How to Use RStudio

If you’re among those new to programming (or among those who want to avoid installing R and RStudio themselves), you can use Visual Studio Code for CS50 at cs50.dev, in which CS50 has pre-installed RStudio Server:

1. Sign up for a (free) GitHub account, if you don’t have one already, at github.com/signup.
2. Log into cs50.dev with that account, if you haven’t already.
3. Run update50 in your terminal window, if you haven’t done so recently.
4. Open the CS50 Menu extension, as by clicking on the CS50 icon in the left-hand activity bar. Click RStudio to launch RStudio. Click Open in Browser when prompted.

Do consider CS50’s installation of RStudio Server to be in “beta,” as it might still be a bit buggy. Please report any bugs to sysadmins@cs50.harvard.edu!

If you’re among those more comfortable and you’d like to try programming locally, you can:

1. Install R for your operating system from cran.rstudio.com.
2. Install RStudio Desktop from posit.co/download/rstudio-desktop.

Just keep in mind we can’t easily help you debug your own installation!