nvm use exit status 1 even after following all intructions

[jhp829]

Issue:
exit status 1 when using nvm use. I have followed the common issues page to try to solve the issue and nothing worked.

How To Reproduce:

Turn on developer mode
Uninstall any previous versions of NVM
Install newest version of NVM
Set install paths to a new folder made in C:/
Open powershell as administrator
nvm installs lts (18.16.1)
nvm use lts

Expected behavior:
Node version 18.16.1 should be enabled

Observed Behavior:

Duplicate exit status 1 messages. The exit status is not followed by any message.

exit status 1:
exit status 1:

Things tried"

I have tried all of these combined:

• Creating new folders in various locations
• Turning on developer mode
• Running powershell as administrator
• Running nvm installer as administrator
• Uninstalling any previous versions of node

Desktop:

OS: Windows 11 latest

[coreybutler]

What are the results of nvm debug?

[coreybutler]

If you have any other antivirus installed, you may want to temporarily disable it. It's very unlikely to be the cause unless you're using a relatively unknown antivirus.

Did you try setting the version directly, i.e. nvm use 18.16.1?

You can also try running C:\Users\jbae0\AppData\Roaming\node\nvm\v18.16.1\node.exe -v. If this displays the correct version, then the issue is the symlink. If that is the case, I'd recommend installing a different version of Node (nvm install ...), nvm use the new version, then nvm use lts again. This would reset the symlink if it is corrupted.

The only other thing I can think of is to try uninstalling and reinstalling. Several users have succeeded with this in the past.

[jhp829]

I have disabled all antiviruses including everything in the Windows settings. I tried setting the version directly and also tried installing a different version of Node after which I got the same error. I also tried running C:\Users\jbae0\AppData\Roaming\node\nvm\v18.16.1\node.exe -v which showed the correct version.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling multiple times but I seem to get the same error every time.

[khuezy]

I'm on windows 10 and experiencing the same issue. I followed your recommendation of nvm install latest and the output says installation was complete but doing nvm use <version> outputs exit status 1: twice in a row.

[coreybutler]

@jhp829 You can clearly install Node, but the symlink is not being updated. One major reason for this is if there is a prior version of Node installed or some other physical directory where the NVM_SYMLINK should be. In your case, it would be C:\Users\jbae0\AppData\Roaming\node. You could delete this directory manually, allowing the symlink to be recreated the next time you run nvm use 18.16.1.

[GitSTho]

I had the same problem, fixed it with administrative privileges as mentioned in the doc.