**Turn your Raspberry Pi into a fully functional PC and get to know the basics of setting it up**

Turn your Raspberry Pi into a fully functional PC and get to know the basics of setting it up

![2.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSgVWwB2EwBbtpb58jafDuCex7zPPH6STwCXGoA73pvfq/2.png) ![1.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmU9woKyt6XeePnrZq6aLf5GM5dsQkoJbqZafXyz2fNXZ2/1.png) 1. **Get your operating system**

Head over to the Raspberry Pi website (www. raspberrypi.org) and download NOOBS, the New Out Of Box Software. This will come in a zip file; download it onto the SD card for your Raspberry Pi and extract the files from it here. Do not extract the files elsewhere and copy them over.

2. **Connect your Pi**

Without inserting the power cable, hook up everything to your Pi. You’ll need a wired ethernet connection or a compatible wireless dongle, a USB mouse, a USB keyboard and a monitor or other form of display connected via HDMI

3. **Choose your distro**

Plug in your SD card and finally connect the power. The Raspberry Pi will boot into NOOBS’ distro selection menu. For all of our tutorials we will be using Raspbian, however the other distros each have their uses and you may want to consider using them at a later date.

**Below Left** The Official Raspberry Pi website hosts the New Out Of Box Software (NOOBS) that will get you off the starting blocks **Below right** NOOBS will give you a choice of distros to use, including Debianbased Raspbian ![3.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmST1oSY5RLjBvzT3CmXTUQVkkvGCd5ywUtGCfWM19vZZ6/3.png) ![4.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmYV3CDqvxH6dN8icgHsxDLucT5NfNrpknNsZPjBW3RM2M/4.png) 4. **Install Raspbian**

Select Raspbian by clicking the check box to the left of it, and then click Install at the top of the Window. Confirm that you want to install, and it will go through the process of adding Raspbian to the SD card.

5. **Set up Raspbian**

There are a few things you need to do before Raspbian is ready. On the config screen, select Expand Filesystem to make sure the SD is being used properly. Then, go to Enable Boot to Desktop and select Desktop from the list. Go to Finish, and it will reboot Raspbian.

6. **Update Raspbian**

Make sure all the software on Raspbian is now up to date. To do this, open the LXTerminal and type: $ sudo apt-get update Once that’s finished, follow it up with: $ sudo apt-get upgrade This may end up taking a few minutes, but it will update the software throughout Raspbian

**Below** The update part of the apt-get process checks to see what’s available, then the upgrade part actually does the work ![5.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmV6637tJ3ctpShF6RiqLFdStrPK8ySawCKh4jkHs1GVMA/5.png) 7. **Get new software**

There are two ways to get more packages for Raspbian – either through the Pi Store link, or via the package manager in the terminal. You’ll get a different selection of apps on the two services, with a greater focus on general software tools in the package manager

8. **Get an office suit**

Raspbian does not have any form of office functionality by default, only a basic text editor. You can add LibreOffice though, which can be done via the Pi Store. Open up the Store and go to Apps; here you’ll find LibreOffice as a free download. Once you’ve created an account, it will download and install it.

9. **Get a better browser**

Midori is an excellent browser, however you can also get Chromium to work on Raspbian. This is the open source version of Google’s Chrome browser, which you can get by opening the terminal and typing: $ sudo apt-get install chromium

**Below Left** The Pi Store is packed full of games and utilities for your Raspberry Pi **Below right** There are alternatives out there like OpenOffice, but LibreOffice is our favourite suit ![6.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmRaKFV6zR3tdZCnhHkM2CuB2zv3MR8Y9KYCu6VARnR5oq/6.png) Please follow me if you liked this article.

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