The Pi Zero W is a very minimal computer, so it requires a little work to get it up and running.

We have a guide on how to set up your Pi Zero W 'headless' which is how we recommend you get started. Check out the guide for how to do that!

Here's the quick-start for people with some experience:

  1. Download the latest 'Lite' Raspbian to your computer
  2. Burn the Lite Raspbian to your micro SD card using your computer
  3. Re-plug the SD card into your computer (don't use your Pi yet!) and set up your wifi connection by editing supplicant.conf
  4. Activate SSH support
  5. Plug the SD card into the Pi Zero W
  6. If you have an HDMI monitor we recommend connecting it up via the mini HDMI adapter we provide in the budget pack - so you can see that it's booting OK
  7. Plug in power to the Pi Zero W - you will see the green LED flicker a little. The Pi Zero will reboot while it sets up so wait a good 10 minutes
  8. If you are running Windows on your computer, install Bonjour support so you can use .local names, you'll need to reboot Windows after installation
  9. You can then ssh into raspberrypi.local

This guide was first published on Aug 15, 2017. It was last updated on Aug 15, 2017.

This page (Prepare the Pi) was last updated on Aug 15, 2017.

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