BEAST is a software package for phylogenetic analysis with an emphasis on time-scaled trees.

## Downloading BEAST

BEAST can be downloaded from the following link:

This will download a compressed ZIP archive (a ‘.zip’ file).

The latest version of BEAST can always be found here: https://github.com/beast-dev/beast-mcmc/releases/latest

## Installing JAVA

To get the latest version of Java you will need to download the Java JDK from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html. Download and install the ‘JRE’ - this is the Java Runtime Environment. If you want to compile Java code you can install the JDK (Java Development Kit) instead. Once installed, you will automatically get updates to the latest version.

Important: when given the choice, we strongly suggest you to install the 64-bit version of Java.

## Installing BEAST

Unzip the downloaded compressed ZIP archive (currently BEAST.v1.10.4.zip). The unzipped files contain executable binaries for BEAST, BEAUti, LogCombiner, TreeAnnotator and TreeStat. Double-clicking on those files will automatically start the corresponding program.

### BEAGLE acceleration library

We also strongly recommend that you install the BEAGLE library to accelerate BEAST’s computation (indeed some analyses are not possible without BEAGLE). For more information about BEAGLE and information about installing it, see here. In the case of a correct 64-bit installation of Java and BEAGLE, BEAST will automatically detect where BEAGLE has been installed.

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