Windows 10 IoT Core is Microsoft’s version of the Windows 10 operating system being built to run Internet of Things (IoT) devices. There are a few hardware IoT devices that Windows 10 IoT Core supports and can run on. One of these devices is the Raspberry Pi; specifically the Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3. This article lists out the steps necessary to load Windows 10 IoT Core onto a MicroSD Card that can be inserted into a Raspberry Pi to run Windows 10 IoT Core as the operating system.

Flash Windows 10 IoT Core to MicroSD Card

In order to boot Windows 10 IoT Core from a Raspberry Pi, you must first flash the Windows 10 IoT Core operating system to an SD Card that can be used to boot the Raspberry Pi from. To do this you need to use a Windows PC and the IoT Dashboard utility.

Step 1: Using a Windows PC, download and install the Windows 10 IoT Core Dashboard.

Step 2: Insert your Micro SD Card into your PC.

Note: Before you start, you’ll want to make sure you have an MicroSD Card that is supported by Windows 10 IoT Core. It’s important to be aware that NOT all MicroSD Cards are supported, with the primary restriction that they are at minimum a Class 10 SD Card.

Step 3: Run the IoT Dashboard app, and click on the “Set up a new device” button.

Step 4: Select the “Raspberry Pi 2 & 3” device type, and fill in the necessary configuration values, then accept the software license terms and click the “Download and install” button.

Something to note on the Wi-Fi Network Connection setting is that it will pull from the Wifi Profiles on your local PC. This means that you will be able to easily configure your device to connect to the same Wifi network your Windows PC is connected to once it boots up from the SD Card. You won’t need to plugin a display, keyboard, or mouse in order to configure anything, so long as you select the correct Wifi network.

Step 5: When prompted to erase the SD Card, you need to click Continue. Just make sure you are aware that this will essentially format the SD Card before copying the Windows 10 IoT Core image, so you will lose any data that’s existing on the SD Card.

Step 6: The tool will continue by downloading the latest release of Windows 10 IoT Core. This ensures that you always have the latest version that you’re flashing.

Step 7: After the download completes, the dism.exe command-line tool will then automatically kick off to flash the downloaded Windows 10 IoT Core image to the SD Card.

Step 8: Once the flashing is completed, the IoT Dashboard will show a message stating that “Your SD card is ready.”

Step 9: You can now safely remove the SD Card from your PC and plug it into the Raspberry Pi and power it on.

Connect to the Windows 10 Device Portal

One of the features of Windows 10 IoT Core that makes it easier to manage, especially with headless devices, is the Windows Device Portal. This is a web interface that is hosted on the Windows 10 IoT Core device by default. This interface allows you to perform some remote monitoring, configuration, and deployment options for Windows 10 IoT Core.

Step 1: Once you’ve booted up a device with Windows 10 IoT Core you can then use the “My devices” option of the IoT Dashboard to easily discover what Windows 10 IoT Core devices are connected to the network that your PC is connected to. To view some details about the specific device, you can double-click on the device in the list.

Step 10: On the info for the specific Windows 10 IoT Core device, you can click on the “Open Windows Device Portal in browser” link to open up a new browser window navigating to the Windows Device Portal for that device.

Step 11: When the browser opens up and connects to the Windows Device Portal, it’ll prompt you to login. The Username you need to use will be Administrator, and the Password will be the password you configured when you flashed Windows 10 IoT Core to the SD Card.

Step 12: Once authenticated, you will be logged in and able to access the Windows Device Portal.

Overall the tools from Microsoft, including the IoT Dashboard, are extremely easy to use. You don’t need to use any command-line tools or open any configuration files to install Windows 10 IoT Core to an SD Card. You can then simply insert the SD Card into your device and boot it up to get it running.

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