Instructions for Downloading R

  1. Visit the homepage at http://www.r-project.org/
  2. Click ‘Download R’ under ‘Getting Started’ and choose a CRAN mirror close to you. Scroll down to mirrors in the USA.
  3. On ‘The Comprehensive R Archive Network’ page, click the link in the first box that corresponds to your operating system.
    • For a Windows operating system
      1. On the ‘R for Windows’ page, click ‘Download R for the first time’. An executable (.exe) file will download.
      2. Navigate to the .exe file) to install and agree to all the defaults, but be sure to check the box for putting an icon on your desktop if you want to access it that way.
    • For a Mac
      1. Click the first link on the left under the ‘Latest Release’ section for the most recent version (currently R-3.6.1.pkg).
      2. Follow the prompts to install on your computer and agree to the terms of service.
      3. Click on the Rocket icon for the Launchpad. If the R icon is not on the first page of apps, swipe to access the rest of your apps.
      4. Note that R for Mac is finicky about the operating system. If installing latest version of R requires you to upgrade your operating system and you cannot do that, try to download the next most recent version and make a note that some packages we use later may not function without some workarounds.
      5. It is strongly recommended to visit https://www.xquartz.org/ and download the most recent version of XQuartz, which no longer comes with the Mac operating system. Every time you upgrade your operating system, you should visit xquartz.org and download the most recent version. Without it, some graphics capabilities will not function correctly.
Once you have installed R, double click to open it. If your screen looks similar to the picture below, you have success — congratulations!

R version 3.6.1 GUI for Windows and Mac, respectively.

R version 3.6.1 GUI for Windows and Mac, respectively.

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