Install NVM for Windows Without Administrator

  • Thread starter Thread starter chuongmep
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chuongmep

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Most tutorials for nvm-windows assume you install it using the Windows installer, which requires administrator privileges. But what if you can’t run installers or don’t have admin rights?

Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting up NVM (Node Version Manager) for Windows manually, without admin access.

1. Download NVM for Windows (No-Install)​


Go to the nvm-windows releases page and download the nvm-noinstall.zip package.



Extract it somewhere you can write to, for example:


Code: 
D:\_WIP\Download\nvm-noinstall



2. Create settings.txt​


Inside the extracted folder, create a new file called settings.txt with this content:


Code: 
root: D:\_WIP\Download\nvm-noinstall
path: D:\_WIP\Download\nvm-noinstall\nodejs
arch: 64
proxy: none



This tells NVM where to keep Node.js versions and where the active Node.js binary should be symlinked.

3. Create the nodejs Folder​


Still inside your extracted folder, create a new folder:


Code: 
nodejs

This will be the folder NVM points to for the currently active Node.js version.

4. Install Node.js Using NVM​


Open Command Prompt (no admin needed) and run:


Code: 
nvm install latest

This will download and install the latest version of Node.js.



5. Setup Environment Variables​


Since you don’t have admin rights, you’ll set user-level environment variables.

Add the following to your user environment variables:

  • NVM_HOME β†’ D:\_WIP\Download\nvm-noinstall
  • NVM_SYMLINK β†’ D:\_WIP\Download\nvm-noinstall\nodejs

Then, update your Path (user-level) to include:


Code: 
%NVM_HOME%
%NVM_SYMLINK%
Tip: You don’t need to set nvm_symlink manually in environment variable, only settings.txt.
Click to expand...

6. Verify Installation​


Check available Node.js versions:




Code: 
nvm list available

Check installed versions:


Code: 
nvm list

Switch Node.js versions easily:


Code: 
nvm use 20

References​

Bonus: What’s Next?​


If you’re looking at alternatives to Node.js, check out Bun β€” a modern JavaScript runtime that is fast and has built-in tools like a bundler, transpiler, and test runner.

Would you like me to make this more hands-on with a screenshot of environment variable setup and the settings.txt file so dev.to readers don’t get stuck?

Continue reading...
 


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