npm won't change version

Question

I'm trying to change npm versions from 6.4.1 to 8.12.0 and it refuses to change. I'm running Windows x64. I've tried uninstalling, rebooting, deleting the AppData\Roaming\npm related files, installing the new version from nodejs.org, and running npm install again. I've tried where.exe npm to find more files. I've tried specifying the version number in npm install. Nothing works.

npm -v still returns 6.4.1.

Interestingly,

npm view npm versions --json

returns this:

[ "1.1.25", "1.1.70", "1.1.71", "1.2.19", "1.2.20", "1.2.21", "1.2.22", "1.2.23", "1.2.24", "1.2.25", "1.2.27", "1.2.28", "1.2.30", "1.2.31", "1.2.32", "1.2.8000", "1.3.0", "1.3.1", "1.3.2", "1.3.4", "1.3.5", "1.3.6", "1.3.7", "1.3.8", "1.3.9", "1.3.10", "1.3.11", "1.3.12", "1.3.13", "1.3.14", "1.3.15", "1.3.16", "1.3.17", "1.3.18", "1.3.20", "1.3.21", "1.3.22", "1.3.23", "1.3.24", "1.3.25", "1.3.26", "1.4.0", "1.4.1", "1.4.2", "1.4.3", "1.4.4", "1.4.5", "1.4.6", "1.4.7", "1.4.8", "1.4.9", "1.4.10", "1.4.11", "1.4.12", "1.4.13", "1.4.14", "1.4.15", "1.4.16", "1.4.17", "1.4.18", "1.4.19", "1.4.20", "1.4.21", "1.4.22", "1.4.23", "1.4.24", "1.4.25", "1.4.26", "1.4.27", "1.4.28", "1.4.29", "1.5.0-alpha-0", "1.5.0-alpha-1", "1.5.0-alpha-2", "1.5.0-alpha-3", "1.5.0-alpha-4", "2.0.0-alpha.6", "2.0.0-alpha.6.0", "2.0.0-alpha.7", "2.0.0-alpha-5", "2.0.0-beta.0", "2.0.0-beta.1", "2.0.0-beta.2", "2.0.0-beta.3", "2.0.0", "2.0.1", "2.0.2", "2.1.0", "2.1.1", "2.1.2", "2.1.3", "2.1.4", "2.1.5", "2.1.6", "2.1.7", "2.1.8", "2.1.9", "2.1.10", "2.1.11", "2.1.12", "2.1.13", "2.1.14", "2.1.15", "2.1.16", "2.1.17", "2.1.18", "2.2.0", "2.3.0", "2.4.0", "2.4.1", "2.5.0", "2.5.1", "2.6.0", "2.6.1", "2.7.0", "2.7.1", "2.7.2", "2.7.3", "2.7.4", "2.7.5", "2.7.6", "2.8.0", "2.8.1", "2.8.2", "2.8.3", "2.8.4", "2.9.0", "2.9.1", "2.10.0", "2.10.1", "2.11.0", "2.11.1", "2.11.2", "2.11.3", "2.12.0", "2.12.1", "2.13.0", "2.13.1", "2.13.2", "2.13.3", "2.13.4", "2.13.5", "2.14.0", "2.14.1", "2.14.2", "2.14.3", "2.14.4", "2.14.5", "2.14.6", "2.14.7", "2.14.8", "2.14.9", "2.14.10", "2.14.11", "2.14.12", "2.14.13", "2.14.14", "2.14.15", "2.14.16", "2.14.17", "2.14.18", "2.14.19", "2.14.20", "2.14.21", "2.14.22", "2.15.0", "2.15.1", "2.15.2", "2.15.3", "2.15.4", "2.15.5", "2.15.6", "2.15.7", "2.15.8", "2.15.9", "2.15.10", "2.15.11", "2.15.12", "3.0.0", "3.1.0", "3.1.1", "3.1.2", "3.1.3", "3.2.0", "3.2.1", "3.2.2", "3.3.0", "3.3.1", "3.3.2", "3.3.3", "3.3.4", "3.3.5", "3.3.6", "3.3.7", "3.3.8", "3.3.9", "3.3.10", "3.3.11", "3.3.12", "3.4.0", "3.4.1", "3.5.0", "3.5.1", "3.5.2", "3.5.3", "3.5.4", "3.6.0", "3.7.0", "3.7.1", "3.7.2", "3.7.3", "3.7.4", "3.7.5", "3.8.0", "3.8.1", "3.8.2", "3.8.3", "3.8.4", "3.8.5", "3.8.6", "3.8.7", "3.8.8", "3.8.9", "3.9.0", "3.9.1", "3.9.2", "3.9.3", "3.9.4", "3.9.5", "3.9.6", "3.10.0", "3.10.1", "3.10.2", "3.10.3", "3.10.4", "3.10.5", "3.10.6", "3.10.7", "3.10.8", "3.10.9", "3.10.10", "4.0.0", "4.0.1", "4.0.2", "4.0.3", "4.0.5", "4.1.0", "4.1.1", "4.1.2", "4.2.0", "4.3.0", "4.4.0", "4.4.1", "4.4.2", "4.4.3", "4.4.4", "4.5.0", "4.6.0", "4.6.1", "5.0.0", "5.0.1", "5.0.2", "5.0.3", "5.0.4", "5.1.0", "5.2.0", "5.3.0", "5.4.0", "5.4.1", "5.4.2", "5.5.0", "5.5.1", "5.6.0", "5.7.0", "5.7.1", "5.8.0-next.0", "5.8.0", "5.9.0-next.0", "5.10.0-next.0", "5.10.0-next.1", "5.10.0", "6.0.0-next.0", "6.0.0-next.1", "6.0.0-next.2", "6.0.0", "6.0.1-next.0", "6.0.1", "6.1.0-next.0", "6.1.0", "6.2.0-next.0", "6.2.0-next.1", "6.2.0", "6.3.0-next.0", "6.3.0", "6.4.0-next.0", "6.4.0", "6.4.1-next.0", "6.4.1" ]

Please help!

Answer 1

You're probably confusing node's version with NPM.

The latest version of NPM as of now is 6.4.1, and of NodeJS is 11.2.0, so you are already at the latest version. 8.12.0 doesn't exist yet.

Check here: https://www.npmjs.com/package/npm

https://nodejs.org/en/