Late last week at Microsoft’s Build Conference the Redmond based software giant released the much anticipated Internet of Things (IoT) preview build of Windows 10. I quickly found the download links, and after downloading the preview. Unfortunately that is where my Raspberry Pi and Windows 10 trip made an unexpected halt as life caught up with me over the last few days. So tonight I set aside a few hours to write up this install guide. Follow the five simple steps below to get the Windows 10 IoT Preview onto your Raspberry Pi2 in less than 20 minutes.
NOTE: Install Instructions provided by Microsoft. We have made a few adjustments based on our experience installing Windows 10 onto our own Raspberry Pi 2.
You must register with the Microsoft Connect program to download the Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview image.
Microsoft Released the Windows 10 IoT Core for Raspberry Pi 2 through its program on Microsoft Connect. If you have not signed up yet, please go to the program site on Microsoft Connect site to sign up. You can find step-by-step instructions for signing up for Microsoft Connect here. If you're already signed up for this program on Microsoft Connect and try to sign up again, you will just see a blank page.Raspberry Pi 2.
Raspberry Pi 2, or a nice starter kit, so you can play around with other Pi-related projects. I reccomend this Raspberry Pi 2 Cana Kit or this one.
Microsoft has provided a utility to provision your SD card with the Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview. The following steps can only be executed on a system running Windows 10 (build 10069 or higher).
Follow these instructions to configure your SD card:
NOTE: you will need to follow these instructions on a physical Windows machine (and not a VM) because you need access to the SD card reader. However it does seem possible to do this using Virtual Box and mounting the SD reader.
Please download the package "Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview Image for Raspberry Pi 2" from the Microsoft Connect site here. If you see a blank page or no downloads listed, please make sure you are signed into Microsoft Connect by looking at your login information at top right part of the screen. If you did not sign up for the Microsoft Connect program, please refer to the instructions in the "What you need" section above.
Make a local copy of the flash.ffu contained in the downloaded package "Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview Image for Raspberry Pi 2".
Insert an SD card into your SD card reader.
Open an administrator command prompt and navigate to the folder containing your local flash.ffu.
Find the disk number that your SD card is on your computer. This will be used when the image is applied in the next step. To do this, you can use the diskpart utility. Run the following commands:
diskpart
list disk
exit
Using the administrator command prompt, apply the image to your SD card by running the following command (be sure to replace PhysicalDriveN with the value you found in the previous step, for example, if your SD card is disk number 3, use /ApplyDrive:\\.\PhysicalDrive3 below):
Click on the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in your task tray and select your USB SD card reader to safely remove it from the system. Failing to do this can cause corruption of the image.
Hook up your Board
Insert micro SD card you prepared in the section above (the slot is on the opposite side of the board shown below).
Connect a network cable to the Ethernet port on the board.
Connect an HDMI monitor to the HDMI port on the board.
Connect the power supply to the micro USB port on the board.
Boot Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview
Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview will boot automatically after connecting power supply.
On the very first boot you will see a blue windows logo and then a black screen for a long time (2 minutes or longer). Do not power off the board while it is doing first-time setup. The board will then reboot to a blue-screened application that says “MinWin” at the top. It will sit on this screen also for a long time (2 minutes or longer). Again, do not power off the board while this is occurring. Finally the board will reboot a second time to show DefaultApp, displaying the IP address of the Raspberry Pi 2.
NOTE: It is highly recommended that you update the default password for the Administrator account. Please follow the instructions found in the PowerShell documentation.
Remote Debugger will launch automatically when your Raspberry Pi 2 boots.
That's it, you now have a Raspberry Pi 2 running Windows 10. At the moment there is not a lot of content on the net showing off the power that Windows 10 brings to the Raspberry Pi, but we are sure that as the next few weeks pass more content will begin to show up. The Microsoft IoT portal does have a few projects with well documented code, so that is a very good starting point.
Check out this Windows 10 and Raspberry Pi Weather Station, as well as this tutorial on how to use shift registers with the Rapsberry Pi 2 running Windows 10 from the Microsoft IoT portal. Over the next week or so I will be working up a tutorial on using the Raspberry Pi 2's GPIO Pins, a servo and triggering relays. So stay tuned for that and much more. We have a ton of new DIY electronics tutorials in the works as well as dozens of 3D Printing articles, tutorials, and videos coming your way all summer long.
If you like this tutorial, and would like to see more like it, consider visiting our Patreon page and donating to help us keep TheMakersWorbench.com up and running! You can also support us by using the Amazon.com search bar in the left-hand sidebar on the homepage, or by clicking on and purchasing any of the hardware items we listed during this tutorial!
