Raspberry Pi is often on the forefront of trying to simplify and improve the user experience. In an effort to make it easier for more people to not only learn the basics, but also achieve efficiency and success in creating projects, there are all sorts of resources and tools available to help you explore and learn with your Pi.

Sometimes the developers at Raspberry Pi even create new software, hardware, or other product innovations that are designed specifically to meet user needs. (For example, here at Vilros, we’re one of the few official North America resellers of the new Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, which gives you all the processing power of a Raspberry Pi 4 in a compact format that commercial and industrial users often require.)

One frequent problem Pi users have experienced is difficulty programming microSD cards – but recently Raspberry Pi launched a solution: the Raspberry Pi Imager.

Improving the SD Card Experience

Programming microSD cards has notoriously been a tricky problem because the most popular computer operating systems (Linus, Windows, MacOS) all use a different method for accessing the SD card. It doesn’t help that new Pi users are often frustratingly confused about where to find the latest images and get them onto their cards, especially if they’ve never used image-flashing tools like Etcher before. For this reason, Raspberry Pi has always officially recommended obtaining a preloaded NOOBS SD card from an approved reseller.

But what about users who already have an existing card they simply want to re-image? There had never been a simple solution. So, developers built the Raspberry Pi Imager.

What you Should Know about the New Raspberry Pi Imager 

With shortcuts built in to its operations, the Raspberry Pi Imager is both fast and easy to use.

The Imager will download a .JSON file from the Raspberry Pi website providing you with a list of all the latest software options so you always install the most recent version. Once you’ve selected an option, the Imager reads the file from the website and writes it directly to the SD card, skipping the middleman step of going through your computer hard drive.

In addition, the Imager also saves a local copy of the file to your computer. This way, you can always program more SD cards without having to download the file again.

With the new Raspberry Pi Imager, it’s just a simple four-step process to install the latest version of the

Raspberry Pi OS (Raspbian OS) to your Pi:

• Step 1 – Insert Your SD Card

• Step 2 – Choose Your Operating System

• Step 3 – Choose Your SD Card

• Step 4 – Write and Verify Your SD Card

The Raspberry Pi Imager is an open-source tool. Fun fact: it was first developed as a modification of the PiBakery tool and was ultimately finished by Floris Bos who was the original writer of the NOOBS tool.

Download the Raspberry Pi Imager Now

You can download the Raspberry Pi Imager here.

An additional perk of getting the new Raspberry Pi Imager now is that you’ll be able to use it to easily install the latest version of Raspberry Pi OS, which always comes out at this time for the new year.

And to find out more news for Raspberry Pi and Arduino in 2021, you can always check out more articles here on our Vilros blog!