TreeDraw: Windows 10 installation guide
Sandiway Fong, University of Arizona

It's not necessary to install TreeDraw locally. You can use it over the internet (courtesy of Osaka Kyoiku University): just go here.

But if you prefer running it locally on your Windows 10 machine, follow these instructions.

Download TreeDraw.zip here (7.3MB). No installer package is currently provided. (Someday there'll be a nice installer.)

However, installation only takes a few simple steps:

  1. Right click on your downloaded file TreeDraw.zip and select Extract All....
    Drag the directory TreeDraw into in directory C:/Program Files.
    Requires Adminstrator Privileges.
    You should now have a directory C:/Program Files/TreeDraw.

  2. Navigate to C:/Program Files/TreeDraw in File Explorer and open the directory.
    You should see:

    Right click on TreeDraw.exe and select Create shortcut.
    Create a shortcut for TreeDraw.exe on the Desktop.

  3. Next, locate the file index.html, also in C:/Program Files/TreeDraw.
    Double click on it. It should automatically load into a browser.

    (Your interaction with TreeDraw will be via this browser page, C:\Program Files\TreeDraw\index.html.)

    Bookmark this page for easy access. (Or create a Desktop shortcut by right clicking on the file.)

  4. Type path into the Windows search box. Click on Edit environment variables for your account. Edit the Path variable. Add New C:\Program Files\TreeDraw.

    5. Installation is now complete.

  5. To start TreeDraw double click on the Desktop shortcut. Click OK to allow it to open a console. (Someday, we won't need this step.)

    (To quit TreeDraw, simply close the open console. You can safely minimize (_) the console window without quitting TreeDraw.)


    (You can type pid(X). followed by return in this window to see TreeDraw's process id.)

  6. Windows Defender is sometimes overaggressive on port security and may pop up a message like this:

    You should permit TreeDraw.exe to communicate over private and public networks (even though it doesn't).

  7. Load file C:\Program Files\TreeDraw\index.html into your browser. Type your bracketed expressions into the Input box. There are four formats currently documented: hit expand under Help to see examples.

    (Note: closing the browser page does not quit TreeDraw. You may open multiple browser pages to TreeDraw. You can reload the page safely.
    To quit TreeDraw altogether, close the console window. You can run multiple copies of TreeDraw, but only the first one works.)

    (You can also type pid followed by return (or ⇇Send) to see the process id of the connected TreeDraw app.)

Notes: