Installing R Studio on Windows and MAC Operating System

The Beginner’s Guide to Installing R Studio for Windows and MAC Operating System

We’ve installed R and can open the R interface to input code, but there are other ways to interface with R - and one of those ways is using R Studio. In this lesson, we’ll get R Studio installed on your computer.

Installing R on Windows and MAC Operating Systems.

What is R Studio?

R Studio is a graphical user interface for R, that allows you to write, edit and store code, generate, view and store plots, manage files, objects and data frames, and integrate with version control systems – to name a few of its functions. We will be exploring exactly what R Studio can do for you in future lessons, but for anybody just starting out with R coding, the visual nature of this program as an interface for R is a huge benefit.

Installing R Studio

Thankfully, installation of R Studio is fairly straightforward. First, you go to the R Studio download page. We want to download the R Studio Desktop version of the software, so click on the appropriate “Download” , under that heading and you will see a list of “Installers for supported platforms”.

 

The R Studio download page. Select R Studio Desktop

 

The various versions of R Studio are available for different operating systems

At this point the installation process diverges for Macs and Windows, so follow the instructions for the appropriate OS. Let’s begin with Windows.

Installing R Studio - Windows

For Windows, select the R Studio installer for the various Windows editions (10/11). This will initiate the download process.

When the download is complete, open this executable file to access the installation wizard. You may be presented with a security warning at this time - allow it to make changes to your computer.

Following this, the installation wizard will open. Following the defaults on each of the windows of the wizard is appropriate for installation. In brief, on the welcome screen, click next. If you want R Studio installed elsewhere, “Browse” through your file system. Otherwise, it will likely default to the “Program Files” folder - this is appropriate. Click next. On this final page, allow R Studio to create a Start menu shortcut. Click Install. R Studio is now being installed. Wait for this process to finish; R Studio is now installed on your computer. Click Finish.

Check that R Studio is working appropriately by opening it from your Start menu.

The installation wizard for R Studio installation

Completing installation of R Studio

R Studio is running!

Installing R Studio - Macs

For Macs, select the Macs OS X 11+ Studio installer (Mac OS X 11+ (64-bit)). This will initiate the download process. If your MAC version is older than this, you can further scroll down and find for your download link for your version.

When the download is complete, click on the downloaded file and it will begin to install. When this is finished, the applications window will open.

Drag the R Studio file into your Applications folder to complete installation for R Studio

Test the installation by opening your applications folder and opening the R Studio software.

R Studio is running!

Summary

In this lesson we installed R Studio, both for Macs and for Windows computers. Before moving on to the next lecture, click through the available menus and explore the software a bit. We will have an entire lesson dedicated to exploring R Studio, but having some familiarity beforehand will be helpful!

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