Installing on Windows

Follow these steps to install the development environment on a Windows machine.

  1. Open a command prompt. Press ⊞+R to open the Run dialog, then type powershell and hit enter. You should see a window come up with gray text on a black background. This is the Windows Powershell terminal.

  2. Run the installer. Copy and paste the following command into your terminal, then press enter to execute it:

    irm https://cs193v.stanford.edu/cs193v-dev/files/install-cs193v.ps1 | iex

    What this does:

    • irm: "Invoke REST Method." Downloads the given URL.
    • | iex: "Invoke Expression." Runs the commands given in the downloaded file.

  3. Install WSL. Our installer will load WSL ("Windows System for Linux") onto your system. Installing WSL requires administrator privileges, and so the installer will pop up a box asking you for your permission to proceed. Click "Yes." You should see a new window pop up with a progress indicator.

    Once WSL installs, you should see a message telling you to restart your computer. Save any open files you're working on and reboot the computer.

    (If you already have WSL installed on your system, you may not need to do any of this, and the installer will automatically proceed to the next step.)

  4. Follow prompts after restarting. Once you've restarted your computer, the installer should automatically launch again and pick up where it left off. You may need to wait a minute or two for it to reappear. It will begin installing the remaining software you need for the development environment. Follow the remaining prompts and wait for the installer to finish.

    If the installer doesn't resume automatically, follow steps (1) and (2) to start the installer up again manually.

  5. Confirm everything installed. You should see a message confirming that everything has installed correctly. To confirm everything worked, press ⊞ to open the Start Menu, and type "CS193V Development Environment." You should see an icon for a program with that name. Run the program. After a few seconds of setup, you should be left at a terminal that looks like this:

   Welcome to the CS193V Development Environment!

student@cs193v-development:~/projects$

If so, congratulations! Everything is installed. Type exit and hit enter to leave the development environment.

If something goes wrong with the install, or if you can't perform one of the steps above, please check the troubleshooting page to see if it's a known issue we already have advice for. If not, contact the course staff.