Portable Installation Guide of Arduino IDE V1.6.5 for ESP 8266

Why we need to make portable for Arduino IDE? Actually, Arduino IDE itself is portable but not for ESP 8266.

When you want to use ESP8266 with Arduino IDE, you will need to install ESP8266 package. It takes some time to download and install, in order to reduce time for set up of ESP8266 Arduino IDE, we need portable version.

Let me show you how to make portable installation of Arduino IDE v1.6.5 for ESP 8266 in detail instructions.

Step 1: Step 1: Download Arduino IDE V1.6.5

Download Arduino IDE v1.6.5 from Arduino IDE I prefer to download a zip file (arduino-1.6.5-r2-windows.zip). Then extract the zip file to your preferred location. All folders will appear as the figure.

Double click "arduino.exe" to run the IDE.

Step 2: Step 2: Check the Available Boards of Arduino IDE

After running the "arduino.exe", you will see the ARDUINO logo, then check the available boards by Tools -> Board as shown in figure. Note that there is no board for ESP8266.

Step 3: Step 3: Add a Folder at Arduino IDE Folder Location

Now we are going to create a folder named "Portable" at Arduino IDE folder location as shown in figure. Why need "Portable" folder, please refer to the web site Try "Portable Arduino" experimental feature , and it says as follow:

Arduino IDE with "Portable Arduino" experimental feature. The feature is disabled by default. To enable the feature, you have to manually create a folder named "portable" in the application root folder, where "hardware", "examples", "lib" and other folders reside.

Step 4: Step 4: Edit Preferences of Arduino IDE

Now edit Preferences of the IDE by File -> Preferences and you will see the "Preferences" window.

From there, search for "Additional Boards Manager URLs": and add the link:

http://arduino.esp8266.com/package_esp8266com_index.json

And note that the location of preferences.txt file is now under "portable" folder that you created as shown in figure.

Then click OK button.

In case of "Additional Boards Manager URLs" problem, please refer to the web site Arduino-compatible IDE with ESP8266 for URL.

Step 5: Step 5: Install Esp8266 Package

From Arduino IDE, Tools -> Board -> Boards Manager as shown in figure. Then click Boards Manager. From Boards Manager window, wait for a while for refresh the list and search for "esp8266 by ESP8266 Community and click Install button.

Installation process can take a while, so please be patient! It's about 153,807 kb. After installation finished, restart the Arduino IDE again to make sure that all the boards loaded.