdk-tools, you would type: cd c:\sdk-tools

- note: Linux users: you'll need to resecure the adb and fastboot utilities after extracting the files:

++ chmod a+x adb-linux
++ chmod a+x fastboot-linux

Additionally, you'll probably need to use sudo when invoking adb or fastboot; for example:

++ sudo ./adb-linux devices
++ sudo ./fastboot-linux devices

- use/invoke the adb or fastboot utilities as needed

Note: This will vary from OS to OS. This guide is for Windows 7.

1. After you have installed SDK, make a note of where it is installed (I have mine directly on the root of the C\: drive, for simplicity). Then click your start button, and right click 'computer'.

2. Click properties

3. On the left pane, click "advanced system settings"

4. Click "environment variables" on the pop up that comes up

5. Next, look on the second pane in the second pop up that shows up (system variables) and scroll down to path.

6. Highlight it, and click on "edit"

7. Move the cursor to the end of the text, making sure you don't delete anything, and add a semi-colon. Next, without any spaces type the following, modified to your computer.

C:\android\android-windows-sdk\platform-tools

Now, since I have mine set directly on my C\: drive, there is no other folder in there. But, if you have yours set up in your Program Files folder, it would look something like this

C:\program files\android\android-windows-sdk\platform-tools

As I said, you need to modify the PATH you enter to fit your computer.

The next step is to do the same with Java.

So, add the semi-colon, then the path. In my case it's

C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0\bin\java.exe

Unless you've changed the directory, it will probably be similar for you. But, make sure of the version you are running.

Once you have set the new paths, click ok, then OK on the enviornment variables window, and apply on the system properties window.

At this point, you no longer have to cd to platform-tools to use adb or java. This also allows you to use 3rd party script tools such as apk manager.