Set up Tails: a USB system that uses Tor and leaves no trace on the PC

This guide takes you from a blank USB stick to a working Tails system: download and verify it, install it, start a computer from it, connect through Tor, and optionally add encrypted storage for files you need to keep.

Why bother

A normal computer remembers browser history, Wi-Fi networks, recent files and logs. Tails runs from a USB stick and lives only in the computer's memory. It never writes to the internal disk, sends your traffic through Tor, and blocks apps that try to go online without Tor. At shutdown the memory is wiped, so anyone who examines that computer later finds nothing from your session. Laura Poitras credited Tails in CITIZENFOUR, the film about the Snowden leaks. It is free, open source, and made by the Tor Project.

Before you start

Time needed: 45 to 90 minutes, depending on your internet speed.

What you need:

• A USB stick of 8 GB or more that you can wipe completely. A new one from a well-known brand (Kingston, Samsung, SanDisk) bought in a shop is best. USB 3 is faster.
• A computer to install from, running Windows 8 or later, macOS, or Linux.
• A computer to run Tails on (it can be the same one) with a 64-bit Intel or AMD processor and ideally 3 GB of RAM or more. Most PCs from the last 10 years work.

What won't work: Macs with Apple chips (M1 and later), phones, tablets and Raspberry Pi. On a Mac, check Apple menu > About This Mac: if it lists an Apple Chip, Tails will not start. Older Intel Macs often work. Gaming laptops with Nvidia or AMD Radeon graphics can have display problems.

Checked on: Tails 7.14 (released 30 September 2026), with the official install instructions for Windows, macOS and Linux as of 5 October 2026. Tails now releases about every two weeks, so the version number and file name will change; the steps stay the same.

Steps

1 Download the Tails USB image

1. On your usual computer, go to tails.net/install and pick your operating system: Windows, macOS or Linux.
2. Follow the page to the download button for the USB image. It is about 1.8 GB and its name looks like tails-amd64-7.14.img.
3. Save it to your normal Downloads folder, not to the USB stick.

You should see a file ending in .img in your Downloads folder. If the file ends in .iso, you downloaded the DVD/virtual machine version; go back and get the USB image.

2 Verify the download

This checks that the file wasn't damaged or swapped on the way to you.

1. Stay on the Tails download page in the same browser.
2. Click Select your download to verify… and choose the .img file you just saved.

You should see Verification successful! If you see Verification failed!, delete the file and download it again, ideally on another network. A failure is almost always a broken download, but it can also mean someone tampered with it, so never install a file that failed.

If your browser blocks JavaScript, the page offers OpenPGP signature and checksum methods instead.