Installing Dolphin

Windows and Mac
Installing or upgrading process for Dolphin on Windows PC or Mac is pretty simple. Download the latest revision or version from the Download page and extract it into a new folder (preferably named after the revision) or to replace an existing Dolphin setup, and you're good.
 * Dolphin for Windows now use Global User Directory. By default, it is under %userprofile%\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\ . You do not need to migrate anything if the previous Dolphin build was or higher. Otherwise, you may want to migrate every folders beside \Languages\ and \Sys\ to there. And if one migrated folder happens to be \User\ then move all subfolders one level up from that folder.
 * The older save states may not work between versions.

If you're running Dolphin for the first time, it will create new user folder: %userprofile%\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\.
 * If you want to use old GameCube Memory Card files, place them under \GC\.
 * Wii NAND dumps should be placed under \Wii\ . This is optional. You may want to check how to dump your own NAND backup here NAND Usage Guide.

Problems? try the FAQ before asking questions in the forums.

Ubuntu
Ubuntu users can download and install a Debian binary (.deb) from the download site, or add a PPA by executing the following commands to receive updates for Dolphin (you need to enable Universe repository first).

This applies to all Ubuntu-based distributions.

Install the stable version:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dolphin-emu/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install dolphin-emu

Or to install development versions:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dolphin-emu/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install dolphin-emu-master

NOTICE: 12.04 and 14.04 users will need an updated libstdc++6 (>=4.9) to run dolphin-emu-master, so install this PPA first:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dolphin-emu/gcc-for-dolphin sudo apt-get update

This PPA uses the same packages of Ubuntu Toolchains PPA, so you can install that instead. You don't need to update all GCC packages, just upgrade libstdc++6, gcc-4.9-base and eventual dependencies in Synaptic, and disable the PPA.

Arch Linux
Install:

See also the AUR and read more on the ArchWiki.

GNU/Linux
Other GNU/Linux users have to build and install from source code.

Configure Plugins
In most cases, the default settings works fine. If you want to change something, the Performance guide can help you.

File Browser

 * You can launch ISO/WAD files by browsing them, or setting a folder to search for files (which will be shown at the Dolphin's main window)
 * Banner/Game Names may not load at first time. Making a save file for that game fixes it. That isn't a bug itself. (GameCube games don't have this issue)
 * Items shown can be toggled on/off on the "View" menu.