JupyterLab not running

I installed Anaconda Navigator. Then attempted to install latest version of JupyterLab
A window opened asking which program should be used to open JupyterLab
I chose Anaconda
It tried to reinstall Anaconda and gave the following error message
“the path you are trying to install is not empty. choose a different folder”
I uninstalled Anaconda, restarted the computer, and reinstalled Anaconda
then wrote on the CMD of anaconda: pip uninstall jupyterlab
and then: pip install jupyterlab
every time I get the same result
it tries to install Anaconda
with the path error I mentioned above
Seems unable to run jupyterlab or open it

Thank you so much for helping if possible

Please read the ‘Getting Started’ that the Anaconda Distribution shares online. That quoted line from your post and your first line in your post suggest you aren’t doing due diligence.
Anaconda Distribution comes with a current version of JupyterLab that they want you to have. You can add a newer version if you are an advanced user and look into how it should be done.
You should be using Anaconda/conda to install anything that has a conda-recipe because you chose Anaconda/conda as your package manager when you installed it and so therefore you wouldn’t be using pip to install JupyterLab unless you like causing yourself headaches by messing up your system.
This forum is about Jupyter in general.
It sounds like you have now gotten some bad cycle going on your machine by messing things up (see below). You’ll need to look into cleaning this better (old settings, old files), but carefully, before just reinstalling Anaconda Distribution again.

I don’t recall seeing such a window on my system but I suspect it was asking you about which web browser to open it in as JupyterLab works in your browser?
You should have already been using Anaconda Navigator to start JupyterLab before you got to that point.

True, sir. The window was asking which web browser is needed to open up jupyterlab.
now indeed there is a bad corrupt cycle
jupyterlab exists but every time I try to open it a setup window pops up trying to reinstall anaconda.
Any ideas as to what to do?
your help is extremely kind.
I am unable to finish my project the way thing are

seems your analysis is right. I lack diligence and I am unfortunately ignorant. Cannot find the ‘getting started’ section to read the necessary info. you referred to

actually I intalled only navigator. should I install distribution as well? and how should I “clean” the pc? format it? many grateful thanks

https://docs.anaconda.com/free/navigator/getting-started/

You’ll have to look around to find the best way to clean or reset things before you reinstall the Anaconda Distribution. (Or maybe you actually just need to install that the first time, in your case?
I wasn’t aware you could just install the navigator and so when you said Anaconda, I assumed the full distribution which is the typical installation new users want:
The Anaconda Distribution.
If you only installed the Anaconda Navigator before, I suspect it wasn’t what you wanted.

Maybe a better way at this point?

However, another option you should consider if the Anaconda Distribution is not helping , or you want to try something different before continuing with Anaconda products, would be JupyterLab Desktop. I would encourage you to read that entire blog post about JupyterLab Desktop so that you are aware how you are expected to use it to keeping this separate using Projects, different than Anaconda/conda environment but similar in the way it is meant to keep versions separate and your projects organized.
Also see recent posts about JupyterLab Desktop:

you were correct as usual. I installed distribution. not navigator. pardon the ignorance

OK. uninstalled and reinstalled distribution. giving myself headaches as noted.
same ill cycle. I try to launch jupyterlab
and a setup window pops up.
no idea how to stop this or clean

There’s stuff here that may help. Just be very careful. Right now, the only thing not working for you is Jupyter. You don’t want to make matters worse.
Did you try JupyterLab Desktop? Or not ready to give up on the Anaconda Distribution yet?

Will try all options. As soon as necesary I’ll update

everything running smoothly with desktop
your help extremely appreciated
most kind

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