How to Install pnpm with npm on Windows 11

Hey Friends 👋,

Not long ago, I contributed to one of Virtual Coffee's repositories. I had to install pnpm because we no longer use yarn. After I installed pnpm with npm and ran it, I got this error message:

pnpm: The term 'pnpm' is not recognized as a name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or executable program.
Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.

So I googled and searched around for answers. In one of my findings, others got this error. After researching and trying things, I could install and use pnpm on my machine.

Depending on the pnpm's version, you might encounter it or not. But I'm writing this article for those facing the same issue to make the installation process smoother.

Fun Side Note:

I wanted to know the difference between npm, yarn, and pnpm. So I threw a question on Twitter and opened a discussion on DEV Community that you might want to check out.

Prerequisite

• Node (version 16 and above) and npm installed on your computer.

Installation

1. Run this command in your terminal to install pnpm:
   

   npm install -g pnpm
   

2. Add the path for pnpm to the system environment in your machine.

• Click the start button at the bottom bar.
• Search for "system environment" and click "Edit the system environment variables" — it opens the "System Properties" dialog box.

• In the "Advance" tab, click the "Environment Variables..." button at the bottom.

  

• Double-click "Path" in the "User variables for username" on top, and check if you already have %PNPM_HOME%. If you don't, add it by clicking the "New" button on the right side and input it.

  

• In the "User variables for username", click the "New..." button — it opens the "New User Variable" dialog box.

• In the "Variable Name", type PNPM_HOME. And in the "Variable Value", type the path C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\pnpm. Change the username to your computer's username.

  

  Do the same steps to add the variable name and value in the "System variables" at the bottom.

Final Words

To write this tutorial, I uninstalled the pnpm dependency. I deleted all the pnpm paths in my machine to reproduce the problem. And I found that in the newer version of pnpm, we don't need to set up the path. Updating the pnpm version and globally installing it would fix the problem. Alternatively, you can install the pnpm using a standalone script.
However, this article will be helpful if you still want to install pnpm with npm and encounter the same problem even after updating the version or installing it globally 😊.

🖼️ Credit cover image: undraw.co

Thank you for reading! Last, you can find me on Twitter, Mastodon, and BlueSky. Let's connect! 😊