For Windows systems, there are two established installation packages for TeX: TeX Live and MiKTeX. This page describes the installation procedure for TeX Live. MiKTeX runs just as smoothly, but the configuration of TeXWorks and JabRef are also required.

You can download the installer install-tl-windows.exe from the TeX Users Group website. Navigate to your Downloads folder and double-click on the installer to start the installation of TeX Live.

The default settings that come with our template are adequate for the installation program and no modification is required. The files for TeX systems will be downloaded from the Internet during the installation process, which, depending on the speed of your Internet connection, can take some time to complete.

Once the program has been installed, TeX Live Manager will appear on the start screen. The TeX distribution itself will be installed under C:\texlive as long as no other directory has been selected.

As a first step after the installation you should open the TeX Live Manager and update the manager itself as well as the TeX installation on your system. Start the program TeX Live Manager.

Here, you can edit the general settings of the TeX installation, but for now, we will only update the installation. If the button Update tlmgr is active, press it and wait until the process has finished:

In order to update packages, select Updatable from the Status menu in the Package list, press Mark all and then the button Update marked on the right hand side.

You should repeat these two steps from time to time to keep the installation up to date. A new version of TeX Live is released every year in Spring.