Anaconda Installation & Setup Guide (Windows 10)

Anaconda is the world's most popular data science platform for Python.

Downloading Anaconda

Enter the following link into your browser of choice:

https://www.anaconda.com/products/individual

Scroll Down to Anaconda Installers near the bottom of the page and select the Windows, MacOS, or Linux installer that best fits your device - in this case we are selecting Windows:

Click “Open” on the resulting pop-up to initiate the download of the Anaconda Installer to the computer’s downloads folder– use the “Save As” option if an alternative save point is preferred.

The Anaconda Setup Guide will appear upon completing the download. Follow the on screen prompts as denoted by the guide:

Selecting the “All Users” option requires you to run the Anaconda Prompt as Administrator before installing packages.

It is often helpful to simply create a new folder with the following pathway: “C:\Anaconda\” to keep referencing simple.

When installing Anaconda, we recommend that you do not add Anaconda to the Windows PATH because this can interfere with other software. Instead, open Anaconda with the Start Menu and select Anaconda Prompt or use Anaconda Navigator (Start Menu - Anaconda Navigator).

The Anaconda Individual Edition provides a quick 12-minute tutorial introducing this powerful tool. This tutorial can be watched anytime using the following link and a free Anaconda Nucleus account:https://anaconda.cloud/tutorials/getting-started-with-anaconda-individual-edition?source=download

Anaconda is officially ready to go! Now, the next step is to left-click on your PC’s search bar and search for “Anaconda Prompt” – the Anaconda equivalent of Command Prompt. Typing "python" will open your predetermined version of Python.

If an initial warning stating “system cannot find the path”, simply type “conda init” into Anaconda Prompt and then restart the application.