### Installing MiKTeX “known packages”

MiKTeX 2.1 (and later) maintains a database of packages it “knows about”, together with (coded) installation instructions that enable it to install the packages with minimal user intervention.

If MiKTeX does know about a package you need installed, it’s worth using the system.

First, open the MiKTeX packages window: click on `Start`-> `Programs`-> `MiKTeX`-> `MiKTeX Options`, and select the `Packages` tab.

On the tab, there is an Explorer-style display of packages. Right-click on the root of the tree, “`MiKTeX Packages`”, and select “`Search`”: enter the name of the package you’re interested in, and press the “`Search`” button. If MiKTeX knows about your package, it will open up the tree to show you a tick box for your package: check that box.

If you prefer a command-line utility, there’s mpm. Open a command shell, and type:

>     mpm --install=<package>

(which of course assumes you know the name by which MiKTeX refers to your package).

If MiKTeX doesn’t know about the package you’re interested in, you have to use the long-winded procedure outlined elsewhere in this FAQ.

If necessary, repeat to select other packages, and then press “`OK`”; MiKTeX tells you how many packages you have selected — if you’re happy, press “`OK`” again. MiKTeX will go off, download the package (as a `.cab` file), if necessary, install the files of the package, and then refresh the filename database so that the files will be found.

This question on the Web: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=miktexinst