Install Power BI Desktop, set options and get the course files

The business scenario

Summit's files use US formats: dates as mm/dd/yyyy and money in dollars. If Power BI reads them with another regional setting, 01/19/2024 becomes an error and 02/03/2020 quietly turns into March 2. Before any real work, set the options once and test them on Customers.csv: 1,200 customers must load with real dates.

What you will learn

• Install Power BI Desktop from the Microsoft Store (free, updates itself every month)
• Set File > Options and settings > Options > Regional settings to English (United States)
• Find the Preview features page and switch on what the course notes ask for
• Unzip the course files to a short path such as C:PBI Course and know what each folder holds
• Test the setup by loading Customers.csv and checking the Join Date column

Key steps in this video

• Set the options: File > Options and settings > Options
• The course files: what lives where
• Test the setup: load Customers.csv and check the dates

Common mistakes to avoid

• Leaving the locale on another country: 01/19/2024 loads as an error and 02/03/2020 as March 2.
• Changing the setting under Current File instead of Global, so the next new file is wrong again.
• Unzipping the course into a deep OneDrive folder - long paths break the folder connector later.