Overview
I will be covering how to install and configure FlashDevelop a free, opensource Flash IDE for Windows.
Prerequisites
You will need to have the following software installed before starting this instalation.
Step 1
Download the following:
Step 2
Install the Flash Player ActiveX content debugger. There are no install options or configuration needed.
Step 3
Unzip the Flex 3 SDK to c:\Flex3Sdk
Step 4
Run the FlashDevelop installer using the default install options.
Launch FlashDevelop. Open the settings dialog by going to the Tools/Settings menu.
You can also press F10 to launch the settings dialog.
From the left hand side under plugins select the AS3Context.
Now in the right hand side menu under Language set the Flex SDK Location to the directory you unzipped the Flex sdk too. For example c:\Flex3sdk
Step 5
Unzip the Flash Develop Hello World Project.
Double click the Hello World.as3proj to load the Hello World project.
Press F5 to build and run the Flash application.
You should get a Flash application popup with Hello World in a big blue font if your install is successful.
Conclusion
You should now have a working, tested and verified install of FlashDevelop.
If you run into any issues you can try these pages on the FlashDevelop wiki for troubleshooting.