Installing R Base

Firstly you will need to download the setup file from CRAN^2.1, http://cran.r-project.org/ or one of its mirror sites. Once you are at CRAN's homepage, you will see a table that looks like:

All Platforms

• Download the source code of the latest release (2002-06-17): R-1.6.0.tgz (or read what's new in the latest version).
• Sources of contributed packages
• Current patch set (daily snapshot): R-release.diff.gz.

Precompiled Binary Distributions (Base system and contributed packages)

• Alpha Unix (OSF/Tru64)
• Linux
• MacOS (System 8.6 to 9.1 and MacOS X)
• MacOS X (Darwin/X11)
• Windows (95 and later)

It should be obvious that you should click on Windows (95 and later). Then you will see a list of folders, click on base. Now you have a choice, there are two flavours of R that you can choose:

rw1060.exe

is a complete setup file (about 19MB), which is probably the easiest way to install R for most people.

mini

is a set of installation files that can be put onto floppy disks. You can put miniR.exe and miniR-1.bin on one floppy, and miniR-2.bin to miniR-8.bin on separate floppies.

Assuming you downloaded rw1060.exe, then you just need to run it by double clicking on the file. The rest of the steps are trivial, as you pretty much just keep clicking on the NEXT button. It is worth noting that when you are asked to select the components that you wish to install, you may want to tick Source Package Installation Files if you wish to use Rcmd^2.2 later. After the installation, you may wish to make a shortcut to Rgui.exe on your desktop for easy access in the future. The file can be found from $R_HOME\bin. $R_HOME refers to the directory where you installed R, for example, C:\Program Files\R\rw1051.