首先从http://maven.apache.org/download.html下载二进制安装包，最新的版本是3.1.1。
1.将二进制包apache-maven-3.0.2-bin.zip解压至任意目录，比如E:Maven\apache-maven-3.1.1
2.设置环境变量，M2_HOME=E:Maven\apache-maven-3.1.1，并且在PATH变量里添加%M2_HOME%\bin
3.测试配置是否生效，控制台里输入mvn -v或mvn -version，显示如下信息，表示安装已经成功。
Apache Maven 3.1.1 (0728685237757ffbf44136acec0402957f723d9a; 2013-09-17 23:22:2
2+0800)
Maven home: E:\Maven\apache-maven-3.1.1
Java version: 1.6.0_03, vendor: Sun Microsystems Inc.
Java home: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_03\jre
Default locale: zh_CN, platform encoding: GBK
OS name: "windows xp", version: "5.1", arch: "x86", family: "windows"
3.测试配置是否生效，控制台里输入mvn -v或mvn -version，显示如下信息，表示安装已经成功。
Apache Maven 3.1.1 (0728685237757ffbf44136acec0402957f723d9a; 2013-09-17 23:22:2
2+0800)
Maven home: E:\Maven\apache-maven-3.1.1
Java version: 1.6.0_03, vendor: Sun Microsystems Inc.
Java home: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_03\jre
Default locale: zh_CN, platform encoding: GBK
OS name: "windows xp", version: "5.1", arch: "x86", family: "windows"
Maven的插件是在第一次加载时从仓库下载的，然后在本地保存一个副本，也就是说第一次需要联网到仓库去下载，新安装的Maven只包含内核，还不包含其他插件，我们可以使用describe目标去试着获取help插件的信息
mvn help:describe -Dplugin=help
会出现下载信息，在插件下载完成之后，最后才打印出help插件的具体信息
Downloading: http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/jdom/jdom/1.0/jdom-1.0.pom Downloaded: http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/jdom/jdom/1.0/jdom-1.0.pom (2 KB at 2.8 KB/sec) Downloading: http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/com/thoughtworks/xstream/xstrea m/1.4.3/xstream-1.4.3.pom Downloaded: http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/com/thoughtworks/xstream/xstream /1.4.3/xstream-1.4.3.pom (9 KB at 19.9 KB/sec) Downloading: http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/com/thoughtworks/xstream/xstrea m-parent/1.4.3/xstream-parent-1.4.3.pom