Installing on Windows¶
Using Anaconda in a commercial setting? You may need to purchase a license to stay compliant with our Terms of Service. This can be accomplished through Anaconda Professional, Anaconda Server, or Anaconda Enterprise. If you have already purchased Professional, please proceed to the Authenticating Anaconda Professional section after completing your installation here.
Haven’t purchased Anaconda Professional yet? Visit https://anaconda.cloud/register to get started.
More of a visual learner? Watch the Installing Anaconda (Windows) video in the course linked below!
Go to your Downloads folder and double-click the installer to launch. To prevent permission errors, do not launch the installer from the Favorites folder .
If you encounter issues during installation, temporarily disable your anti-virus software during install, then re-enable it after the installation concludes. If you installed for all users, uninstall Anaconda and re-install it for your user only.
Click Next.
Read the licensing terms and click I Agree.
It is recommended that you install for Just Me, which will install Anaconda Distribution to just the current user account. Only select an install for All Users if you need to install for all users’ accounts on the computer (which requires Windows Administrator privileges).
Click Next.
Select a destination folder to install Anaconda and click Next. Install Anaconda to a directory path that does not contain spaces or unicode characters. For more information on destination folders, see the FAQ .
Do not install as Administrator unless admin privileges are required.
Choose whether to add Anaconda to your PATH environment variable or register Anaconda as your default Python. We don’t recommend adding Anaconda to your PATH environment variable, since this can interfere with other software. Unless you plan on installing and running multiple versions of Anaconda or multiple versions of Python, accept the default and leave this box checked. Instead, use Anaconda software by opening Anaconda Navigator or the Anaconda Prompt from the Start Menu.
As of Anaconda Distribution 2022.05 , the option to add Anaconda to the PATH environment variable during an All Users installation has been disabled. This was done to address a security exploit. You can still add Anaconda to the PATH environment variable during a Just Me installation.
Click Install. If you want to watch the packages Anaconda is installing, click Show Details.
Click Next.
Optional: To install Dataspell for Anaconda, click https://www.anaconda.com/dataspell.
Or to continue without Dataspell, click Next.
After a successful installation you will see the “Thanks for installing Anaconda” dialog box:
If you wish to read more about Anaconda.org and how to get started with Anaconda, check the boxes “Anaconda Distribution Tutorial” and “Learn more about Anaconda”. Click the Finish button.
If you are behind a company proxy, you may need to do some additional setup. See how to set up your proxy .
Problems?¶
What’s next?¶
Get started programming with Anaconda in the Getting started with Anaconda guide.
Visit Anaconda Nucleus to start programming for FREE in a notebook. Learn how from Anaconda Learning, too!
Guide to Installing Anaconda in Windows 10
When we get started ourselves working on Machine Learning and Deep Learning AI, we would essentially have to install a bunch of packages. This is actually sometimes troublesome for most of us. To make it easier for that, Anaconda comes in as a package manager that is going to manage our new packages installation and deployment.
At first, visit the following link: https://www.anaconda.com/distribution/ and the page will pop up like this.
Scroll down the page and select windows.
Download Python 3.7 Version (Recommended) as Python version 2 will have no more support by the community at the end of 2019. Depending on your computer system, choose either 32-bit or 64-bit installer to download the .exe file.
After downloading the file, run the file. The file will open, Click Next
And click I Agree to the license.
Choose Just Me and click Next
Choose the installation location by clicking Browse or leave it as it is (default location) and continue to click Next.
Here, it is highly recommended to choose the second one “Register Anaconda as my default Python 3.7” and click Install
Once the installation is done, open the Anaconda Prompt from Windows start menu bar.
Anaconda Prompt is shell similar to Windows Command Prompt (Windows Terminal) powered by Anaconda distribution. To check whether we have successfully installed Anaconda or not, type python command in the shell.
and the output will be thrown out with Python version and the symbol will be changed to from > to >>> showing it as a Python interpreter.
To exit from the python interpreter, enter exit command as below.
What if we want to access Anaconda from Windows Command Prompt? Follow this along if you want to do that. At first, from Anaconda Prompt, enter this command to check the location of Anaconda.
Press Windows Key + R to open up the Run box. Type sysdm.cpl in the box and click OK .
System Properties window will pop up. Then, go to Advanced tab and click on Environment Variables.
In Environment Variables window, select Path and click Edit to edit the path.
Inside the Edit Environment Variable window, click New to add the paths.
Add these three locations inside it. Enter your username in the place of *UserName*. Here, I am using Anaconda latest version Anaconda3 and if you tend to use older versions, change the version numbers as well.
After all the above steps are done, open the Windows Command Prompt from the Run box by typing cmd and hit OK.
In the command prompt, enter the command
and will see several lines appeared. It means we can successfully execute Anaconda commands right from our favourite Windows terminal.
