Issue Regarding Mamba Initialization in Windows PowerShell

[Ellie-CV]

Comment:

Hello, I'm not sure if this is a bug, but it seems important since it directly affects the experience of new users on the Windows platform.

• System: (X64) Windows 11 Professional 24H2
• CPU: (X64) AMD Ryzen 7 8845H

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I first downloaded Miniforge3-Windows-x86_64.exe from Miniforge3, and during installation:

• I selected User-level installation and changed the installation path to D:\Development\Miniforge3.
• I checked Register Miniforge3 as my default Python 3.12 and Clear the package cache upon completion.

Note: I did not select Add Miniforge3 to my PATH environment variable.

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Then, I opened Windows PowerShell and navigated to D:\Development\Miniforge3\Library\bin, where I entered .\mamba --help, and here is where the problem occurred:

Notice that in this screenshot, the initialization details mention init (In fact, it is still "conda init"), and after running .\mamba init (which writes Conda-related information to profile.ps1 but not Mamba), operations like mamba activate ... fail to activate, with no error message—just no activation at all! This issue is frequently discussed on various forums, and most responses suggest "Use Conda to manage environments, and Mamba to install" as a workaround.

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However, if I update Mamba before initializing, by running .\mamba update -n base mamba, and then run .\mamba --help again:

This time, I see the actual Mamba Help Center, not Conda!

It’s worth noting that after running .\mamba update -n base mamba, the following content appears automatically:

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Afterward, in the actual "Mamba Help," following the instructions, I ran .\mamba shell init --shell powershell --root-prefix D:\Development\Miniforge3 to initialize:

It worked! This was the true Mamba Init. Now, using commands like mamba activate ... works as expected:

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