Getting Started With Raspberry Pi 3 And Windows IoT Core

Abbreviations used in this article

• IoT Dashboard/Dashboard: Windows 10 IoT Core Dashboard
• Pi 3/Pi3: Raspberry Pi 3
• Pi 2/Pi2: Raspberry Pi 2

If you purchase Raspberry Pi 3 from any seller along with Micro SD card, you will find that it comes with some pre loaded data, which is known as NOOBS (New Out Of Box Software). If you are purchasing a microSD card separately, you will not find it.



NOOBS is an operating system install manager. If you are new to IOT development then it is recommended to purchase a Micro SD Card which comes with NOOBS pre-installed. There are many sellers who sell micro SD card with NOOBS pre installed. You can purchase it from sellers like Adafruit, Pi Hut, Pimoroni etc. but these sellers charge a little bit extra as compared to the standard Micro SD card. If you do not wish to pay extra, you can download it from the official website of Raspberry Pi from the download links.

NOOBS come in different variants. You can use NOOBS or NOOBS LITE. NOOBS LITE provides network install only whereas NOOBS provides offline and network install both.

There are many operating systems which can be installed on Raspberry Pi 3. Some of them are Raspbian, Pidora, OpenELEC, OSMC, RISC OS, Arch Linux, Ubuntu MATE, Window 10 IOT CORE etc.

It is very easy to use NOOBS, but if you are planning to install Windows 10 IOT CORE, you may have to do some extra effort, because you can only get it through the insider, because there is no official image of Windows IOT Core available for Raspberry Pi 3.

I hope you are able to install an OS from NOOBS very easily and I am not going to explain here about the installation process from NOOBS.

Installing Windows 10 IOT Core from Microsoft windows insider

1. Open Windows 10 IOT Core dashboard. If you do not have Windows 10 IOT Core dashboard already installed, you can download it from here & install it. It will look similar to the screenshot, given below:
   
   
   
   OR
   
   
   

As you can see in the screenshots, given above, the first image has three options whereas the second image has four options in the left side menu. I have just taken the latest Windows 10 IOT Core dashboard. After taking the latest Windows 10 IOT Core dashboard, I found a new and extra menu at the left hand side “Connect to Azure”. I will explore the new menu “Connect to Azure” in the next article. Right now, I am focusing on how to get started with Windows IOT Core.

As you can see in the image, shown above, there is no device listed, because currently there is no device connected. Once a device is connected, it will be listed here automatically, as shown in the screenshot, given below:



It displays the following information & option for a device:

1. Name : name of device (e.g. BNarayan-Pi3)
2. Type: type of device (e.g. Raspberry Pi 3)
3. IP Address: (e.g. 192…….)
4. Settings: option for setting some info (Change Device name, use name etc. some more options may be added to it later on).
   
   Click on the setting button, which will open the screen for changing those settings.
   
   
   
   You can also open the Windows device portal in the Browser. Let’s click on it to open in the Browser.
   
   
   
   In the left side of the screenshot, given above, you see that a lot of options are available. I am not going to explore all those options , but in brief, I can point out some features and set through this device Browser.
   
   Change your password, your device name, your remote debugging PIN, Time zone, Display Settings, Display Resolution, Display Orientation etc.
   
   See the list of running apps along with the start-up details.
   
   
   
   You can also see the list of the running processes and you can do a lot of things with it. You will find it is similar to the task manager.
   
   
   
   I am not going to browse all the options here, but once you install it, you can browse all those options from your laptop by yourself.
   
   
5. Open in Device Portal. If you click on the option to open in the device portal, you will get the same Browser, as shown in the screenshots, given above.
   
   
6. OS : Version of currently Installed operating system (e.g. 10.0.14366.0)

I have explained some features of Windows 10 IOT Core dashboard but, I would like to explain how to install Windows 10 IOT Core on Raspberry Pi 3. Once you install Raspberry Pi 3, you can follow the article step by step along with your device. Thus, let’s first focus on installing OS.

Go to “Set up a new device” in Windows 10 IOT Core dashboard.

Note: From now on, in this article, I will only write “IOT dashboard” instead of “Windows 10 IOT Core dashboard”.



You can see in the screenshot, given above, that it is saying that no Wi-Fi profiles were found. If you have switched on your Wi-Fi router, it will automatically detect the list of the available Wi-Fi devices.

Once it is able to detect Wi-Fi connections, it will look something similar to the screenshot, given below:



Device connecting options

1. Using physical Wi-Fi router.
   
   
2. Using virtual Wi-Fi router, if you do not have a Wi-Fi router, you can also use virtual router. Even though I do not have physical Wi-Fi router, I have installed a virtual router in my laptop, using which I can connect my laptop with mobile phones, tablets, printers and my Raspberry Pi 3.
   
   
3. Using the Ethernet port, you can connect your Raspberry Pi 3 with Ethernet port on the same network.
   
   
4. Using Crossover LAN Cable (Ethernet crossover cable), if you are working on a network where you cannot access the device which in connected on the same network due to some security issue or the standards like most companies have or due to other reasons, you can use Ethernet crossover cable to connect the Raspberry Pi 3 directly with your laptop or PC.

