Computational Setup #

Note: These steps take time! Read the instructions in advance, and don’t wait until the last minute.

This guide walks you through the steps necessary to set up your computer for the work you will do in this course. Once you have completed this setup, you should have all of the software tools you need to complete the worksheets and projects in this course.

These instructions are only for Windows 11. This is the only supported operating system in the course. You are free to run macOS or Linux, or otherwise deviate from the steps below if you want, but there is limited help available for these operating systems. If you are using macOS or Linux and something goes wrong, we can’t guarantee that we can help you fix your issue, and you’re ultimately responsible for getting to a correct setup.

We have split each step into a Context section that explains what you are doing and why, a Directions section that explains what to do, and a Check section with instructions for you to test that you have completed the step successfully. Reading the Context section is optional - it simply explains why you are doing each step.

The setup has quite a few steps and may appear daunting at first. We ask that you try to follow these instructions as closely as you can, because we have done quite a bit of testing with these instructions and have confirmed that they work reasonably well for most student setups. If you run into any issues, please checkout the troubleshooting section, which has solutions for common issues. If you need our help, it will be very helpful for us to know if and how you did anything differently from what these instructions specify. We are happy to provide help if you get stuck, so please do not hesitate to ask!

Under Construction #

This page is being updated. Please check back soon to get the latest instructions.