For starters, it's not a good idea to install Rails on a PC directly, especially if you don't have a Mac or Linux box to work with. Before going into the details, you may want to check out this site called Railsinstaller.org. This is an engineer project and has complete details of how you can install it on your PC.

Here's how you can install it.

Always get the latest version - Ruby 2.1 and Rails 4.1. If you're using Mac, then simply download it from Railsinstaller.org and install it.

However, if you're using Windows, this direct download is not a good idea because Windows does not come with a Ruby programming language by default, unlike Mac. So, to install it on a PC, get the Rails 4.1 bundler, SQL database, tiny TDS, SQL service support and kit. If you've downloaded all this on your PC, then it's a fairly straightforward process to install Ruby on Rails. You can download it and run it like any other regular .exe file. Install it in the system and start using it.

Through this course, I'm going to be use a Mac. If you plan to use a PC, then you may have some issues later on as there are some challenges that come with running Rails on a PC. This is why I'm not recommending this straightforward option, but giving you ways to work around these challenges.

The first way is to install a Linux Ubuntu inside your PC using the virtual box application. This is completely free, and all that you have to do is just follow the instructions on psychocats.net. The instructions for installing Ubuntu is easy to follow and this website gives you all the information you want such as how much memory to allocate and how to set up the virtual box. Once you have Linux installed, then running Ruby on Rails becomes much easier than running it directly on a PC.

Another choice is to use the [Nitrous application[(http://www.nitrous.io). Though this application moved from a beta version to a pro recently, they still offer a free account that you can use to learn from. Go to their signup page and create an account for yourself, or if you already have one, log in to it. When you log in, you will be directed to a screen with frameworks and programming languages such as Ruby on Rails, Wordpress, Django, PHP, Python, Java, Ubuntu and more.

Once you're done choosing your plan, click on Create button at the bottom right.

Next, the application would verify your account by sending a text message to your phone. Authenticate your phone number in the next screen, and you're now all set to run Ruby on Rails on your PC.

To conclude, there are three ways to install Rails on your PC.

1. You can install all the different software like SQL database, TDS and Rails Bundler, and run Rails 4.1 as an .exe file

2. Install Ubuntu on your PC using a virtual box application.

3. Create an account in the cloud-based app Nitrous and access it directly through the web.