INSTRUCTIONS FOR INSTALLING R IN WINDOWS VISTA 
(should be similar in Windows 7)

I. If you are installing R for the first time:

   This is easy.  Go to http://cran.r-project.org/, click on "Windows",
   then "base", and then "Download R 2.13.1 for Windows", and run the 
   resulting file (here's a shortcut: just download and run
   http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/R-2.13.1-win32.exe).
   Accept all defaults.

II. If you are upgrading from an older version of R:

    Here's how I upgraded from R vers 2.6.1 for this class
    (your mileage may vary):

    1. uninstall R vers 2.6
    2. install R vers 2.13
    3. [optional] Fix R's ugly windowing defaults:
       (a) start up 2.13
       (b) go to edit > GUI, change mdi to sdi, save gui prefs, 
           and quit.  [this makes multiple independent windows 
	   in R, rather than having everything trapped in one big
	   metawindow - much nicer!]
    4. go to C:\Users\brian\R\win-library and rename folder
       2.6 to 2.13 (obviously you will go to a different directory!)
    5. Run 2.13 as administrator, and run the following two
       commands (you will obviously have to adjust the first one!):
          .libPaths("C:\\Users\\brian\\R\\win-library")
          update.packages(checkBuilt=TRUE, ask=FALSE)
    6. [optional] I like to run R from the command line in cygwin 
       as well, so in my cygwin .bashrc file I changed the R alias to
          alias R='C:/Program\ Files/R/R-2.13.1/bin/Rterm.exe'

That's it!  Now you can just click on the R icon on the desktop to run
R!

-BJ