How to download ADB and Fastboot on your Windows computer

Our smartphones are quite powerful these days, and if you know the right way, and the right apps, you will not need a PC, even to accomplish the projects at your work. However, if you are a pro-user, you can do a lot more with your smartphone, and to do that, you need to enable USB debugging, along with the ADB and Fastboot tool on your computer. If you don’t know how to download ADB and Fastboot and use them, I am here with a brief guide to help you get started.

So, without any further delay, let’s get started with how you can download ADB and Fastboot tools on your Windows computer.

There is no official ADB and Fastboot installer and hence will not promote any such software or installer that installs ADB and Fastboot, which you can easily do manually with the steps here.

Download ADB and Fastboot

So, the first step is to download ADB and Fastboot. Visit the following link, and then click on the link that says ‘Download SDK Platform-Tools for Windows’. Now, the terms and conditions will be displayed to you. Just scroll down, check ‘I have read and agree with the above terms and conditions’, and click on ‘Download Android SDK Platform-Tools for Windows’ to download ADB and Fastboot.

Now, you should find a zipped file with the name ‘platform-tools’ in it. Simply, unzip the file, and put the contents to the C drive, or your primary partition, within a folder and name it ‘adb’. You can put it somewhere else too, but C drive is the best place, as this space is not used to keep personal data that can be deleted accidentally.

Installing ADB and Fastboot tools

Now that you have ADB and Fastboot tools, you have to add the path to ‘Environmental Variables’ so that you can directly access ADB from Command Prompt and PowerShell.

To add to Environmental Variables, open ‘Advanced System Properties’, by searching for the same from the Windows start menu.

Now, in the ‘System Properties’ window, click on ‘Environmental Variables’.

Here, click on ‘Path’, and then on ‘Edit…’ under ‘System variables’.

In the new window that opens up, click ‘New’, and type in ‘C:\adb’, and finally, click on ‘OK’. In the next step, click ‘OK’ on the ‘Environmental variables’ window, and now you are done with installing ADB and Fastboot tools.

How to use minimal ADB and Fastboot

Now that you are done with installing ADB and Fastboot, you should know, how to connect your Android phone, so that you can work with ADB and Fastboot tools.

Your first task will be to enable ‘Developer Options’. If you haven’t enabled it already, find ‘Build number’ within your Android system settings, and tap on it 7 times to turn on ‘Developer Options’.

After ‘Developer Otions’ is enabled, scroll down to find out ‘USB debugging’, and enable it.

Now, connect your Android device to your computer using a data cable, and select ‘PTP’ or the option to transfer photos, on your Android smartphone.

Next, on your Windows PC, open Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell, your preferred tool, and type in the ‘adb devices’.

You should instantly find the list of Android devices that are connected to your PC.

If you find no devices are connected, simply open ‘Developer Options’, scroll down to select the option that says ‘Revoke USB debugging authorizations, and confirm the process.

Now reconnect your Android device to your computer, and type in ‘adb devices’ again.

Now, you should find a pop-up on your Android device asking you whether you recognize the device that is requesting USB debugging access.

Just tap on ‘Allow’, and you should now find the name of your device.

Now, you should find the name of the Android devices connected to your PC or laptop.

So, that was all about how you can download ADB and Fastboot, and use ADB and Fastboot tools. Did you face any problem installing ADB and Fastboot? Let me know about it in the comment section below.