How To: Setup ADB and Fastboot on Windows

What are ADB and Fastboot and why do I need them?
The Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is a tool kit for Android developers, it consists of two client and server-side programs that communicate with one another, while Fastboot is a diagnostic protocol used primarily to modify the flash filesystem in Android smartphones from another computer over a USB connection. It is part of the Android Debug Bridge library.

Without going into too many technical details, let's just say both are command-line tools used when modding/hacking Android phones.

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Requirements

• Drivers installed (Alcatel Android Manager and One Touch Upgrade).
• ADB and Fastboot files.

Setup

• Download  ADB and Fastboot files and unzip it to your C: drive (you will have C:\android-tools folder).
• We need to edit a Environment Variable to use commands without browsing to the containing folder:

Method 1 (GUI)

1. Go to My Computer icon -> right click and select Properties. 
2. (Or Start -> Search -> type sysdm.cpl -> Enter, browse to the Advanced tab)
3. On the left side of the opened screen select Advanced tab.
4. Look down on the opened menu and select Environment Variables.
5. In the lower half are listed the System Variables.
   Scroll to find "Path" variable, select it and click Edit...
6. On the Edit window in the Variable value field go to the end of the line (do not delete it!) and add without any intervals (spaces): ;C:\android-tools do not forget the semicolon symbol ;
7. Click Ok 3 times.

Method 2 (Command prompt)

1. Go to Start and in the Search box type cmd, right click and Run as Administrator.
   Type setx path /m "%PATH%;C:\android-tools" and hit Enter. 
2. Close the cmd window

Method 3

1. Put the adb.exe, AdbWinApi.dll, AdbWinUsbApi.dll and fastboot.exe files in C:/windows/system32 (32bit) or in C/windows/sysWOW64 (64bit) you can just use them from any command prompt window.

To check is it working properly open Command Prompt (Start -> Search -> type cmd -> Enter) and type adb.

If everything is configured properly this should list you the Android Debug Bridge version and the available commands.