Installing

Again, installing PyCharm is similar to installing any other software. Run the downloaded file to start the installation. As usual, there will be a number of different windows displaying different configuration options while you install PyCharm on your system.

Additionally, even after the installation process, you will always have the option to change these settings later on if you so choose.

Leaving all the default options intact and simply clicking through the windows is typically the general strategy:

1. If you are using macOS, you will need to drag the PyCharm icon to the Applications folder to begin the installation process
2. One additional thing to note is—especially if you have used PyCharm before—that programmers used to be required to download and install Java separately in order to run PyCharm (since PyCharm is written, partly, in Java)

3. Now, if you have installed the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) bundle during the installation of PyCharm, which is one of the default options, then PyCharm will be ready to execute upon successful installation—there is no need to download and install Java separately
4. If everything runs successfully, upon opening, PyCharm will display its welcome window

And that is it! You have successfully installed PyCharm, the best Python IDE at the time of writing.

Note that, if you are installing the Professional edition, PyCharm will now ask you for your license if you are not using it during a 30-day free trial. If you do have a license, head to the next subsection to see how to activate it.

Otherwise, while any powerful features and functionalities of PyCharm are waiting to be explored, we need to properly set up the general settings and configurations for PyCharm. Simply skip the next subsection where the license activation process for the Professional edition is discussed, and jump to the Setting up PyCharm section, to continue our discussion.