Run CLion for the first time

Select the user interface theme

Select whether you want to use the default Darcula or Light theme.

For more information, see User interface themes.

Disable unnecessary plugins

CLion includes plugins that provide integration with different version control systems and application servers, add support for various frameworks and development technologies, and so on. To increase performance, you can disable plugins that you do not need. If necessary, you can enable them later in the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S under Plugins. For more information, see Plugins.

You can click the Disable All link for each group of plugins to disable them all, or Customize to disable individual plugins in the group.

Download and install additional plugins

If necessary, click Plugins in the left-hand pane and download and install additional plugins from the CLion plugins repository.

Configure toolchains

Next, you will be prompted to configure the toolchains. A toolchain is a set of the necessary tools required for building and running your application. If there are toolchains already installed on your machine, CLion will automatically detect them.

You will always be able to configure the toolchains later in the Settings / Preferences | Build, Execution, Deployment | Toolchain dialog.

For more information on toolchains, see Configure CLion on Windows, Configure CLion on macOS: Toolchains, and Toolchains for CMake projects.

Start a project in CLion

Click Start using CLion, and you will see the Welcome screen. From there, you can do the following:

• Create a new project

• Open an existing project or file

• Check out an existing project from a version control system

tip

It is also possible to drag an existing project directory or a separate file to the Welcome screen and open it in CLion.