How To Setup Ruby on Windows Vista

Download a version of Ruby from http://rubyinstaller.org/. Also download the development kit. You can run the installation using all of the defaults.

To confirm ruby is installed, open up a command prompt and enter

ruby -v

If the response is your ruby version number, you have successfully installed ruby.

Update your Ruby Gems Package Manager by typing

gem update --system

UPDATE (07/15/2010): I recommend that you install at least Ruby 1.8.7 for Rails 3 compatibility.

Follow the directions that come with the development kit: copy the bin and devkit folders from the development kit into the folder of your ruby distribution.

In order to be able to work with the lightweight sqlite database (default db for rails), there are some additional steps to follow.

Download the pre-compiled version of sqlite http://www.sqlite.org/download.html. Unzip and copy the files (SQLite3.dll and the SQLite3.def) to your Ruby installations bin directory. (e.g. C:\ruby\bin)

Now intsall the sqlite gem by typing in the command prompt:

gem install sqlite3-ruby

Git is an amazing version control tool. If you just want to use Git to do your version control in Windows, you will need to download msysgit. Msysgit is Git for Windows. Download msysgit from http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/. After you run the installer, and you are ready to start.

You could run the installation using all the default options. However, if you want to be able to run git from the windows command prompt you will need to make one adjustment:

Adjust your PATH environment
Select "Run Git from the Windows Command Prompt"

The biggest reason why I started using git, is in order to take advantage of heroku. Heroku uses a pure git workflow for its deployments.

UPDATE (07/15/2010): I recommend using the Git Bash rather than running the standard Windows Command Prompt. It is a big help!