Installation
From a download to a running machine.
Half an hour, most of it waiting. You write the image to a USB stick, start the computer from that stick, and answer four questions.
What you need
- A USB stick of 8 GB or more. Everything on it will be erased.
- The install image, downloaded from turing.london — it asks for nothing.
- Nothing else. No code and no payment.
- The computer you are installing on, plugged in to the mains, on a wired or wireless network.
Decide what happens to the disk. The installer offers two routes: take the whole disk, which erases everything on it, or install alongside what is already there by shrinking an existing partition. Either way, back up anything you would hate to lose before you start.
1 · Write the image to the USB stick
Not by copying the file onto it — the image has to be written to the stick as a whole disk. Use balenaEtcher, which is free and works the same on Windows, macOS and Linux:
- Install and open Etcher.
- Flash from file — choose the image you downloaded.
- Select target — choose your USB stick. Check the size; it is the one thing here that is easy to get wrong.
- Flash, then wait. Around ten minutes.
Windows users who prefer it can use Rufus instead, with the default settings. If Windows offers to format the stick when you plug it back in, say no — the stick is fine, Windows simply cannot read it.
2 · Start the computer from the stick
Leave the stick plugged in and restart. As it starts, press the boot menu key repeatedly — F9 on an HP — and pick the USB stick from the list. The key is different on every make, and it flashes past in about two seconds:
| Make | Boot menu | Firmware settings |
|---|---|---|
| HP | F9 | F10 |
| Dell | F12 | F2 |
| Lenovo | F12 | F1 |
| Acer | F12 | F2 |
| Asus | Esc or F8 | F2 or Del |
| MSI | F11 | Del |
| Gigabyte | F12 | Del |
| Samsung, Toshiba | F12 | F2 |
If the boot menu does not appear, go into the firmware settings with the key in the last column and move the USB stick above the hard disk in the boot order. You do not need to turn Secure Boot off — Turing AI OS is signed, and leaving it on is part of what keeps the machine yours.
3 · Install
- The desktop starts from the stick, so you can look around before committing to anything. Nothing has been written to the computer yet.
- Start the installer and choose what happens to the disk. Standard takes the whole disk and erases Windows. To keep Windows, choose Partition the disks, then Install alongside Windows — after shutting Windows down with Shift held, and with BitLocker off. The last screen lists what will change on each disk; nothing is written until you tick the box on it. This is the point of no return.
- Choose your AI and its voice. Nothing asks for a license: the desktop installs unlicensed.
- Choose a name and a password, and wait. Around fifteen minutes.
- Take the stick out and restart.
After that
The license is what turns the AI on, and it is not on sale yet: the first ones go free to people who test it on their own computer. Type the code you are sent into Settings and the AI is on. Updates arrive on their own after that; there is nothing to check and nothing to click. The frontier AI models are a separate monthly subscription bought in Settings; the everyday brain and the models that run on your own hardware are included and always will be.
Stuck anywhere in this? info@turing.london — a person answers.