There are two possibilities to run EIM:

• Or directly, running the exe

• Or via Visual Studio Code, after you installed the ESP-IDF plug-in
  To install the plugin, open Visual Studio Code, go to the market place, search for ESP-IDF and install.  As imple as that.
  Click on the Espressif icon, open the Advanced section in the list opening on the left side and select "Open ESP-IDF Installation Manager".
  See image below.

Once the EIM is open, select New Installation (if that's the first time) or select Manage Installations or New Installation if you already have a version on your PC.

We're supposing a new installation here, so click New Installation.

You now will be asked what kind of installation you want to do.  Select Custom Installation since that one gives you maximum freedom (version, installation location,...)

A 10-steps plan will start and during the progress, some questions will be asked:

• Target chips: leave the All selected (default)

• ESP-IDF version: select v6.0.1, which is the latest version as of this writing (20260524)

• Download mirrors: don't change anything and take the default selected ones, just go to the next step

• ESP-IDF features: take the default ones

• Tools: take the default ones

• Installation location: here you can select where the framework must be installed.  Default is C:\ESP, which I don't like.  So, change to whatever location you like.

• Press Continue: the installation process will start, which takes quite some time.  So, be patient.

Some time later, you will see that the installation is complete.  In my case, stuff was downloaded in C:\Espressif and installed in the location I specified.

Once the installation is complete, there will be a shortcut put on the desktop to open idf.py in a PowerShell window.  However, when you run that shortcut, you will see lots of errors, like so:

At C:\Espressif\tools\Microsoft.v6.0.1.PowerShell_profile.ps1:82 char:21 + $previous = $env:'_IDF.PY_COMPLETE' + ~~~~~ Variable reference is not valid. ':' was not followed by a valid variable name character. Consider using ${} to delimit the name. 

At C:\Espressif\tools\Microsoft.v6.0.1.PowerShell_profile.ps1:82 char:26 + $previous = $env:'_IDF.PY_COMPLETE' + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unexpected token ''_IDF.PY_COMPLETE'' in expression or statement. 

At C:\Espressif\tools\Microsoft.v6.0.1.PowerShell_profile.ps1:83 char:9 + $env:'_IDF.PY_COMPLETE' = 'powershell_source' + ~~~~~ Variable reference is not valid. ':' was not followed by a valid variable name character. Consider using ${} to delimit the name. 

At C:\Espressif\tools\Microsoft.v6.0.1.PowerShell_profile.ps1:83 char:14 + $env:'_IDF.PY_COMPLETE' = 'powershell_source' + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unexpected token ''_IDF.PY_COMPLETE'' in expression or statement. 

At C:\Espressif\tools\Microsoft.v6.0.1.PowerShell_profile.ps1:91 char:13 + $env:'_IDF.PY_COMPLETE' = $previous + ~~~~~ Variable reference is not valid. ':' was not followed by a valid variable name character. Consider using ${} to delimit the name. 

At C:\Espressif\tools\Microsoft.v6.0.1.PowerShell_profile.ps1:91 char:18 + $env:'_IDF.PY_COMPLETE' = $previous + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unexpected token ''_IDF.PY_COMPLETE'' in expression or statement. 

At C:\Espressif\tools\Microsoft.v6.0.1.PowerShell_profile.ps1:83 char:14 + $env:'_IDF.PY_COMPLETE' = 'powershell_source' + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The assignment expression is not valid. The input to an assignment operator must be an object that is able to accept assignments, such as a variable or a property. 

At C:\Espressif\tools\Microsoft.v6.0.1.PowerShell_profile.ps1:91 char:18 + $env:'_IDF.PY_COMPLETE' = $previous + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The assignment expression is not valid. The input to an assignment operator must be an object that is able to accept assignments, such as a variable or a property. + CategoryInfo : ParserError: (:) [], ParseException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidVariableReferenceWithDrive PS C:\Users\Geert\Desktop> 

All the errors boill down to the fact that there are illegal statements used in the script located in:

C:\Espressif\tools\Microsoft.v6.0.1.PowerShell_profile.ps1

This script has to be modified as follows:

• Search for all occurances of '_IDF_PY_COMPLETE' (mind the beginning and end quotes!!!)

• Replace with _IDF_PY_COMPLETE (quotes removed and dot replaced with _)

Save the file and if you now run the shortcut, a new PowerShell window will open and you will see this:

IDF PowerShell Environment

-------------------------

Environment variables set:

IDF_PATH: D:\WinApps\Programming\Espressif\ESP\.espressif\v6.0.1\esp-idf

IDF_TOOLS_PATH: C:\Espressif\tools

IDF_PYTHON_ENV_PATH: C:\Espressif\tools\python\v6.0.1\venv

Custom commands available:

idf.py - Use this to run IDF commands (e.g., idf.py build)

esptool.py

espefuse.py

espsecure.py

otatool.py

parttool.py

Python environment activated.

