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# Installing Ruby and Watir on Windows 7
- URL: https://www.kenst.com/installing-ruby-and-watir-on-windows-7/
- Published: 2013-08-27T20:53:00.000Z
- Updated: 2022-06-10T00:56:20.000Z
- Author: Chris Kenst
- Tags: Ruby, Selenium, Windows, Test Automation, Tools, Tutorials

I recently started playing around with Web Application Testing in Ruby or Watir for short. As is recommended, I downloaded the [Homebrewer’s Guide to Watir](https://leanpub.com/watirbook?ref=kenst.com) by Zeljko Filipin and started trying to install the latest versions of the [RubyInstaller for Windows](http://rubyinstaller.org/?ref=kenst.com) (currently 2.0.0) when I ran into a few problems. (I like the idea of using Leanpub to create and modify install documents for open source applications.)

I installed Ruby and Watir on a Windows 7 64 bit machine using the 32 bit versions and everything seems to work fine so far. Here’s how I installed everything using the RubyInstaller and instructions from the above guide (note: some of these instructions will be a duplicate of the guide):

## **Ruby Installation**

1. Open a command prompt (*Run* and type *cmd*) and type `ruby -v` to see if you have Ruby installed (if you don’t it will say the command isn’t recognized) and the version number.
2. I have Windows 7 64 bit but I used the 32 bit installers from [RubyInstaller Downloads](http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/?ref=kenst.com) including:  
  1. Ruby 2.0.0-p247
  2. DevKit-mingw64-32-4.7.2
3. Run the Ruby installer and on the optional tasks page select the below items before completing:  
  1. Add Ruby executables to your PATH
  2. Associate .rb and .rbw files with this Ruby installation
4. Open a new command prompt and type `ruby -v` to see if Ruby installed and the version number.
5. (Optional) Once installed you can update the RubyGems distributed with the installer by typing `gem update --system` and watching for the “RubyGems system software updated” to know when its complete.
6. Move on to the DevKit installation.

## **DevKit Installation**

1. Run the DevKit installer but change the extraction folder to C:devkit
2. Open a command prompt (*Run* and type *cmd*) and change the folder to C:devkit (use the command `cd c:devkit`).
3. Run the command `ruby dk.rb init`. If this step is successful you’ll see a response like “\[INFO\] found RubyInstaller v2.0.0 at C:/Ruby200”.
4. Run the command `ruby dk.rb install`. If this step is successful you’ll see a response like \[INFO\] Installing `C:/Ruby200/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.0.0/  
rubygems/defaults/operating_system.rb` and \[INFO\] Installing `C:/Ruby200/lib/ruby/site_ruby/devkit.rb`
5. Move on to Watir installation.

## **Watir Installation**

  
This is where I ran into problems with the 2.0.0 version of Watir. Something about the mini\_magick version erroring out. To prevent this problem we do:

1. Run the command (still from the C:devkit command window) `gem install mini_magick -v 3.5.0 `which works around the version problem. You should get a response like “2 gems installed”
2. Then run the command `gem install watir --no-ri --no-rdoc` to install the rest of Watir. You should get a response like “Successfully installed watir-4.0.2-x86-mingw32 and 23 gems installed”.

## **Check the installation**

In the same command window type (after each line of code submit the commands)

1. `irb`
2. `require "watir"`
3. `browser = Watir::Browser.new`
4. `browser.goto "google.com"`

If all is setup correctly you should get your default browser to open a new window and then browse to Google. Good luck.

**Note**: These steps weren’t meant to replace the [Homebrewer’s Guide to Watir](https://leanpub.com/watirbook?ref=kenst.com) by Zeljko Filipin instructions but to improve them for the 2.0.0 release. For everything else please refer to the guide.