# Setting up Amazon SQS
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Before you can use Amazon SQS for the first time, you must complete the following steps:

## Sign up for an AWS account
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To get started with AWS, you need an AWS account. For information about creating an AWS account, see [Getting started with an AWS account](https://docs.aws.amazon.com//accounts/latest/reference/getting-started.html) in the *AWS Account Management Reference Guide*.

## Get ready to use the example code
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This guide includes examples that use the AWS SDK for Java. To run the example code, follow the set-up instructions in [Getting Started with AWS SDK for Java 2.0](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdk-for-java/latest/developer-guide/). 

You can develop AWS applications in other programming languages, such as Go, JavaScript, Python and Ruby. For more information, see [Tools to Build on AWS](https://aws.amazon.com/developer/tools/#sdk).

**Note**  
You can explore Amazon SQS without writing code with tools such as the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) or Windows PowerShell. You can find AWS CLI examples in the [Amazon SQS section](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/sqs/index.html) of the *AWS CLI Command Reference*. You can find Windows PowerShell examples in the Amazon Simple Queue Service section of the *[AWS Tools for PowerShell Cmdlet Reference](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/powershell/latest/reference/)*.

## Next steps
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You are now ready for [Getting started](sqs-getting-started.md) with managing Amazon SQS queues and messages using the AWS Management Console.