Custom RStudio installation on a WURclient computer

Motivation

A WURclient desktop or laptop at Wageningen University & Research is not a standard Windows 10 computer. WURclients use Windows 10 Enterprise, which has been modified by Facilities and Services Information Technology (FB-IT) among others with respect to installation rights for security reasons.

WURclient desktops and laptops at Wageningen University & Research can install RStudio from the Software Center, before called !Available Software, created by the IT department, which is launched by clicking on Start and selecting the ‘Software Center’ tile. At the time this post was written, the latest version of RStudio in Software Center was RStudio v1.4, which refers to release v1.4.1717. Currently RStudio 2023.06.1.524 is the latest available version in Software Center, referring to release 2023.06.1 Build 524.

This version of RStudio was placed in ‘Software Center’ for educational purposes. Only once per year a new version of R (including R Commander and additional packages for several courses) and RStudio is released in Software Center.

Many users, however, prefer to use the latest version of RStudio, because of new features offered in the newer version of the software. At the moment of writing this post the latest version of RStudio was v1.4.1717 named: ‘Juliet Rose’ (released on 2021-06-01). The post has been updated, with the exception of the screenshots, to RStudio 2023.09.1 Build 494 named: “Desert Sunflower”.

Prerequisites

• To be able to perform a custom installation of RStudio you need to have POWER USER RIGHTS on the WURclient desktop or laptop.

To see whether you possess these rights, right-click any icon (except Recycle Bin or WUR HELP) on the desktop. When the opened menu contains the option ‘WUR - Run with administrative rights’ (sixth or seventh from the top), it means you have power user rights on that particular desktop or laptop.

• R installed on a WURclient using a custom installation

To be able to install RStudio you will need to have R installed first. If you haven’t done so already, please first perform a custom installation of R on your WURclient computer (use the link above to go to that specific post).

Uninstall a previously installed RStudio version

Before performing a new custom installation of RStudio it is recommended to uninstall a previously installed version.

Here two procedures are described, follow the one that fits your needs:

• Installed from Software Center
• Installed previously as a custom installation

In case you have no version of RStudio installed on your WURclient desktop or laptop you can proceed to the section Custom RStudio installation.

Installed from Software Center

If you previously installed RStudio from Software Center, then to remove R reopen the Software Center by clicking on Start and next click on the Software Center tile. If for some reason you lack this tile in your start menu, just type ‘Software Center’ and it will appear in a search results window in your Windows task bar.

In the left column of Software Center navigate to ‘Installation Status’. Select the installed RStudio version and click on the green button bearing the text ‘Uninstall’. This will start the removal of the software. You will be informed by the Software Center, when the software has been uninstalled.

Installed previously as a custom installation

Let’s assume you previously installed RStudio version 1.3.959 on a WURclient computer (either a desktop or laptop) by following the steps for a custom installation of RStudio as described in this post. For a newer version of RStudio the steps are the same.

To uninstall RStudio perform the following steps:

1. Open a File Explorer and navigate to the folder C:\MyPrograms\RStudio. Right-click the file Uninstall.exe and select ‘WUR - Run with administrative rights’ as displayed in Figure 1 below.

2. The uninstaller will start as shown below in Figure 2. Click the ‘Uninstall’ to proceed.

3. Once the uninstallation has completed, a message of success will be display as shown below in Figure 3. Click the ‘Close’ button to finish.

Custom RStudio installation

Download

At the time this post was written, the latest stable release of RStudio was version 1.4.1717. The post has been updated to the current stable release 2023.09.0 Build 463.

Download RStudio using the following link: RStudio 2023.09.1 Build 494 (ca. 214.34 MB)

For newer versions of RStudio the steps described after the download are the same, but starting with a newer version of the RStudio executable file.

Installation

To install RStudio perform the following steps:

1. Right-click the downloaded file RStudio-2023.09.1-494.exe and select ‘WUR - Run with administrative rights’. This file will most likely reside in your Downloads folder of your user account.
2. After the installler has started, a Welcome window will appear as displayed below in Figure 4. Click the ‘Next’ button to proceed.

3. Now the RStudio Setup will allow you to select the installation location by selecting a destination folder. Change the Destination Folder to C:\MyPrograms\Rstudio, , as shown in Figure 5 below. Click the ‘Next’ button to continue.

4. Next the RStudio Setup allows choosing a Start Menu folder, as displayed below in Figure 6, where the RStudio shortcut to start the program will be put. Click on ‘Install’ to start the installation of RStudio.

5. Once the installation of RStudio has finished, the window will look like the one shown below in Figure 7. Click the ‘Finish’ button to close the setup.

Setting the default RStudio working directory

In the default R GUI the working directory at start up is:

\\\\WURNET.NL/Homes/user001/My Documents

where user001 display your own WUR username, as described in the section Changing the R GUI working directory of the post Custom R installation on a WURclient computer.

In RStudio the default working directory of the R Console and Files tab can be set in the Global Options… item under Tools in the top menu:

1. a new window will open by default in the General part,

2. go to R Sessions and select your “Default working directory (when not in a project):” by setting the desired folder using the Browse button.

When restarting RStudio you will notice, that both the R console and the Files tab open in the selected default working directory.