Last but not least, in order to check the conda version. Enter this command below.
Installation¶
Review the system requirements listed below before installing Anaconda Distribution. If you don’t want the hundreds of packages included with Anaconda, install Miniconda, a mini version of Anaconda that includes just conda, its dependencies, and Python.
Looking for Python 3.5 or 3.6? See our FAQ .
System requirements
- License: Free use and redistribution under the terms of the EULA for Anaconda Distribution.
- Operating system: Windows 8 or newer, 64-bit macOS 10.13+, or Linux, including Ubuntu, RedHat, CentOS 7+, and others.
- If your operating system is older than what is currently supported, you can find older versions of the Anaconda installers in our archive that might work for you. See Using Anaconda on older operating systems for version recommendations.
- System architecture: Windows- 64-bit x86; MacOS- 64-bit x86 & M1; Linux- 64-bit x86, 64-bit aarch64 (AWS Graviton2), 64-bit Power8/Power9, s390x (Linux on IBM Z & LinuxONE).
- Minimum 5 GB disk space to download and install.
On Windows, macOS, and Linux, it is best to install Anaconda for the local user, which does not require administrator permissions and is the most robust type of installation. However, with administrator permissions, you can install Anaconda system wide.
Silent mode install
Use silent mode to automatically accept default settings and have no screen prompts appear during installation.
Need to use Anaconda on an older operating system?
Installing Anaconda on a non-networked machine (air gap)
- Obtain a local copy of the appropriate Anaconda installer for the non-networked machine. You can copy the Anaconda installer to the target machine using many different methods, including a portable hard drive, USB drive, or CD.
- After copying the installer to the non-networked machine, follow the detailed installation instructions for your operating system.
Install offline copies of both docs.anaconda.com and enterprise-docs.anaconda.com by installing the conda package anaconda-docs: conda install anaconda-docs
Install offline copies of documentation for many of Anaconda’s open-source packages by installing the conda package anaconda-oss-docs: conda install anaconda-oss-docs
Other ways to get Anaconda or Miniconda
The official Anaconda or Miniconda AMIs are on the AWS Marketplace.
If you have a CDH (Cloudera Distributed Hadoop) cluster, install the Anaconda parcel using Cloudera Manager. The Anaconda parcel provides a static installation of Anaconda, based on Python 2.7, that can be used with Python and PySpark jobs on the cluster.
Troubleshooting
If you experience errors during the installation process, review our Troubleshooting topics .
How to Install Anaconda on Windows correctly | Anaconda3-2020 Navigator with Python 3.8
This tutorial will cover step by step instructions to install Anaconda on Windows. You will also learn how to update, write your first program and uninstall Anaconda. This is going to be awesome learning, in case you are a developer or exploring Anaconda and Python.
Let’s deep dive in with these topics —
Table of Contents
What is Anaconda
Anaconda
It’s helps to simplify package management and deployment. Anaconda is available for all platforms like Windows, macOS and Linux.
There are two version available to install Anaconda in Windows —
- Anaconda distribution or Individual edition, which are open source and free
- Anaconda Team Edition and Anaconda Enterprise Edition are paid
In this tutorial, I will cover the Anaconda individual edition. It comes with more than 250 packages automatically installed and over 7500 packages available in the PyPI repository.
Conda is an open-source, language-agnostic and cross-platform package manager. It helps to manage and deploy packages using the command line while Anaconda navigator is a GUI alternative to Conda.
System requirement to Install Anaconda on Windows
- Internet connection
- Windows 10 machine
- Approx. 2.7GB free disks pace.
** You don’t need python to be pre-installed because Python 3.8 automatically get install with Anaconda3.
Download Anaconda Python 3
Follow these steps to download Anaconda3 for Windows 10.
Step1.1- Visit Anaconda installers section on Anaconda.com
- Visit https://www.anaconda.com/products/individual > Scroll down on the page to the Anaconda installers section
- Select your Operating system
Step1.2- Download Installer «Anaconda» for Windows 10 ( 64-bit)
- Click on 64-bit Graphical installer (457 MB) to download Anaconda. If your system supports 32 bit only, then go for a 32-bit Graphical installer (403 MB) Anaconda download.
- Default Python 3.8 comes with it as a bundle. Later in this post, I will let you know, how to get the latest Python version 3.9 using Anaconda.
Alternatively, Just Click on below mentioned «Download buttons» to avoid all hassles.
Depending upon your internet speed, within couple of minutes, you will get «Anaconda3-2020.11-Windows-x86_64.exe» in your Download folder.
If you are in search of Old or Archive version of Anaconda installer for Windows 10, Then visit «https://repo.anaconda.com/archive/».
Step1.3- Verify MD5 Checksum Keys for Anaconda installer
You need to perform this step to make sure you have a legitimate copy of Anaconda.
