Installation of Xilinx ISE 13.4 on Windows 7

The first step is to install the ISE. It is a long process that can take more than an hour, so be prepared and start early!

If you have a Mac, you could use Parallels with Windows 7 running as a virtual machine. The ISE works in this setup as well.

The steps described below describe the installation of the most recent version of the ISE in April 2012: ISE 13.4

Go to Xilinx's Download site
Download ISE 13.4 full installer for windows
When asked for a userId and password, you can either create your own Id or use this one:
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Click Next
The file should start downloading. It takes about 30 minutes on a wireless connection.
Unpack tar file into directory (in Dowloads folder). If Windows complain that it doesn't know how to unpack a file with a tar extension, download the 7-zip open-source utility, and use it to unpack the archive.
Once in the exploded directory, run the xsetup application
Pick WebPack when asked for what to install
Accept all defaults and install in C:\Xilinx folder

Installing Xilinx ISE 13.4 on Win 7