Getting Started with the Kinect for Windows SDK
- 7/15/2012
- Kinect for Windows SDK Prerequisites
- Installing the Kinect for Windows SDK
- Connecting the Kinect Sensor Bar
- Testing the Kinect Sensor Bar
- Troubleshooting Your Kinect Installation
- Summary
Installing the Kinect for Windows SDK
The Kinect for Windows SDK is a free download. The SDK also contains the USB drivers for the various elements inside the Kinect sensor itself. You can find the Kinect for Windows SDK at the Kinect for Windows website:
This site also contains links to detailed descriptions of the Kinect and other useful resources.
Installing the Kinect SDK
You should make sure that any older Kinect drivers that are not part of the Kinect system are removed from your system before you install the Kinect SDK. You should also make sure that Visual Studio 2010 is installed on your Windows computer (but not actually open) when you perform the install. If you have any problems you should check out the Troubleshooting Your Kinect Installation section at the end of this chapter. To install the Kinect SDK on your PC follow this sequence:
You can perform the installation of the Kinect SDK directly from the download webpage:
To do this you should click on the Download link to select the appropriate version for your system.
Your browser will ask you if you want to run or save the install file. You should select the Run option, as shown above. Click Run to start the installer, which will display the Welcome Screen as shown below.
When the Install program starts, you will first see the Welcome Screen as shown previously. Select the tick box to accept the terms of the licensing conditions, and then click Install to begin installation.
Because this is a software installation on your computer, you may see a User Account Control dialog box confirming that you are going to allow the installer to make changes to the computer. Click Yes to continue.
The installation will now begin. During the installation it might be necessary to install some Visual C++ runtime components, as shown above. Just confirm the installation of each element in turn. Eventually you will see the completion dialog box, as shown below.
Once the installation has completed, you can create programs that use the Kinect for Windows SDK. You can also run programs that have been built using the Kinect SDK.
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If you want to send your programs to Windows computer owners who will not be developing Kinect applications, the recipients must install the runtime version of Kinect for Windows. This contains the Kinect libraries and USB drivers, but it cannot be used to create new Kinect for Windows applications. The runtime version can be downloaded from the following website: