L2.1 | TIA Portal V21 Install: Complete Download & Setup Guide for Siemens PLC Programming 2026 FREE

Full Written Tutorial: https://www.joltek.com/blog/tia-porta... TIA Portal V21 download and installation requires two ISO files, a free Siemens account, and one fix that most tutorials skip entirely. Run the installer directly from the mounted drive and you will hit an incorrect function error every time. Subscribe to the Joltek channel for more walkthroughs on Siemens programming, network configuration, and commissioning in industrial automation. Learn more at Joltek: PLCs, IPCs, and Industrial Automation Architectures: https://www.joltek.com/blog/manufactu... Complete Guide to Safety in Industrial Automation: https://www.joltek.com/blog/safety-in... Workforce Development and Technical Training: https://www.joltek.com/services/servi... Before you run a single installer, you need two files from Siemens: the Step 7 Safety WinCC V21 DVD 1 ISO and the DVD 2 ISO. Both are available for free through the Siemens download portal using article ID 109989774. You will need to create a Siemens ID account before the download links become active. The registration takes a few minutes and requires a confirmation email. This is a standard gate Siemens uses to track license usage for trial installations. The reason two ISO files exist is that TIA Portal V21 spans two full DVDs. The combined installation, which covers Step 7 for PLC programming and WinCC for HMI and SCADA development, requires just over 10 GB of disk space. If you plan to run PLC simulations locally, PLCSIM is a separate file you install on top of the base package. Language packs are also handled separately if you need TIA Portal in anything other than English. Once the downloads complete, you need software to mount the ISO files as virtual drives. PowerISO handles this cleanly. After installing it and rebooting, use the Virtual Drive Manager in the system tray to mount the first ISO. It will appear in File Explorer as a full drive. Do not launch the installer from that drive. This is the step that breaks most first installs. Running the installer directly from a virtual drive mount triggers an incorrect function error and the installation fails. Copy the entire contents of the mounted ISO to a local folder on your C drive before launching the installer. Once the files are on local storage, the installer proceeds without issues. This behavior traces back to how Windows handles execution rights on virtual drive mounts versus local disk paths. The installer itself walks through standard steps: language selection, typical or custom installation, directory, and port configuration for the automation update server. At some point during the installation, the wizard will request DVD 2. At that point, unmount the first ISO, mount the second one, copy its contents to the same local folder, and let the installer continue. The full process runs around 40 minutes on typical hardware. On a virtual machine it will take closer to an hour depending on allocated resources. After the reboot at the end, TIA Portal V21 is ready to open and create projects. Before starting any of this, check Siemens FAQ article 109995165. It documents which existing Siemens software versions are compatible and incompatible with TIA Portal V21. If you have a previous TIA Portal version or an older WinCC installation on the same machine, this article tells you exactly what can coexist and what cannot. Skipping this step and proceeding blind causes more failed installs than the ISO mount error ever will. Siemens holds the largest share of the PLC market in Europe and ranks among the top three PLC vendors globally alongside Rockwell Automation and Schneider Electric. TIA Portal is the central development environment for the full Siemens automation portfolio, covering the S7-1200, S7-1500, S7-300, and S7-400 PLC families as well as WinCC Basic, Comfort, Advanced, and Unified HMI platforms. If you are working with Siemens hardware in any manufacturing or process automation environment, TIA Portal is not optional. Timestamps 0:00 Intro and Overview 0:40 TIA Portal V21 Compatibility Requirements 1:30 Finding the Download Files on Siemens Support 2:20 Creating a Free Siemens ID Account 3:30 Downloading Both ISO Files 4:20 Installing PowerISO for ISO Mounting 6:00 Mounting the ISO and Copying Contents to Local Disk 8:00 Running the TIA Portal V21 Installer 9:30 First Launch and Creating Your First Project Follow Joltek: Website: https://www.joltek.com LinkedIn:   / joltek