Running NodeJS, NPM and Git on Windows 10 without Administrator privileges

1. Download NodeJS zip (http://nodejs.org/dist/latest/), likely the *-win-x64.zip version and unzip inside ~/AppData/Local/Programs/node¹
2. Download git for windows (https://git-for-windows.github.io/)
3. Run installer.
   1. Uncheck all components except Use TrueType font
   2. select Use Git from Git Bash only
   3. You can leave default line ending conversion
   4. Use Windows’ default console window
   5. Check file system caching and Credential Manager
4. Run git bash shell

5. vi .bash_profile or use notepad.exe to create it in your user directory

   PATH=$PATH:~/AppData/Local/Programs/node
   PATH=$PATH:/c/Windows/System32/
   

6. Restart git bash shell or run source .bash_profile

7. Clone your github repo over HTTPS (no SSH keys required). Credential manager can store your password.

8. Cd into project and npm install²

9. Go forth and profit

Bonus: Visual Studio Code #

Visual Studio Code is my favorite editor and it’s free.

1. Download the zip archive (https://code.visualstudio.com/Docs/?dv=winzip)
2. Extract and run VSCode
3. Go to File > Preferences > User Settings and add the following to the config file to get git integration

{
    "git.path": "C:\\Users\\[User]\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Git\\bin\\git.exe"
}

¹The home directory (~) on Windows 10 is likely located at C:\Users[username]\ usually
²Complex npm dependencies may require additional tools to be installed on your system