How can I update NodeJS and NPM to the next versions?

Question

I just installed Node.js and npm (for additional modules).

How can I update Node.js and the modules which I\'m using to the latest versions

Answer 1

Warning: if you need update Node from an old version (in my case v4.6.0) it is better to re-install nodejs from scratch (download link: https://nodejs.org) otherwise npm will also update itself to a version that's not compatible with the new Node (see this discussion).

This is the error message that I got after updating Node (on Windows) with npm

$ npm install -g npm stable
[ . . .]
$ npm 
C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js:85
      let notifier = require('update-notifier')({pkg})
      ^^^

SyntaxError: Block-scoped declarations (let, const, function, class) not yet supporte
d outside strict mode
    at exports.runInThisContext (vm.js:53:16)
    at Module._compile (module.js:373:25)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:416:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:343:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:300:12)
    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:441:10)
    at startup (node.js:139:18)
    at node.js:974:3

After new installation npm works again:

$ npm -v
6.5.0
$ node -v
v10.15.0