The NetBeans Platform Manager is a tool for registering different NetBeans platforms with the IDE. A NetBeans platform can be an installation of the NetBeans Platform or an installation of the NetBeans IDE. The default platform is always configured, and is the running IDE. Even in the case that a target platform is the complete IDE, you can easily create an application based only on the platform subset, so that there is little need to download the NetBeans Platform separately. The NetBeans Platform Manager lists all your registered NetBeans platforms in the left pane and lists the platform that the IDE currently deploys to as the default.
You can open the NetBeans Platform Manager by choosing Tools > NetBeans Platform Manager.
Using the NetBeans Platform Manager, you can:
Once you have registered a platform, you can configure a module project to use that platform for deployment. Go to the project's Project Properties dialog box, select the Libraries node, and choose the appropriate platform in the NetBeans Platform drop-down list.