Preparation

Download installer and tools

Download the installer from pfSense official download page

• Select AMD64 (64-bit) as Architecture
• Select USB Memstick Installer as Installer for bare metal installation or DVD Image (ISO) Installer for virtualized installation
• Select VGA as Console
• Select the Mirror closest to you
• Click Download

You can skip Rufus and Prepare the installation media (USB) if you plan to do a virtualized installation

Rufus

Download rufus from their official site Select either the portable version or the installer, both will work.

Prepare the installation media (USB)

Destructive move

This process will DELETE any data in your USB stick.

• Run Rufus
• Select your USB Stick on the Device drop down list
• On Boot selection Click SELECT and select the pfSense ISO we downloaded earlier
• Check again that you selected the correct Device on previous step
• Click START
• Accept the WARNING saying that will DESTROY your data on this device

Once the process is finished you are ready to install pfSense to your machine.

Prepare the installation media (Virtualized)

• Mount the ISO file into your VM
• Set it as primary boot device