How To Install Jupyter Notebook for Data Science

Recently I’ve been trying to learn Python for Data Science. One of the first things I saw in multiple places was to install Jupyter Notebook, but the problem was, I’m not a very technical person, and each tutorial I saw wasn’t 100% clear. So I thought I’d put together a tutorial with everything you need to do to install Jupyter Notebook.

Since Jupyter Notebook works off Python, make sure you have that installed first. If not, it’s very straightforward, but you’ll want to make sure you check the box that says ‘Add Python To Path’ in the install window.

First things first, you’ll need to find your scripts folder. This came as part of the Python install, and to find it, you’ll need to open your file explorer and your C drive. From there, go to

Users > (your name) > AppData > Local > Programs > Python > Python37 > Scripts.

If you can’t find the AppData folder, it’s because its a hidden folder. To be able to see it, click on ‘View’ at the top of the window and check the box beside ‘Hidden Items’ and now you should be able to see it.

Second, click on the address box at the top, where it says what folder you’re in. This should highlight it all, and type in ‘cmd’ to bring up the command prompt. Once the command prompt is open, type in this command and hit enter:

pip install jupyter

This might take a minute or two, but when it's done, Jupyter Notebook will be installed.

Third, once its fully installed, you can type this into the command prompt to open Jupyter Notebook:

jupyter notebook

This will open it in your browser, and from there, click on ‘new’ and select Python 3.

Before ending this article, it is worth noting that you don't have to run jupyter notebook from the scripts folder every time. For me, I have a folder on my desktop named ‘Work’ for, you guessed it, all of my work stuff. I can open up that folder, click on the address bar, type in cmd to open the command prompt, run the ‘jupyter notebook’ command and it will open from there. Once you have it open, you can rename it to whatever you would like to save it to whichever folder you opened it from, which is the ‘Work’ folder for me.

That's it! Congrats! You’ve installed Jupyter Notebook for use!