Being a Data Platform guy, I thought it was time for me to have a look at Power BI to be able to have a better understanding of what this is and how it can be beneficial. I know there are some great resources out there for you to learn Power BI. However I am going to take a different approach and provide you a look at this tool from a Data Platform perspective so as to show you that sometimes there are tools available that can actually assist you in your day to day activities looking after your SQL Server Database environments.

Downloading and Installing Power BI Desktop

For us to get started looking at this tool the first thing we need to do is go to the PowerBI.microsoft.com (https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-desktop-get-the-desktop/) website and download the installation media.

Now that we have downloaded the installation media we can choose where we want to install the Desktop and the process is pretty quick and simple. In my environment I am installing this onto 1 of my Hyper-V virtual servers so that I am able to play and become familiar in my demo environment and not cause any trouble.

1. Double click on PBIDesktop_x64.msi | On the Welcome window, Click Next
2. 
3. Accept the licensing agreement, Click Next
4. 
5. Choose where you wish to install to (I have kept the default), Click Next
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7. Choose if you wish to create a desktop icon or not, Click Install
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9. Wait a couple of minutes while the install happens
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11. Choose to Launch the tool if you have a data source ready, Click Finish
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13. Nearly ready. Just doing some initialization
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15. Ready to start playing with this new tool.
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This installation process was very quick and provides us the ability to quickly get up and running with Power BI in our environments.