NVM for Windows not working?

I just installed NVM for Windows, but it doesn't seem to be working:

nvm from command line

Any ideas?


First examine your actual "C:\Program Files\nodejs" directory. Most of us already have a "nodejs" directory from a prior install, before we decided (or were told) to install nvm.

In the end, this "C:\Program Files\nodejs" directory will actually be a shortcut to where nvm manages the versions it installs (see C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\nvm). It seems that nvm is simply switching the shortcut, when we call "nvm use ...".

Ok, so here is what I did to fix the situation where "nvm use ..." was not taking effect.

  1. Delete/remove/uninstall the version of node in your "C:\Program Files\nodejs" directory. To the point where there is no more "nodejs" directory at all.
  2. Delete the existence of nvm (C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\nvm), basically, manually delete the nvm dir.
  3. Download your desired version of nvm (https://github.com/coreybutler/nvm-windows/releases)
  4. Open a CMD prompt (run as administrator), and install the downloaded version of nvm, nvm-setup.exe, from within this CMD command prompt.
  5. From within the admin level command prompt, run "nvm install 7.2.1", or whatever node version you want to install. Probably you will be installing multiple versions, so repeat as needed.
  6. Now do the usual "nvm use ...", "nvm list", etc...

I dont know if this is the best way, but it worked for me...


Having the same issue after installing latest node with nvm. node command was not recognized in console. Closing and opening command windows did not work. checked nvm arch to which the response is

    C:\WINDOWS\system32> nvm arch
    System Default: 64-bit.
    Currently Configured: -bit.

Had to set the node again with arch setting

    C:\WINDOWS\system32> nvm use 7.4.0 x64
    Now using node v7.4.0 (64-bit)
    C:\WINDOWS\system32> nvm arch
    System Default: 64-bit.
    Currently Configured: 64-bit.
    C:\WINDOWS\system32> nvm list

    * 7.4.0 (Currently using 64-bit executable)
      4.5.0
    C:\WINDOWS\system32> node -v
    v7.4.0

Rename "C:\Program Files\nodejs" to "C:\Program Files\nodejsx"

nvm use x.x.x

This worked for me. Maybe it will work for you too.


Most likely what is happening is that the system %PATH% is being updated outside of the command prompt instance. Only opening a new command prompt will pick up these new external changes.