Devices and their Operating Systems

In the “Set up a new device” Window, you will find a list of the compatible devices and their corresponding operating system details.

List of Devices and their OS

Devices	Operating System
Minnowboard Max	Windows 10 IOT Core for MinnowBoard Max
Raspberry Pi 2	Windows 10 IOT Core for Raspberry Pi 2
Raspberry Pi 3	Insider Preview
Qualcomm DragonBoard 410c	RTM
Custom	Requires pre-downloaded image file (Flash.ffu)

If you are using Raspberry Pi 2, there is no issue in installing it. Just select the device name from the device type dropdown list and OS from OS Build dropdown list. Inset your micro SD card into your computer, give the name of the device and password, accept terms & conditions, click download and install button. That’s it. Your OS will be installed automatically.

For Raspberry Pi 3, it is not so simple. Thus, let's see how it can be installed for Pi 3.

Step 1. Go to IOT Dashboard
Step 2. Click on “Set up a new device” from the left side menu.
Step 3. Select Device Type (select Raspberry Pi 3).
Step 4. Select OS Build (currently there is only one option Insider Preview).

We have to choose Insider Preview in the dropdown list because there is no official image of OS available for Pi 3 from Microsoft.

Step 5. Click the link “Installing Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview on Raspberry Pi 3”



it will redirect you here.

Step 6. Scroll down the page and click the button “Get Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview”



Step 7. Accept the terms of the agreement & select your areas of interest.



Click the Submit button.

Step 8. Click Get IoT Core.



You may have to do a little bit of extra setting as per your insider profile or depending on your locale. Afterwards, it will redirect you to some URL, where you can go through the list of IoT devices, their features and you can do a lot more.

Step 9. Now go to the Windows IoT Get Started URL, 



Step 10. Please go step by step and select your board, your hardware, your OS Version.



At the beginning of this article, I already explained the difference between a blank microSD card and NOOBS. If you missed it, you can scroll up and go through that again.

I am going to use a blank microSD card, ( when I ordered my IoT kit I received a microSD card that comes with pre-loaded OS; i.e., I have NOOBS, but I have installed Raspbian OS in that and I do not want to erase that. I am using another empty microSD card for this installation. So after installation I will have 2 OS in 2 separate microSD cards so I can use any one of them as and when required; i.e,. I can experiment with both Windows 10 IoT Core and Raspbian OS.)

It will redirect you for the next step for downloading the tools.



We do not need to download the tool. We have already downloaded the tool.

Step 11. Get Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview.



Step 12. Select the edition of Windows and and Device type. Click on confirm. First, you have to select Windows edition and click on the confirm button, until which you will not see the option to choose a device.



Step 13. Click the download button to download Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview – Build 14366 Raspberry Pi (you may see the later version than what is currently mentioned here). After completing the download, go to the path where it has been downloaded and double click on it to start or you can choose to run it with administrative rights. Accept the terms & conditions and install it.



After completing the setup, it will install it as a program inside your Window 10 OS. It will install inside program file path e.g. “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft IoT\FFU\RaspberryPi2”. It create a “flash.ffu” file of the size 940,032 kb, depending on the version, it may differ in the size.

Step 14.

• Go IoT dashboard.
• Select custom as a device type.
• Click on the browse button and select “flash.ffu”.
• Select the drive name, which is assigned for your microSD card.
• Provide the device name & password.
• Accept the terms & conditions and click to install.
  
  
  

It will give you some warnings related to microSD (it will erase your microSD card completely and if you have any data on it that data will be erased. Pleased take back up of your data if required). It will open few more screens and finally your set up will be completed.

Step 15. After completion of the installation, you will see the screenshot, given below:



Step 16. Eject your device securely. We should eject the device securely otherwise your microSD card may be damaged.

Step 17. Insert the microSD card (on which Windows 10 IoT Core OS has been installed) into your Raspberry Pi 3 device. Start it.

Step 18. Connect your Raspberry Pi 3 with the same network on which your laptop is connected. You can use four different ways to connect your device to the same network, which I have discussed already in this article.

Once your device is started & connected properly, you will see it inside my device section of IoT Dashboard.



Thus, we have installed Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview for Raspberry Pi 3 successfully.

I have already explained a few points about setting and opening the device in a device portal, other settings, and you can also explore the device portal by yourself, very easily, because its UI is very similar to your favourite windows OS UI.

In my next article I will explain how we can run our first program using Raspberry Pi 3 and Windows 10 IoT Core OS.

Note: Many times, you will find that I am using more than one image in the same screenshot, because I do not want to put hundreds of images here. Thus, I am keeping only the info and screenshots where your action is required. Please feel free to ask me, if you face any difficulty, while installing it. You can ask your queries, using the comment section provided at the end of the article or you can also ask using Facebook or Twitter.