--- a/testing/docker/desktop1604-test/Dockerfile
+++ b/testing/docker/desktop1604-test/Dockerfile
@@ -63,19 +63,18 @@ COPY           tc-vcs-config.yml /etc/ta
 ADD            https://raw.githubusercontent.com/taskcluster/buildbot-step/master/buildbot_step /home/worker/bin/buildbot_step
 RUN chmod u+x /home/worker/bin/buildbot_step
 
 # allow the worker user to access video devices
 RUN usermod -a -G video worker
 
 RUN mkdir Documents; mkdir Pictures; mkdir Music; mkdir Videos; mkdir artifacts
 
-# install a new enough npm, plus tc-vcs and tc-npm-cache
-RUN npm install -g npm@^2.0.0 \
- && npm install -g taskcluster-vcs@2.3.12 \
+# install tc-vcs and tc-npm-cache
+RUN npm install -g taskcluster-vcs@2.3.12 \
  && npm install -g taskcluster-npm-cache@1.1.14 \
  && rm -rf ~/.npm
 ENV PATH $PATH:/home/worker/bin
 
 # TODO Re-enable worker when bug 1093833 lands
 #USER          worker
 
 # clean up

--- a/testing/docker/recipes/ubuntu1604-test-system-setup.sh
+++ b/testing/docker/recipes/ubuntu1604-test-system-setup.sh
@@ -93,28 +93,19 @@ dpkg-reconfigure locales
 . /setup/common.sh
 . /setup/install-mercurial.sh
 
 pip install --upgrade pip
 
 pip install virtualenv
 
 # Install node
-tooltool_fetch <<'EOF'
-[
-{
-    "size": 5676610,
-    "digest": "ce27b788dfd141a5ba7674332825fc136fe2c4f49a319dd19b3a87c8fffa7a97d86cbb8535661c9a68c9122719aa969fc6a8c886458a0df9fc822eec99ed130b",
-    "algorithm": "sha512",
-    "filename": "node-v0.10.36-linux-x64.tar.gz"
-}
-]
-
-EOF
-tar -C /usr/local -xz --strip-components 1 < node-*.tar.gz
+wget https://nodejs.org/dist/v6.9.1/node-v6.9.1-linux-x64.tar.gz
+echo 'a9d9e6308931fa2a2b0cada070516d45b76d752430c31c9198933c78f8d54b17  node-v6.9.1-linux-x64.tar.gz' | sha256sum -c
+tar -C /usr/local -xz --strip-components 1 < node-v6.9.1-linux-x64.tar.gz
 node -v  # verify
 
 # Install custom-built Debian packages.  These come from a set of repositories
 # packaged in tarballs on tooltool to make them replicable.  Because they have
 # inter-dependenices, we install all repositories first, then perform the
 # installation.
 cp /etc/apt/sources.list sources.list.orig