Installing Miniconda on Windows

System requirements

  • Windows 8 and above, 32-bit or 64-bit.

  • 400 MB of disk space.

You can find the complete list of requirements for Windows (as well as requirements for macOS and Linux) on the Anaconda website. For Miniconda, the requirements are the same except for disk space.

Downloading the installer

Download the installer for your operating system from the link on the conda documentation site.

Checking the installer hash sum

Miniconda developers recommend checking the hash sum of the downloaded installer before starting the installation to ensure its integrity and authenticity. On the conda documentation page you will find the SHA256 hash sum for the latest installer. Hash sums for earlier versions are also available.

Note

The following instruction assumes that you are installing Miniconda on Windows with PowerShell V4 or higher. In the conda documentation you will find alternative ways to check hash sums (for Linux and MacOS as well).

Check the installer:

  1. Start PowerShell (for example, press Win+R and type powershell).

  2. Enter the following command:

    Get-FileHash path-to-your-installer -Algorithm SHA256

  3. Compare the result with the value on the conda documenataion page.

Installing Miniconda

Run the downloaded installer (it has an exe extension) and follow the instructions. During the installation process, you need to specify:

  • for which computer users you want to install Miniconda: only for yourself (no administrator rights are required) or for all users (administrator rights are required);

  • which folder to install Miniconda in;

  • whether it is necessary to add Miniconda to the PATH environment variable (Miniconda developers do not recommend this as it may cause problems in the future, so you will have to uninstall and reinstall Miniconda to fix these problems);

  • whether the version of Python installed during Miniconda installation should be registered as the default for use by other programs (such as PyCharm or PyDev).