Tutorial: OpenCV v4.2.0 Installation in Windows 10

Install OpenCV and Run a Demo Program

3 min readMar 13, 2020

In this story, I will download and install OpenCV v4.2.0 and run a demo program to confirm if OpenCV is successfully installed.

Outline

Download & Install OpenCV
Run a Demo Program Using Visual Studio with Proper Settings

1. Download & Install OpenCV & Setup Environmental Variable

1.1. Download

Go to https://opencv.org/releases/.
Click “Windows” to download the package.

1.2. Install

Click the package to unpack the files.
I choose C: as my file location.
After that, there should be a folder C:\opencv.

1.3. Setup Environment Variable

Go to Settings for Windows 10.
Search “View Advanced System Settings”, and click it.

In the System Properties, click “Environment Variables…”.
At the System Variables, find & click “Path”, Click “Edit…”.

Click “New” to add a new path “C:\opencv\build\x64\vc15\bin” as shown above. Then Click OK to close all popup windows.

2. Run a Demo Program Using Visual Studio with Proper Settings

2.1. Create a New Project

Launch Visual Studio. I use VS2017, it should be similar for other versions including 2019.
Click “File > New > Project…”
Choose “Console App” to create a new project.
And I choose the “x64” platform for the program.

2.2. Project Properties Setup

In VC++ Directories, at Include Directories, add:

C:\opencv\build\include

Also, at Library Directories, add:

C:\opencv\build\x64\vc15\lib

In Linker > Input, at Additional Dependencies, for debug mode, add:

opencv_world420d.lib

For release mode, please add:

opencv_world420.lib

2.3. Test the Codes

Add the below sample codes:

#include <opencv2/core/core.hpp>
#include <opencv2/highgui/highgui.hpp>
#include <opencv2/imgproc.hpp>
#include <iostream>
using namespace cv;
using namespace std;int main()
{
  Mat image = Mat::zeros(300, 600, CV_8UC3);
  circle(image, Point(250, 150), 100, Scalar(0, 255, 128), -100); 
  circle(image, Point(350, 150), 100, Scalar(255, 255, 255), -100); 
  imshow("Display Window", image);
  waitKey(0); 
  return 0;
}