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 — turing-os-1.2.0-amd64.iso, 3.1 GB, downloaded with your activation code.
- Your activation code. The installer asks for it once, and that is what makes the machine yours.
- The computer you are installing on, plugged in to the mains, on a wired or wireless network.
Installing erases that computer. Turing AI OS replaces whatever is on the disk — it does not install alongside Windows. Copy anything you want to keep off it first.
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 the disk. This is the point of no return: the disk is erased.
- Type your activation code when it asks. It is checked online, once, and that is what registers the licence to this machine.
- Choose a name and a password, and wait. Around fifteen minutes.
- Take the stick out and restart.
After that
The machine never asks for the code again, and updates arrive on their own — 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.