Installing Wolfram Mathematica on your own computer
The Mathematica licence agreement is managed by UIS and funded by a consortium of University Departments.
- Getting or Renewing a Licence / Activation Key
- Getting the installation media
- Installing Mathematica
- Help and Support with Mathematica
- Requirements and guidelines
Getting or Renewing a Licence / Activation Key
Mathematica 8.0 and Later
Wolfram have significantly changed how the licencing works for Mathematica 8.0. "Activation keys" are now used.
- Go to the Mathematica Activation Key Request Form with a Web browser.
- Log in (if you do not have a Wolfram account yet you will have to create one, using a University email address), and request a "Single user" activation key.
- You should receive an email with the activation key. This key is "temporary" and will last for a few weeks. The extension may not happen immediately, but it should usually occur within a week. You will be notified by email. The key should be extended without any further action from you. If this all fails then please apply for a new activation key once the current one you have expires and that should get approved.
If renewing a licence/activation key then start Mathematica and enter the activation key when prompted.
Getting the installation media
It can take a number of minutes for the activation key to come through to your email. There is a link in the email to a webpage with a download button for the version of mathematica you requested.
Installing Mathematica
MacOSX
The .dmg files are disk image files. Double-clicking them will mount them as a new Volume on your desktop. Open this and then drag the Mathematica application to your Applications folder to begin the install.
Windows
Recent versions of Mathematica for Windows come as a .ZIP file. If double-clicking on the file fails to open it you may need to download a free program such as 7-Zip.
Linux
As of Mathematica 10.0 for Linux the .sh file can be downloaded to disk and then run.
chmod +x Wolfram_14.3.0_LNX.sh ./Wolfram_14.3.0_LNX.sh
Help and Support
For Mathematica customer/technical support direct from Wolfram login to the user portal.
Members of the Maths departments can contact the Computing helpdesk, help@maths.cam.ac.uk, for support regarding licences or installation.
Requirements and Guidelines
When choosing to use Mathematica via this agreement there are some requirements and guidelines, that are summarised here:
- you may not transfer, sell or copy the software or the associated license
- the Software should be appropriately cited as a reference and/or described in methods in publications