Speedy way to update RStudio, R, (and many other tools)

[genevaneva]

@wibeasley @DavidBard @akanagwa I found a way to make installing and updating R and RStudio much faster and easier via command line — no searching for and manually downloading and installing. (I recently learned about the Scoop package manager and am a big fan!)

Note: Scoop installs programs to C:\Users\<you>\scoop\apps\ rather than C:\Program Files\. If you're comfortable with that, the setup below handles everything. If you'd prefer Program Files, see the alternative setup at the bottom.

Setup

Paste this entire block into PowerShell and press Enter:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser
irm get.scoop.sh | iex
scoop bucket add extras
scoop install extras/rstudio

What each line does:

• Line 1: Allows your system to run installation scripts
• Line 2: Installs Scoop (a package manager for Windows)
• Line 3: Adds the extras bucket (needed for RStudio)
• Line 4: Installs RStudio — R is installed automatically alongside it

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Updating R and RStudio

When a new version of RStudio or R is available, open PowerShell and run:

scoop update *

That's it. This updates Scoop itself, R, and RStudio all at once. RStudio will automatically detect the updated R on next launch.

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Alternative Setup (Program Files)

If your organization requires programs to live in C:\Program Files\, use this setup instead. It uses rig to manage R (which installs to Program Files) and winget for RStudio:

First-time install:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser
irm get.scoop.sh | iex
scoop install rig
rig add release
rig default release
winget install Posit.RStudio

To update:

scoop update rig
rig add release
rig default release
winget upgrade --id Posit.RStudio

[genevaneva]

Here's a TED talk about Scoop:

Scoop is a command-line installer for Windows that handles software installation, updates, and removal without needing admin rights. Here's a breakdown of why it's valuable, especially for a data science workflow:

Why Scoop stands out

It installs programs into your user directory (~/scoop/apps) rather than system-wide, so you never need to right-click "Run as administrator." On a managed machine like those at OUHSC, this is huge, people without admin permissions can install and maintain their own tooling without IT involvement for every update.

Everything gets added to your PATH automatically. No more hunting through installer dialogs trying to find the "Add to PATH" checkbox that you missed. It also installs programs cleanly with no registry bloat, and uninstalling is a true clean removal.

Updates are single-command: scoop update * refreshes everything at once — R, RStudio, Python, VS Code, all of it.

For our stack specifically

scoop install r and scoop install rstudio gives you both with one bucket (the extras bucket covers RStudio). When a new R version drops, scoop update r handles it without the usual "download installer, click through wizard, fix your library path" routine.

Python via scoop install python is similarly clean, and pyenv is available too if you need to juggle multiple versions for different projects — useful if something like an OMOP pipeline has different Python version requirements than other work.

VS Code via scoop install vscode from the extras bucket works cleanly, and scoop install git handles Git.

One caveat: Scoop installs R packages normally through CRAN inside R itself — it just manages the R binary and RStudio. Same with Python: pip/conda still handle Python packages. Scoop's job is managing the runtimes and tools, not the libraries inside them.

R Ecosystem

1. r — R language runtime
2. rstudio — RStudio IDE (extras)
3. quarto — next-gen R Markdown / reproducible docs
4. rtools — compiler toolchain for building R packages from source

Python
5. python — Python runtime
6. pyenv — manage multiple Python versions side by side
7. miniconda — conda package/env manager, lightweight (extras)
8. uv — blazing fast pip/venv replacement (newer, worth knowing)

Notebooks & Interactive
9. jupyter — Jupyter notebook server (via pip after Python, but launchers available)
10. zeppelin — notebook alternative popular in Spark/big data contexts

Editors & IDEs
11. vscode — VS Code (extras)
12. neovim — terminal editor, popular with data engineers who live in the CLI
13. cursor — AI-native code editor built on VS Code (extras)

Database Clients & SQL Tools
14. dbeaver — universal SQL client, works with SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite (extras)
15. tableplus — clean lightweight DB GUI (extras)
16. sqlite — embedded SQL database, great for local analytics
17. usql — universal CLI SQL client (like psql but for any DB)

Data Transfer & File Movement
18. curl — HTTP requests from the CLI, essential for API work
19. wget — file downloads
20. winscp — SFTP/SCP GUI, useful for moving data to/from servers (extras)
21. rclone — sync/transfer data to S3, GCS, Azure Blob, SFTP, etc.
22. minio-client — CLI for S3-compatible object storage (MinIO, AWS S3)

Version Control & Collaboration
23. git — version control
24. gh — GitHub CLI (create PRs, manage issues from terminal)
25. lazygit — terminal UI for Git, much friendlier than raw git commands

Shell & Terminal
26. pwsh — PowerShell 7 (the modern cross-platform version)
27. windows-terminal — tabbed terminal with better rendering (extras)
28. starship — minimal, fast shell prompt that shows git branch, Python env, etc.
29. oh-my-posh — shell prompt theming (extras)

Data Processing CLIs
30. jq — JSON processor/transformer from the command line
31. yq — same but for YAML (config files, API responses)
32. miller — Swiss Army knife for CSV/TSV/JSON on the command line
33. csvkit — suite of CSV utilities (csvsql, csvstat, csvcut, etc.)
34. xsv — fast CSV toolkit written in Rust
35. duckdb — in-process analytical SQL engine, runs on local Parquet/CSV files directly

