Windows 10: Clean Installation and Activation Guide
 |
| Windows 10 installation |
The Easy Way: How to do clean Windows 10 OS. Installation and Activation.
It might takes a lot of time to do a clean installation and activation of Windows 10 on your PC because the process involves dragging of files, settings and programs from the previous windows system to the new windows operating system.
Doing a clean installation of Windows 10 operating system might be useful if you have purchased a new Windows 10 PC with installed bloatware you don't like, Or, you need to do a clean install of Windows on a Computer that doesn't have Windows operating system (after inserting a new hard drive). Though, there might be some pre-installed softwares that might be deleted, such as the DVD player software that is pre-installed into many PCs. Nonetheless, there's an alternative to this as you can install VLC player to get DVD player or use the featured Windows Media Centre as alternative.
Initially, before you could start a fresh and do a clean install, Microsoft would force you to upgrade to Windows 10 which can be annoying, complicated and time-consuming. It is much easier now as you can activate Windows 10 with a Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 key.
The First Option:
The Creation of installation Media and the installation of Windows 10 OS. from the Scratch
One of the best method to perform a fresh and clean installation and activation of Windows 10 is to download and create installation media on a DVD or a flash drive, and install it from there.
Go to Microsoft to download the Windows 10 media creations tool. From this tool you will be able to download the right installation files of Windows 10 O.S for your PC; this will help you to create an installation drive (DVD or Flash). Then you boot it up on your PC and select the “
Download the Windows 10 media” creation tool from Microsoft. This tool will download the correct Windows 10 installation files for your system, and help you create an installation DVD or flash drive. Start it up and select the “Create installation media for another PC” option to create installation media.
Know the kind of copy of Windows 10 OS that is licensed for your PC (Windows 10 Home or Professional) so as to select the best installation media. Moreover, select your preferred language and the version of Windows of your PC, either 32-bit or 64-bit. For some, they might prefer 64-bit version of Windows 10. But if you want the both you can create an installation media that includes the two, and automatically the installer will select the right one during the Windows installation on a Computer.
Just like any other operating system installation, you should install your Windows 10 from the installation media. Restart your PC with the USB drive or DVD inserted (where you have your installation media), and boot from that device. There might be necessity for you to change a setting in the BIOS, use a boot menu, or “Use a device” option as this can be found in the advanced startup options on a modern Windows 8 or 10 device that includes UEFI firmware instead of the traditional BIOS. Select “Install Now” once the Windows installer starts.
After that, what you see next is the activation screen. The actions you take here depends on your situation:
The activation screen will pop up if you have never done Windows 10 installation and activation. You will be required to enter your Windows 10 key here. If you don’t have any, you can enter a valid 7, 8, or 8.1 key here instead.
If you’ve ever done installation and activation of Windows 10 on this computer before, click the “I don’t have a product key”. Automatically, the Windows will be activated once it’s installed.
The main reason the second situation will work is because of how Windows 10 will activates PCs. The installation and activation of Windows 10 on a virgin system, is that the installer will confirms your installed Windows system to be genuine. Hence, registering your hardware with Microsoft’s servers. After that, you don't need to enter that activation key again on the same PC because your hardware had been identified by Microsoft when next you want to perform the installation of Windows 10 OS on that PC, confirm it is registered, and automatically activate itself.
Follow up the setup process normally until your PC screen shows “Which type of installation do you want?” Select by clicking the “Custom” option. This ensures you’re performing a clean installation of Windows operating system and not an upgrade install
However, The partition of your PC system drive can be in a way you like it. In a situation where it's a single Windows partition you have, you may prefer the installer to overwrite it, or, you have many partitions, you can delete all the partition by telling Windows 10 to install itself in the unused space.
Connect to the Internet; your clean installation of Windows 10 OS should automatically activate itself when you logged into it.
Then open the start menu and click on Settings. click the Update & Security button, and go to the “Activation” tab. This is to ensure that the Windows 10 activation was done correctly.
If you see “Windows is activated” this has verified that your Windows 10 OS installation was installed correctly. Notice the edition of Windows 10 OS installation you have performed— it could be either Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro. For Home edition of Windows 10 OS, you will get a free upgrade from Windows 7 or 8 OS, but you’ll get Windows 10 Pro if you previously had an installation of Professional edition of Windows 7 or 8 OS.
The activation of Windows 10 Pro on our computer comes very fast when we reinstall it. However, it might takes some time for your PC to activate especially if the activation servers of Microsoft are overloaded.
This has caused some people to reboot their PC several times, while others waited. So if the activation do not happen automatically, then, the following command can make it happen after you follow the steps above; Firstly, right click the Start button to open the Administrator Command Prompt or hold the Windows key + x and select Command Prompt (Admin) . Type the following command and press ENTER:
slmgr.vbs /ato
There are several reports having run the Command several times. However, try to reboot and run your PC again if you see an error message. The Microsoft servers might be overloaded, you may wait and let the Windows activate automatically because its servers might be overloaded at the time you are trying to do it.
The Second Option:
Do a Reset and Remove Everything
You can reset your Windows 10 OS and return it to its original state i.e if your Windows is already upgraded to Windows 10 OS ( If the installation of Windows 10 OS was done by you,
However, there's a warning ⚠️ to this:
This is not a criteria for every problems you may have encountered on your PC. If you try this with a newly computer that came with Windows 10 OS, the bloatware that came with it will likely return back.
Besides, it's been reported that it won't some PC corruption issues. Whatsoever problem that needs clean installation and activation of Windows 10 OS, you can use the first option above.
You may ask ‘How to reset my PC’(Windows 10 installed) :
- Open the Settings app,
- Click to select ‘Update & Security’,
- Then select Recovery, and
- Click the “Get started” button under Reset this PC.
- Then click to select “Remove everything.”
Be certain you backed up all your files. if not, do that before you proceed because it will wipe out all the files.
The free upgrade offer by Microsoft depends on the hardware of your PC i.e the activation may not be done properly if you’ve change the hardware inside your PC.
If after taking the advantage of the Microsoft free upgrade offer, you changed your PC hardware. You may need to contact the Microsoft phone support line to give you the activation code so as to activate the Windows 10 OS, though, it won't be automatically activated. You explained what happened, however, they may ask you to provide some additional information.
But seldomly, the phone activation process will allow you to transfer the free Windows 10 OS upgrade in additions to Windows’ 10 OEM copies and it's pre-installed copies to a separate PC. Technically, this shouldn’t have happened but the Phone activation will allow it.