You can now use IDF commands and Python tools.

If you run, for instance, the command idf.py --list-targets, then you will see the following output:

(venv) PS C:\Users\Geert\Desktop> idf.py --list-targets

esp32

esp32s2

esp32c3

esp32s3

esp32c2

esp32c6

esp32h2

esp32p4

esp32c5

esp32c61

To see all possible idf.py options, just type idf.py.

Assuming the installation is OK now, we can go for the next step: create a new project in Visual Studio Code, based on the ESP-IDF framework.

To do so, open Visual Studio Code.

The next step is to create a new project using the New Project Wizard option in the Advanced menu of the ESP-IDF plugin.  So, click on the ESP-IDF icon to open the ESP-IDF explorer.  Then expand the Advanced secion.

Next, click on the New Project Wizard item.  A popup will appear in the bottom right, showing ESP-IDF Is busy preparing stuff.  Wait a moment.

After a few seconds, a command will appear at the top of the screen, asking which version of ESP-IDF you want to use.  Since we installed only one version, select the default one (should be 6.0.1 for now).

Shortly after, a New Project tab will open and you will see a window with title New Project.

Next to this, on the left side of the window, you will see two items:

• ESP-IDF Examples

• ESP-IDF Templates

If you're curious about the examples, open the Examples section and see what interests you.  For now, open the Templates section.

You will see there's only one template: sample_project.  Double-click on it and you will see a button inviting you to create a new project using that one template.  Click the button.

You will be asked for different items now:

• Project name: Give the project a name.  That name will also be used as directory name later on.

• Enter Project directory: by default it's pointing to your user account.  You can press the browse button to change the location (note that you can't change the directory name, only the path to the directory name).

• Choose ESP-IDF Target (IDF_TARGET): since we're using an ESP32-C3, select that one.

• Choose ESP-IDF Board: since I chose esp32c3, it automatically chose the ESP32-C3 chip (via builtin USB-JTAG).  Don't change it.

• Choose serial port: select the serial port where your ESP32-C3 module is connected to.  For example: COM3, but YMMV.

• Add your ESP-IDF Component directory: I never fill in something here.  It seems it's only interesting if you want to create components yourself, which I don't want to do.

Press the Create Project button: the directory and a lot of other stuff will be created for you.

At the end of this procedure, you will have the opportunity to open the project: click the Open Project button to do so.

The strange thing is that this action is opening a second Visual Studio Code.  Don't know why.  I then simply close the first Visual Studio Code session...

I don't know why and I don't know where, but for every new project I create, there's also a .devcontainer subdirectory created.  This is only when you're intending to use Docker, but that's not what I want.

You might see a small box popping up in Visual Studio Code telling you it has decteted Docker stuff and asking if it has to do something with that.  You also have the opportunity to tell Visual Studio Code not to show this anymore.  Neither for this project, nor for the rest of your life!

Click it to get rid of that silly thing...

Note that this directory doesn't influence your project.  I think you can even delete it if you don't like it...

Once you opened the project after you created it, it's wise to press the wrench symbol in the status bar.  This will start a build and will take some time (the very first time, some 990+ files needs to be build!).

At the end of the build you will also see a memory map with the types of memory used and how much is still available.  Can come in handy at some point in time...

This will give you an indication if the setup of your new project is OK.  If so, you can start building/changing/adding files for your new project.

Good luck!

Since version 6, MQTT is not part of the core framework anymore.  Why?  No idea.

This is what I read about it: https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/stable/esp32/api-reference/protocols/mqtt.html.

If you want to have MQTT functionality in your project, you have to add the dependency yourself using the idf.py script.  You better run this in a PowerShell script, so click the "Monitor with triangle and underscore" symbol in the task bar to create such session.

Then run idf.py add-dependency espressif/mqtt.  This will do the following:

• Create the file idf_component.yml inside the main subdirectory

• Add the dependency line espressif/mqtt: '*'

A new build is needed now, but you will be able to use MQTT functionality again.

Note: the MQTT functionality is only added for this very project.  New projects have to repeat the actions again.

By default, the flashing communication is set to JTAG.  That won't work.  The correct setting must be UART.

To change:

• Click the hollow star symbol on the task bar

• A choice menu will appear at the top of the screen

• Select UART instead: the text next to the hollow star should change from JTAG to UART

Flashing the SW to the ESP32 chip should be OK again now.