Installation

To download Power BI Desktop, go to the Power BI Desktop download page and select Download Free.

On the Microsoft Store page, select Get, and follow the prompts to install Power BI Desktop on your computer.

Start Power BI Desktop from the Windows Start menu or from the icon in the Windows taskbar.

The first time Power BI Desktop starts, it displays the Welcome screen.

From the Welcome screen, you can Get data, see Recent sources, open recent reports, Open other reports, or select other links. Select the close icon to close the Welcome screen.

Understanding Power BI desktop views

Along the left side of Power BI Desktop are icons for the three Power BI Desktop views: Report, Data, and Model, from top to bottom. The current view is indicated by the yellow bar along the left, and you can change views by selecting any of the icons.

Report view is the default view.

Power BI Desktop also includes the Power Query Editor, which opens in a separate window. In Power Query Editor, you can build queries and transform data, then load the refined data model into Power BI Desktop to create reports.