Install Chocolatey (Windows)

NOTE

On macOS and Linux, skip this page. Homebrew already does this job for you. Go to Install Git.

Chocolatey is an app store for the terminal on Windows. It does the same job as Homebrew: you ask for a program by name, and Chocolatey installs it.

Why you need both

A Windows computer running this course has two sides, and each side has its own app store:

Side	App store	What it installs here
Windows itself	Chocolatey	Docker Desktop, on the Docker page.
Ubuntu, inside Windows	Homebrew and apt	Everything else: Git, Make, Codex, Claude Code, and NanoClaw itself.

Docker Desktop is a Windows program, which is why it needs the Windows side. Your agent runs inside Ubuntu.

Install it

Chocolatey installs itself from PowerShell, and it needs administrator rights.

1. Click Start and type PowerShell. Right-click Windows PowerShell and choose Run as administrator. Click Yes.

   This is the one place in the course where you use PowerShell, not the Ubuntu terminal.

2. Copy this whole line into PowerShell and press Enter:

   Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

   It is one command, even though it fills several lines on screen. Paste it in one go.

3. Wait until it finishes and the prompt comes back.

4. Close PowerShell.

Check that it works

Open PowerShell as administrator again, the same way as step 1, and run:

choco --version

You should see a version number, like 2.6.0. Your number may be different.

If you see that choco is not recognised, close PowerShell and open a new one as administrator. Chocolatey only appears in windows opened after it was installed.

TIP

Open PowerShell as administrator whenever you use choco. Installing programs needs those rights, and Chocolatey stops with an access error without them.

Next

Both app stores are ready. Next, install Git.