IntelliJ IDEA 2020.2 Help

Run IntelliJ IDEA for the first time

When you run IntelliJ IDEA for the first time, some steps are required to complete the installation, customize your instance, and start working with the IDE.

How to run

You can use the Toolbox App to run any JetBrains product. In case of a standalone installation, running IntelliJ IDEA depends on the operating system:

  • Find IntelliJ IDEA in the Start menu or use the desktop shortcut, if it was created during installation. You can also run idea.bat in the installation directory under bin.

  • Run the IntelliJ IDEA app in the Applications directory, from Launchpad, or from Spotlight.

  • Run the idea.sh shell script in the installation directory under bin. You can also use the desktop shortcut, if it was created during installation.

For information about running IntelliJ IDEA from the command line, see Command-line interface.

Select the user interface theme

Select whether you want to use the default Darcula or Light theme.

Select the UI theme

Create launcher script

For macOS and Linux users, IntelliJ IDEA suggests to create a script for opening projects and files from the command line.

Windows users can run the executable file in the installation directory.

For more information, see Command-line interface.

Create Launcher Script

Disable unnecessary plugins

IntelliJ IDEA includes plugins that provide integration with different version control systems and application servers, add support for various frameworks and development technologies, and so on. To increase performance, you can disable plugins that you do not need. If necessary, you can enable them later in the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S under Plugins. For more information, see Manage plugins.

Disable unnecessary plugins

You can click the Disable All link for each group of plugins to disable them all, or Customize to disable individual plugins in the group.

Download and install additional plugins

If necessary, download and install additional plugins that are not bundled with the IDE from the IntelliJ IDEA plugins repository.

Install additional plugins

Start a project in IntelliJ IDEA

On the Welcome screen, you can do the following:

The following video demonstrates how you can create a new project in IntelliJ IDEA:

Last modified: 14 October 2020