- Visit «https://repo.anaconda.com/archive/» and search for your Anaconda installer .exe, which you just downloaded.
- Look for the MD5 checksum Key written in the 4 th column against your exe file.
For example, I will show MD5 Key for «Anaconda3-2020.11-Windows-x86_64.exe» in the image for reference. 
- Now Type «Command prompt» in Windows search bar and open it as administrator.
- Run the Certutil.exe command and provide the full path to your download file.
- Add MD5 in the last of your command. You will get a series of number .
- Match it with the key you got in Step1.3 from the Anaconda website. If all matches, you are good to proceed further.
For example, I have added » C:\Users\Dev\Downloads\Anaconda3-2020.11-Windows-x86_64.exe » as the file path in the command.
Then I got 0841ffcb927a3c2edbd682520f52e546 MD5 Key. And If you will look closely, it matches with the key we noted in Step1.3. 
Now we know, that our Anaconda installer file is a genuine copy . Let’s go ahead with the installation steps.
How to install Anaconda on Windows 10 (with Python)
Installing Anaconda on Windows 10 is pretty straightforward. You just need to decide on few options carefully.
Let’s deep dive into Anaconda installation steps —
Step2.1- Run Anaconda3 (Python) installer
- Go to your «Download» directory, where the Anaconda installer exists.
- <Double click> on the Anaconda installer file to run the setup .
Step2.2- click Next on «Anaconda Welcome Screen»
Click Next on the «Welcome to Anaconda3 2020.11 (64-bit) setup» screen.
Make sure you have close all other applications before starting this setup. Because it may avoid updating important relevant system files. A system reboot will become mandatory in that case.
Step2.3- Accept End User License Agreement (EULA)
Select «I Agree» on End user license agreement page. 
Step2.4- Select Anaconda installation type
- Just me — It’s the recommended option. If you will select this option, you can install Anaconda on Windows without admin rights. But if your system is used by more than one user or developer. He or She will not be able to access it. I will go with the «Just me» option.
- All users — If you have a system, where more than one user will use Anaconda to develop scientific programs. You should select this option. Although you will require Admin rights on this system.
Also take a look on couple of extra steps, if you want to install Anaconda on Windows for multiple users.
Click Next — 
Step2.5- Choose Anaconda install location
Select Destination folder, where you want to install Anaconda on Windows 10 system. By default, Anaconda3 will get install in the «Users home directory «. For example, it is in C:\users\Devender\anaconda3 in my case.
If you want to select different folder, then click Browse and choose your preferred folder .
I will go with default installation folder.
Hit Next, once you are ready. 
Step2.6- Choose Advance installation options
You have flexibility to customize your Anaconda integration with Windows. There are two options available —
a. Add Anaconda3 to my PATH variable — I will not recommend you to select this option. Because setting up the Anaconda PATH variable can mess up with your previously installed software. Alternatively, you can open Anaconda Shell or Navigator using the Windows start menu. Let’s don’t tick this check box .
b. Register Anaconda3 as my default Python 3.8 — You can go with this option because it helps other software to detect Python 3.8 as primary. If you don’t want to set Python 3.8 as default, in case you are using some other python version. You can uncheck this option also.
I don’t have any other software or Python installed. So I will leave «Register Anaconda3 as my default Python 3.8» selected.
Click on «Install» button to move further. 
Step2.7- Let Anaconda installation complete
Now you can relax and get a cup of coffee. This setup will take few mins to install Anaconda on Windows 10.
You can tap on «Show details» to check the details of actions happening during installation. 
Step2.8- Install PyCharm Pro with Anaconda (Optional)
On this screen, Anaconda setup suggests you installing the PyCharm Pro editor. Actually, PyCharm is an IDE (integrated development environment) designed especially for Python programming by Jet Brains.
Let’s talk about PyCharm later in some other tutorial.
Click Next — 
Step2.9- Finish Anaconda Installation Wizard
As soon as you will Finish completing the Anaconda3 setup. You will be redirected to the «Anaconda tutorial and the «Getting started» website of Anaconda.
- Anaconda Individual Edition Tutorial
- Getting Started with Anaconda
Congrats!! you are done with latest Anaconda installation in Windows.
How to run Anaconda in Windows using CLI and GUI
When you install Anaconda on Windows, you get a lot of bundled scientific packages with it like Spyder , Python and Jupyter notebook.
There are two methods to run Anaconda in Windows. If you are a CLI (Command Line Interface) fan, you can use Conda to run on the prompt.
In the case of GUI (Graphical User Interface), an Anaconda navigator can be used to manage packages, environment and launch applications.
I will show you both methods (Conda and Navigator) to create your first program. Just follow along :—
Step3.1 (CLI Method) — Create and Activate Anaconda environment
Let’s create our first test environment and run our first program in Python3.
