PowerShell says “ollama is not recognized”

This usually means the shell cannot resolve the command. It does not, by itself, prove whether Ollama is installed correctly.

1. Check command resolution

Get-Command ollama -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

If the command returns no result, PowerShell cannot currently resolve the executable by that name.

2. Check a common install location

Test-Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\Ollama\ollama.exe"

This checks one common per-user location. If it returns False, the application may be installed elsewhere or not installed.

3. Reopen the terminal

If you installed Ollama recently, close PowerShell and open a new window. Then try ollama --version again.

4. Use the official installer instructions

Download only from the official source: Ollama for Windows. If you reinstall, read the installer prompts and preserve any model data you want to keep.