So you have brought your first Raspberry Pi and looking forward to setup it. No worries let me help you to get it done quickly and easily. Generally you would need keyboard, mouse and external screen to start setup however we are going to use our personal laptop and few applications as workaround. So what are we waiting for, let’s get started.

Hardware needed to get started with Raspberry Pi 3

• Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, I have ordered it from https://www.modmypi.com/
• Power supply 2A output, you can use spare mobile/tablet charger available at your home
• MicroSD Card minimum 8 GB with card reader
• Personal Laptop

Once you have above things you are ready to go ahead and start OS Install.

Operating System Install Procedure

Follow below steps to install RASPBIAN JESSIE OS on MicroSD Card

1. Insert MicroSD card in your laptop using the card reader.
2. Download and install SD Card Formatter application from https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/
3. Run SD Card Formatter. Select your SD card. Click on option and set Format Size Adjustment to ON. Click Ok and then Click on Format. Wait for formatting to complete.
4. Download full desktop image of RASPBIAN JESSIE from https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/ to your laptop and extract.
5. Download and Install Win 32 Disk Imager application from http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager
6. Run Win 32 Disk Imager; make sure your SD card drive is selected. Browse RASPBIAN JESSIE image from extracted folder. Click on Write. Wait for process to complete.

Now you are done with the installation of RASPBIAN JESSIE OS on MicroSD Card.

Accessing Raspberry Pi UI from Laptop First Time

1. Insert MicroSD card in your Raspberry Pi.
2. Connect Raspberry Pi to router using Ethernet cable and also supply power wall socket using mobile/tablet charger.
3. Login to router page and find the IP for Raspberry Pi
4. Download and run Putty from http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/x86/putty.exe
5. Enter Raspberry Pi’s IP in Host Name textbox and click on Open.
6. On Raspberry’s Pi’s command prompt enter username as “pi” and password as “raspberry”
7. Enter below command to install Tight VNC Server > sudo apt-get install tightvncserver
8. Enter Y on command prompt for “Do you want to continue?”
9. Once installation is complete, enter command to start Tight VNC Server > tightvncserver
10. Enter password and verify password of your choice which you would be using to access Raspberry Pi UI using Tight VNC Server
11. Enter N for “Would you like to enter a view-only password?”
12. Download and install VNC viewer Plus tool from https://www.realvnc.com/download/file/viewer.files/VNC-Viewer-5.3.2-Windows-64bit.exe
13. Run VNC viewer Plus tool and Enter Raspberry’s IP address followed by port of Tight VNC Server (usually its 1) – Ex – 192.168.1.7:1
14. Click on Connect and then enter password. Now you should be able to see the Raspberry Pi’s UI.

 Accessing Raspberry Pi UI from Laptop from Next Time

1. Login to router page and find the IP for Raspberry Pi.
2. Run Putty and enter Raspberry Pi’s IP in Host Name textbox and click on open.
3. On Raspberry’s Pi’s command prompt enter username as “pi” and password “raspberry”
4. Enter command to start Tight VNC Server > tightvncserver
5. Run VNC viewer Plus tool and Enter Raspberry’s IP address followed by port of Tight VNC Server (usually its 1) – Ex – 192.168.1.7:1
6. Click on Connect and then enter password. Now you should be able to see the Raspberry Pi’s UI.

Hope this post has helped you to get your Raspberry Pi up and running. If you are facing any issue while setting it up or have any query then feel free to reach me. By the way, isn’t this device super cool? I am already loving it. What all things are you planning to do with your Raspberry Pi?