To view the serial output of an ESP32 without using an IDE the following guide can be used.

Install PuTTY

PuTTY is a standard tool that provides a simple terminal interface.

https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

Connect Hardware

In our setup we used an ESP-Prog as the USB / Serial adaptor, connected to our ESP32 via the 6 pin ribbon cable (UART port). This will create two USB serial ports on your Windows PC. The higher number port is the UART connection of the ESP-Prog.

Connect PuTTY

Run PuTTY

At the initial Configuration screen select:

Connection Type: Serial

Serial Line: Your comms port (the higher port number for the ESP-Prog – look in Windows Device Manager > Ports if you need to discover what serial ports have been assigned)

Speed: 115200

Press the Open button and you will start viewing the live serial output of the ESP32.