XBMC has been the favorite home theater PC software of advanced users for years. The benefit of using Linux instead of Windows is that you will get a fast booting computer that is instantly ready to be used as a media center.
OpenELEC is the latest attempt to create a small Linux distribution to turn your computer into a complete media center. And hystou HTPC with storage less than 32 GB mostly install the latest OpenELEC directly. Sometimes if your OpenELEC get rebooting or other problem, don't be worried because you are able to install the complete operating system and media center in less than 5 minutes. Let’s have a look at the steps.
1. Download OpenELEC
First, you’ll need to download OpenELEC from their website. There are quite a few different builds available, choose OpenELEC Stable - Generic x86_64 Version:4.2.1
2. Make a Bootable USB Stick
Second, you’ll need to have a USB stick available. Label the USB stick drive as OPENELEC, otherwise the installation will not work.
The downloaded file is compressed with bz2 and tar compression, so you’ll need to use a compression software such as 7zip to uncompress the file. If you are using Windows, just run the application file (create_installstick) and choose the drive letter where your USB stick is located and the software will make a bootable USB stick for you.
3. Install OpenELEC to your HTPC
Third, insert the USB stick into your home theater PC and boot the computer with the USB stick. After the installer has been loaded, just select the quick installation option and when the installation is finished, reboot the computer. This installation will cost about 1 minutes
That’s it, your XBMC media center is ready to use in 5 minutes including downloading time.
