Installing Cygwin on Windows for Android Development.
Cygwin is a Windows program which allows you to use some (traditionally linux-based) GNU development tools, these are used in quite a few Android-related scripts that can be found around the Internet, you can use scripts created for Cygwin to do some key Android tasks, or if you are more advanced you may be able to convert some Linux scripts you find for use in your Windows/Cygwin environment. So, let’s get started!
Grab the Cygwin setup.exe from here and run it:
Choose next to begin the install process, then from the second screen choose "Install from Internet"
From the next screen, choose your install directory (or leave it as c:\cygwin), and unless you have a good reason, you may as well leave it set to install for all users.
From the next two screens, choose the location of the local package dir (where cygwin will put the downloaded installation files) and choose your Internet connection type (usually direct connection).
Now choose one of the Cygwin mirrors (select any mirror really...), and clock next, then clock OK on the setup alert message.
On the next screen there will be a selection at the top of the list showing: "All: Default" - While you CAN click on "Default" once and it will change to "Install" for every package in the list, this will take a VERY long time to download and install every package, if you know which packages you need, you can manually select the ones you want to speed up the install process (for example, most scripts, including the boot.img extract/repack script you can get from the accompanying FYA guide requires a package called "perl" and it's dependencies everything else can be left as default) . Once you have selected the packages you wish to install (don't panic, you can add more later), click next.
On the dependencies screen, leave all options as they are and click next.
Cygwin will now download the packages you have selected (this can take quite a while if you chose them all) and install them to your selected location.
Done! Cygwin is now installed, you can launch the Cygwin bash shell from either the start menu or desktop shortcuts (if you chose to create them), the program will create it's profile from the skeleton files on first run, and you will be presented with the screen as shown below, which looks very similar to a typical Windows shell cmd window (or "DOS box"), from here you can execute any scripts or commands you have been given in other guides.
Any suggestions, changes or mistakes, please enter them in the comments and I will be sure to update the guide accordingly!
