Recently you can also install Windows on your Raspberry Pi, since Microsoft has made its latest operating system suitable for multiple types of devices. In this article we explain how to install Windows 10 on your Raspberry Pi 2 and what the options are.
When the Raspberry Pi Foundation unexpectedly announced its new Raspberry Pi 2 at the beginning of this year, Microsoft made an equally surprising announcement: the minicomputer would also support Windows 10. Obviously not the PC version of Windows 10, because it is too heavy for the small computer and is written for a different processor architecture. But Windows 10 IoT Core, a special stripped-down Windows version for Internet of Things applications. It's part of Microsoft's vision to make Windows 10 a "universal operating system" that runs on all kinds of devices. Also read: Getting started with the Raspberry Pi 3.
Supplies
What do you need to try out Windows 10 on your Raspberry Pi 2? First of all, you need Windows 10 on your computer. If you still have Windows 7 or 8, upgrade it (for free for now) to Microsoft's latest operating system. You also need Visual Studio Community 2015, Microsoft's free development environment. In addition, you need a microSD card of at least 8 GB, on which you can write an image of Windows 10 IoT Core. And finally, of course, an IoT device: in addition to the Raspberry Pi 2, the MinnowBoard Max is also supported.
What can you do with Windows 10 IoT Core?
Microsoft has a lot of sample code on the Windows 10 IoT Core website of software that you can run on the mini operating system. There is also a whole community of developers who show their own creations. In addition to pure software applications, there are also many possibilities for reading sensors and controlling motors. If you surf around on the website, you immediately see what the possibilities are: a weather station, a robot on wheels that you control with a remote control, a home automation system, an automatic garden watering system and voice control for your home.
Visual Studio 2015
We assume that you have Windows 10 on your computer. Verify that you are running at least the public release. If you winver in the start menu and press Enter, the info window should at least build 10240 mention. If so, install Visual Studio Community 2015. Choose as installation type custom, Finch Universal Windows App Development Tools / Tools and Windows SDK on and click install. The installation does take a while, because several gigabytes are downloaded and installed.
Launch Visual Studio
After installation, start Visual Studio 2015. The first time the program asks if you want to register, but you don't have to. Leave Development Settings on General stand, choose a color scheme and press Launch Visual Studio. This may take a few minutes the first time as all settings are prepared. Check or in the menu Help / About Microsoft Visual Studio at least version 14.0.23107.0 D14Rel is with Visual Studio and at least version 14.0.23121.00 D14OOB at Visual Studio Tools for Universal Windows Apps.
