LibGuides: GIS &amp; Geospatial Data Services: ArcGIS Pro

ArcGIS Pro Installation Instructions

This page will walk you through the process of installing and licensing ArcGIS Pro on your personal computer. Please be aware that ArcGIS Pro software can only be installed and used on a computer that runs the Windows operating system. If you have a Windows PC you can start following the steps below to load ArcGIS Pro onto your machine, but if you are interested in installing the software on a Mac please first refer to the guide in the right column which provides an overview of options for running Windows on your Mac and take care of this set up before proceeding to the installation instructions below.

ArcGIS Pro Sign In Bug Workaround
In November 2022 ArcGIS Pro on campus began reporting an issue with the ArcGIS Pro 3.0 sign in process that causes the software to crash after trying to sign in. If you notice you are having trouble signing in to ArcGIS Pro using your UT EID credentials and see the software suddenly crash after what should be a successful sign in attempt, please consider trying the following process to get around this issue: when the ArcGIS Pro sign in screen shown below appears click on the “Sign in Using Browser” button in the bottom right of the window and then proceed with the sign in process in your web browser. This should allow you to sign in and open ArcGIS Pro successfully. For future sign in attempts ArcGIS Pro should remember that you prefer to sign in using the browser so this issue should not appear again once you have utilized this workaround.

Windows .Net Desktop Runtime Upgrade Requirement
When attempting to install 3.0 or higher versions of ArcGIS Pro, you may find that you receive a message indicating that you need to upgrade the Windows .Net Desktop Runtime on your system before you can complete the installation. This process can be a little confusing due to the design of the ArcGIS Pro and Windows .Net Desktop Runtime upgrade instructions. The easiest way to take care of this upgrade is to visit the official Microsoft webpage for downloading the latest version of the Windows .Net Desktop Runtime and then refer to the image below to make sure you are downloading the correct .Net Desktop Runtime installer file which is the right file for almost all modern Windows PC computers.

1.	First you will need to download the installation file for the latest version of ArcGIS Pro. The easiest way to get the installer is to download it from your UT linked ArcGIS Online account. If you do not already have a UT linked ArcGIS Online account please follow the instructions in the Set Up your UT ArcGIS Online Account Guide to create your account and log in. Once you have logged in to your account, look at the top right of the page where your user name is located, click on your user name to pull up a small popup window, and then click My Settings. On the My Settings page click on the Licenses tab. Once you are on the Licenses page, scroll down until you see ArcGIS Pro listed and to the right you of it you should see a small Download button. Click on the Download button to pull up a small popup window that allows you to select the ArcGIS Pro version you want to download (the latest version is preselected for you by default so it is not recommended that you make any changes). In this popup window click the blue Download button to follow through with downloading the installer file.
2.	Once you have downloaded the installation .exe file, browse to the location of this file on your computer and double click on it to run it. It will ask you where you would like to save the uncompressed installation files. Pick a location on your file system and give it a minute or so to complete the decompression process. You will receive a notification when this process is complete and, if you look closely, you should notice that there is a check box in this notification window. If you leave this checkbox checked, as it is by default, the software installation wizard will open automatically after you close the notification window. This wizard will ask you to accept the Esri ArcGIS licensing agreement and will walk you through a few more simple steps that you can go through fairly quickly as the default settings preconfigured for each step should be fine for most installations (it is best to adjust these setting only if you have a strong reason for doing so). Once you have completed the last step in the installation wizard, the installation process will start and should complete in about 5 minutes though it may take longer on laptops and older desktop computers with slower processors.
3.	Once the software is successfully installed, you will need to make sure that you have an ArcGIS Online account that is linked to the University of Texas ArcGIS Online organization and is licensed to use ArcGIS Pro before you can actually open and start using the program (you will notice that you are prompted to log in with a licensed ArcGIS Online account when you first open the software and you can proceed past this point without entering valid credentials). To create a UT linked ArcGIS Online account, you can follow the instructions provided at https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/gis/set-up-ut-arcgis-online-account and once your accounted is created, open ArcGIS Pro and log in using the Named User License option. See screenshots below for reference as you go through the ArcGIS Pro license configuration process of selecting Named User licensing, selecting the ut-austin ArcGIS Online organization, confirming the ut-austin ArcGIS Online organization selection, and logging in with your UT Austin credentials.

Options for Mac Users

ArcGIS software including ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap is only compatible with the Windows operating system and thus can be a little difficult to use for those who have Mac computers. There are fortunately a variety of different ways Mac owners can use ArcGIS applications which are described below:

1.	Use Bootcamp, which is a free program included by default on all modern Macs, to install Windows as a complementary operating system on the computer. Once Windows is installed, you can choose to boot into Windows at startup or into macOS. To install ArcGIS software, just boot into Windows and startup and follow the steps listed in the center column of this guide. This approach provides ArcGIS Desktop software like ArcMap with full access to the resources (RAM, CPU, etc.) of the computer because it is only running one operating system at a time, but it can be a little complicated to set up and requires rebooting in order to switch between operating systems.
2.	Another free option is to download and install VirtualBox on your Mac. Virtualbox is a application that will allow you to install Windows on your Mac and run a virtual instance of it inside the Virtualbox software that can run simultaneously with your other macOS applications. It operates in the same general manner as Parallels and VMWare Fusion which are described below. Keep in mind that this approach may cause ArcGIS software to run more slowly and to experience performance issues, because running Windows and MacOS simultaneously will utilize more RAM than just running Windows on its own using Bootcamp. It does however make it a little easier to move files around and is convenient in that it does not require rebooting to switch between operating systems.
3.	The final options is to purchase and install Parallels ($80 full price, $40 education pricing available) or VMWare Fusion ($80) so that you can run Windows in a virtual machine (VM) while booted into macOS. This approach has the same advantages and disadvantages as the Virtualbox approach described above, but paying for a virtualization software product rather than using Virtualbox does entitle you to customer support that you may find useful when configuring Windows on your Mac.
4.	NOTE: This last option will no longer be available after June 6th, 2023. Up until then you can avoid having to install any software on your Mac and instead just visit https://labs.lib.utexas.edu/ to establish a remote desktop session on a UT Libraries' Windows computer that already has ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap ready for you to use. Once you reach https://labs.lib.utexas.edu/, just log in with your UT EID and password, then select PCL Windows Lab to establish your connection. Once you are successfully connected, you can begin using ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap. Please keep in mind that there are no time limits for your session but you will be logged off automatically after 30 minutes of inactivity and any files saved in the remote desktop session will be erased when your session ends so you should make sure to transfer them down to your personal computer or save them to cloud storage like UT Box. For additional details about the UT Libraries Virtual Lab please visit https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/technology_help.