I just installed TYPO3 6.2.9 today and surprisingly, I didn't see the HTMLArea RTE load in the backend when I tried to create some content. No, it was just a plain textarea. 

I did some searching in response to my frustration and found this post on StackOverFlow, which explains that the RTE is not enabled by default. 

So basically, all I had to do to enable the RTE in this new TYPO3 install was to click on the "User Settings" menu item located under the "User Tools" section of the left column menu of the TYPO3 backend. And from there I just had to click on tab labeled "Edit & Advanced functions", and then click on the checkbox where it says "Enable Rich Text Editor (if available)". 

So that was easy. Once I did that, the RTE loaded just fine.