Cypress doesn't create directory on install

Question

I did have Cypress working at one point with 4.12.1, then upgraded to 5.0 and updated a couple of npm packages identified by npm-check-update. Now it refuses to start at all, it just hangs with Starting:Cypress displayed. I tried my best to uninstall and remove all trace of cypress, even deleting the cache directory before installing the new version (either 4.12.1 or 5.0). But every time I install it, even in a new project directory, it no longer creates the cypress directory. I think if I can find out why that isn't happening it will somehow be related to the original problem. When I try to start with 'npx run cypress', I get the following:

Starting: cypress
internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:800
    throw err;
    ^

Error: Cannot find module 'D:\inSight_HEAD\Web\Frontend\Apps\Test\cypress'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:797:15)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:690:27)
    at Function.Module.runMain (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:1047:10)
    at internal/main/run_main_module.js:17:11 {
  code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND',
  requireStack: []
}

I even went so far as to revert my (Windows 10) machine back to a system save point from yesterday when it was working, having to reinstall my web browsers afterward, but it didn't help.

Thanks for any ideas on how to proceed. I've only been using cypress for a couple of days, had written a few successful tests, but now it's come to a screeching halt and I've spent an entire day just trying to get it to run at all.

Answer 1

Thanks Alapan, that was it. Somehow I got confused and kept trying to run 'npx run cypress' (which either doesn't create the directories, or if the directories do exist it hangs forever on Starting: cypress), when I should have been running 'npx cypress open' or 'npx cypress run'.