Cloud & Infrastructure CLIs
36. aws — AWS CLI
37. azure-cli — Azure CLI (az commands) (extras)
38. terraform — infrastructure as code, useful if you manage cloud data infra
39. kubectl — Kubernetes CLI if you run containerized pipelines

Containers
40. docker — container runtime CLI
41. docker-compose — multi-container orchestration

Languages & Runtimes (supplemental)
42. julia — high-performance language popular in scientific computing
43. nodejs — JavaScript runtime, needed for some Jupyter extensions and web tooling
44. java — JVM runtime, required for things like DBeaver, Spark, and some OHDSI tools

Utilities & Productivity
45. pandoc — universal document converter (Markdown → PDF/Word/HTML), pairs with Quarto/R Markdown
46. make — task runner, useful for reproducible analysis pipelines
47. ripgrep (rg) — extremely fast code/text search, better than grep
48. fzf — fuzzy finder for the terminal, makes navigating files/history much faster
49. 7zip — archive utility, handles zip/tar/gz/7z for data file bundles
50. ffmpeg — video/image processing CLI, occasionally useful for multimedia data or generating figures

For less data sciencey folks/for your average user:

Browsers

1. googlechrome — Chrome (extras)
2. firefox — Firefox (extras)
3. brave — privacy-focused, built-in ad blocking (extras)

Office & Documents
4. libreoffice — free Word/Excel/PowerPoint alternative (extras)
5. okular — excellent PDF reader with annotation support (extras)
6. sumatrapdf — lightweight fast PDF reader (extras)
7. pdfsam — split, merge, rotate PDFs (extras)
8. pandoc — convert documents between formats

Email & Communication
9. thunderbird — desktop email client (extras)
10. zoom — video meetings (extras)
11. slack — team messaging (extras)
12. teams — Microsoft Teams (extras)
13. signal — encrypted messaging (extras)

File Management & Storage
14. 7zip — open any archive format (zip, rar, 7z, tar)
15. winscp — secure file transfer to servers (extras)
16. rclone — sync files to/from Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox
17. everything — instant file search across the whole PC (extras)
18. spacesniffer — visual disk usage map, find what's eating your storage (extras)

Note-taking & Organization
19. obsidian — local Markdown notes with linking (extras)
20. notion — (better as a web app, but launcher available)
21. joplin — open-source Evernote alternative (extras)
22. keepassxc — local password manager (extras)
23. bitwarden — cloud password manager (extras)

Images & Screenshots
24. irfanview — fast lightweight image viewer (extras)
25. greenshot — screenshot tool with annotation (extras)
26. sharex — powerful screenshot + screen recording (extras)
27. paint.net — image editor, much better than MS Paint (extras)
28. gimp — full Photoshop-style image editor (extras)
29. inkscape — vector graphics editor (great for making flyers/diagrams) (extras)

Video & Media
30. vlc — plays any video/audio format (extras)
31. mpv — lightweight video player
32. handbrake — video converter/compressor (extras)
33. obs-studio — screen recording and streaming (extras)

Utilities & System
34. powertoys — Microsoft's power-user toolkit (window snapping, bulk rename, color picker) (extras)
35. autohotkey — automate repetitive keyboard tasks (extras)
36. bulk-rename-utility — rename hundreds of files at once (extras)
37. ccleaner — system cleanup (extras)
38. cpu-z — system hardware info (extras)
39. hwmonitor — temperature and hardware monitoring (extras)
40. windirstat — disk usage visualizer (extras)

Fonts & Accessibility
41. nerd-fonts-cascadia-code — clean readable coding/terminal font
42. libreoffice-fresh — latest LibreOffice build with newest features (extras)

Security
43. keepassxc — password manager (local, no cloud) (extras)
44. veracrypt — encrypt sensitive files or drives (extras)
45. malwarebytes — malware scanner (extras)

Network & Remote Access
46. putty — SSH client for connecting to servers (extras)
47. curl — test URLs and APIs from command line
48. nmap — network scanner (IT staff) (extras)
49. tailscale — simple VPN for remote access (extras)
50. filezilla — FTP/SFTP file transfer GUI (extras)

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Starter bundle for a typical admin/office setup:

scoop bucket add extras
scoop install googlechrome 7zip sumatrapdf greenshot vlc keepassxc everything powertoys zoom slack thunderbird irfanview sharex

A few standouts worth mentioning for a more administrative context: everything (instant file search) and powertoys (window management + bulk file rename) are the two that tend to get the most "why didn't I have this sooner" reactions. greenshot is also a meaningful upgrade over the built-in Windows snipping tool for anyone who annotates screenshots regularly.

The two best places to browse:

Official search engine (recommended)
🔗 https://scoop.sh/#/apps — the official Scoop app search, powered by ScoopSearch. It searches over 152,000 application manifests across over 1,300 buckets and is maintained by the ScoopInstaller organization. This is the one to bookmark.

Full directory with sorting
🔗 https://rasa.github.io/scoop-directory/ — the search index contains over 25,000 application manifests in over 900 buckets, updated daily. You can view the full list sorted by name, stars, or recently updated.

Browse buckets directly on GitHub if you want to go raw:

• main bucket: https://github.com/ScoopInstaller/Main/tree/master/bucket
• extras bucket: https://github.com/ScoopInstaller/Extras/tree/master/bucket

Each .json file in those folders is one installable package — useful if you want to see exactly what a manifest does before installing.

From the command line you can also search without leaving the terminal:

scoop search <term>

Or install the dedicated search tool for faster results across all buckets:

scoop install scoop-search
scoop-search <term>