Step3.1 (CLI Method) — Create and Activate Anaconda environment
- Type «Anaconda» in Windows search bar > Select Anaconda prompt application > Click Open
Step3.1.2 — Activate conda environment
By-default, you will get base(root) environment in Anaconda shell prompt.
Run the «conda create» command to set up our first test environment (test_env) with Python3. It will also install the latest Python 3.9 and Pip 21.0 packages. 
Please make a note, every environment is individual in Anaconda. You need to install required packages for each environment individually.
Press «y» to install packages. 
Anaconda will download, extract and install packages required. Once done, you can activate your environment with Conda activate command.
For example, test_env is the name of our newly create environment. So I will run this command —
It will switch from base(root) environment to «test_env» environment as shown in image.
** Please make a note running conda activate command without an environment name argument, drops you in the base environment. So make sure you give your environment name.
Step3.1.3 — Run your first python program
Now run Python and Type print(«your first program«) and check the output.
You will get » >>> » prompt. Type print(«Hello Anaconda! World») from your keyboard and press Enter.
Output should be «Hello Anaconda! World» as shown in image. 
Type exit() to come out from Python prompt.
Hurray!! You have run your first python program in Anaconda successfully.
Step3.1.4 — Deactivate Conda environment
If you want to exit or want to deactivate any environment. You just need to run conda deactivate command.
For example, If I will run conda deactivate command inside my test_env environment. It will drop me to the default base environment as shown in the image. 
Step3.2 (GUI Method)- How to start Anaconda navigator and Launch Jupyter
Just to make things interesting, I will show you how to Launch the Anaconda navigator. Also, how to install and launch Jupyter notebook using Anaconda in your newly created test environment.
So follow these easy steps —
Step3.2.1 — Launch Anaconda Navigator in Windows 10
- Type «Anaconda Navigator» in Windowssearch bar > Select Anaconda Navigator > click Open.
Step3.2.2 — Select your test environment (test_env) and install Jupyter notebook
Jupyter notebook is a web based tool to interactively develop and present data science projects.
You can launch Jupyter notebook from <start menu> or search bar also. But It will get launch from base(root) environment by-default.
Here I will show, how you can install and launch Jupyter notebook in your custom environment . For example, test_env in my case.
- Select your environment from drop down > click on the «install» button in Jupyter Notebook application.
- Please wait and let Jupyter notebook installation complete. You can monitor the progress in Navigator task bar.
Step3.2.3 — Launch Jupyter Notebook in Anaconda navigator
Click on Launch button of Jupyter notebook. 
You will see a Jupyter home page in your default web browser. The default URL path of Jupyter notebook will be http://localhost:8888/tree.
Step3.2.4 — Create your first Jupyter Notebook with Python3
Select New > Python3 notebook.
Step3.2.5 — Run first python program using Jupyter command cell
- Type «print(«My First Notebook») in Jupyter command cell
- Click on Run button as shown in image
- You will see output as «My First Notebook«.
You can also save this file. Go to File > save as > provide the file name (path) and you are done. This was just the basic, For more details, checkout Jupyter documentation.
Enjoy! Anaconda and Jupyter in your development journey.
How to update Anaconda in Windows 10
You can update Anaconda in Windows 10 by 3 simple steps —
Step4.1- Update conda utility
- Type «Anaconda» in Windows search bar > Select Anaconda prompt application > Click Open
- Run conda update command.
Press «y» to proceed
Step4.2- Update Anaconda package
Run this command to update Anaconda packages to latest version —
Press «y» to install packages. 
To update Anaconda to specific version, Run below mentioned command —
For example, to upgrade it to Anaconda 2020.11 version , type
How to Uninstall Anaconda on Windows 10
Till this point, We know how to install Anaconda on Windows 10 and how to update it to latest version.
Now I will show you how to remove Anaconda from Windows10 completely. Follow along with these simple steps —
Step5.1- Go to Add remove programs
**** First of all take backup of all your projects, you created using Anaconda to be on safer side.
Then type «Add remove programs» in Windows search bar and click Open. 
Step5.2- Uninstall Anaconda and Python completely
- In the «Apps and feature» window. Search for the «Anaconda» program > click Uninstall > then Uninstall again.
- Press Next on Anaconda welcome screen
- Click «Uninstall«.
It will take a couple of minutes to uninstall anaconda and python 3.8.5 from your windows system. 
Click Next and then select Reboot Now or «I want to manually reboot later» as per your preference.
I will select reboot now and then Finish to complete uninstallation of Anaconda.
Important Tip
In a few rare cases, you may find the Anaconda3 folder, where you installed Anaconda. For example, in my case, it will reside in «C:\users\Devender\anaconda3«. You can manually delete it if you find it after uninstallation of Anaconda.
You must be a happy soul now!!
Video
Check out this informative video on «How to Install Anaconda on Windows 10«. In case, you don’t like reading text or something is not clear in text instructions.