MiKTeX Console is the tool you use to manage your TeX installation. Most often you will use it to get package updates.
MiKTeX Console is a desktop application, i.e, it can be started in the usual way by searching and clicking MiKTeX Console
in the application launcher (Windows start menu, Unity Dash, macOS Launchpad).
By default, MiKTeX Console runs in user mode and so operates on your private MiKTeX configuration. If you have installed MiKTeX system-wide, this is not necessarily what you want. For this reason, MiKTeX Console asks you to switch/confirm the operation mode, if you have a system-wide setup:
Restart as administrator
causes MiKTeX Console to restart with elevated privileges. This
allows you to operate on the system-wide part of the TeX installation.I want to stay in user mode
tells MiKTeX Console that you want to work on the private
part of the TeX installation.You can update your MiKTeX installation:
Updates
to navigate to the updates page.Check for Updates
to search for updatable packages.Update now
to start the installation of updates.Settings
to navigate to the settings page.General
tab.To speed up file search, MiKTeX makes use of a file location cache. This is called the file name database (FNDB).
It is necessary that you refresh the FNDB whenever you manually install TeX/LaTeX-related files in a user-managed TEXMF directory:
Tasks
menu.Refresh file name database
.MiKTeX has the ability to automatically install missing packages.
You can turn this feature on or off. And you can let MiKTeX ask you each time a package has to be installed:
Settings
to navigate to the settings page.General
tab.Ask me
Always install missing packages on-the-fly
Never install missing packages on-the-fly
If you have files that you want to integrate into the MiKTeX setup, you can register a user-managed TEXMF root directory:
Settings
to navigate to the settings page.Directories
tab.If you decide to uninstall MiKTeX, you should first reset the TeX installation to the factory defaults:
Cleanup
to navigate to the cleanup page.Reset the TeX installation to factory defaults
.This resets the TeX installation to the initial state. You can now uninstall MiKTeX.