 Hey there, and welcome to Learn WordPress. In this tutorial, you're going to learn how to install Node.js and NPM on your computer for local WordPress development. You will learn why you should install this software, what the requirements are, and how to install Node.js and NPM on your computer. Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment that allows you to run JavaScript code outside of a web browser. While this might not be specifically applicable to developing with WordPress, Node.js also comes bundled with NPM. NPM is both a command line tool and a package manager for JavaScript. It allows you to install and manage JavaScript packages, also known as dependencies, as well as run bull tools, execute code linters, and automate many other processes during development. Many WordPress development projects rely on NPM, including Gutenberg, the create block tool, the WPENV local WordPress environment, and the new WPNOW local WordPress environment. In order to run Node.js and NPM, you're going to need access to a terminal to run commands. Depending on your operating system, you might already have an existing terminal installed. Mac OS and or any Linux users can use the terminal that ships with the operating system. If you are a Windows user and you don't already have a terminal solution, we recommend installing and using PowerShell as it's more beginner-friendly and more tailored to the Windows operating system. To install PowerShell, either open the Microsoft Store and search for PowerShell, or browse to Microsoft.com forward slash PowerShell, browse to set up an installation, and then follow the instructions to download and install it. Because NPM is bundled with Node.js, you just need to install Node.js to get up and running. While you can browse to the Node.js website, download the installer and install it that way. We recommend using a tool called NVM, which stands for Node Version Manager. You can find NVM at github.com forward slash NVM-sh. This tool will enable you to install and use different versions of Node.js, depending on the requirements of the software you're working with. If you're using Mac OS or Linux, you can open your default terminal application and install NVM by running the NVM install script, which you can copy from the Installing and Updating section of the NVM Readme file. Once it is installed, you can use the NVM install command to install the Node.js and NPM versions you need. Here on a Windows machine, you will need to install the Chocolatey Package Manager for Windows to install NVM. First, open PowerShell with Administrator privileges by right-clicking on the PowerShell menu item and selecting Run as Administrator. Then, browse to the Chocolatey setup documentation and scroll down to the Install with PowerShell instructions. Copy the instructions and right-click in the PowerShell window to paste them. Once Chocolatey is installed, use the following command to install NVM, Choco install minus y, NVM. Once NVM is installed, use the NVM install command to install the required Node.js and NPM versions. To install Node.js and NPM, use the NVM install command with the version number you want to install. At the time of this tutorial, the current stable version of Node.js is version 80. So you would say, NVM install 80. You can also run NVM lists to see which versions of Node.js are installed. Because NVM allows you to run multiple versions of Node.js, you need to tell NVM which version you want to use. You can do this by running the NVM use command followed by the version number. You can also set the default version of Node.js and NPM by using the NVM alias command. And then, to check which versions of Node.js and NPM are enabled by running the following commands. Node minus v and NPM minus v. And that wraps up this tutorial on installing Node.js and NPM. Happy coding!