How To Install Windows 10 Home On A New Computer

If you are using bootable installation media to perform a clean install on a PC that has never been upgraded to Windows 10 and activated, you will need to enter a product key. You can enter a product key from Windows 10 or from a matching edition of Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1. Residents of the United States who don't own a qualifying Windows license can skip entering a product key and purchase a license online from the Windows Store after setup is complete.

Now change the boot order to put the device you want to boot from first; this will be DVD or USB, depending on your installation media type. Bootable USB flash drives are sometimes listed as hard disks. If this is the case you'll need to set 'hard disk' as the first boot option, then go into the hard disk boot order sub-menu and put your USB boot disk at the top of the list.

Find and select the Save and Restart option or equivalent. Your PC should now boot into the Windows 10 setup program - you may see a message to 'press any key to boot from USB', so do so. After you complete the steps, repeat the instructions to backup the remaining accounts .

The installation process of Windows 10 has two main parts, including the setup and out-of-box experience . In the setup process, that's where you will select some of the basic settings, and you'll find the options to erase the hard drive, configure the partitions, and clean install Windows 10. The out-of-box experience happens after the setup is complete, and it's the stage where you'll configure your settings, such as region, network, account, privacy, and other settings.

If you already have a backup of the device and files. The computer is configured to start from a USB flash drive, and non-essential peripherals are disconnected. Then you can skip this part and jump to bootable media creation and a clean install process. Whether your PC came with a Windows 10 license or you previously took advantage of the free upgrade offer, you won't need to enter a license key during this process.

Your Windows 10 license will be automatically acquired from your PC's hardware or via Microsoft's servers. Then I tried following the steps here by deactivating the product key on my old pc. Then I tried to add the product key to my new pc, but it said the key is activated or tied to my old pc. I called Microsoft and they tried some things with me, but it didn't work so they said they'd escalate it and someone else fr Microsoft call me back tomorrow. I didn't try reactivating the license in command prompt until after the tech support call.

However, there are many other ways to restore a crashed computer without sacrificing this disk space. First of all, you can always use an existing restore point or full system backup to get back to where you were right before the crash. If you don't have a backup and need to start from scratch, you can create a Windows 11 or 10 install USB by downloading and using Microsoft's own installation media tool. If you have a laptop or even most OEM desktops, your original Windows key will already be recorded in your BIOS. And, if you don't have a key, you can always get Windows 10/11 for Free or Cheap.

This is a somewhat controversial recommendation so consider your options. Most laptops and pre built desktops come with a recovery partition that eats up at least 20GB of disk space. The point of these recovery partitions is to enable you to get back to a factory state if your computer becomes unbootable, perhaps even stuck on a blue screen of death. This factory state is not just a clean Windows 11, but one with all the drivers and preloaded software the computer came with. Usually, you can invoke these from some kind of emergency menu before boot. This free download allows you to create a bootable USB flash drive directly.

First make sure you have a full backup of your data since will be installing on top of the existing data. You can download the Windows 10 media from the Windows 10 .iso download site and then set the computer to boot from the flash drive. Typically, I find this is often the hardest part of the process — finding the combination of keys that allows you into the bios to force the system to boot from the flash drive.

If you don't have a boot override menu, you'll need to go into the BIOS or UEFI Setup program, which is where you change some of your computer's more low-level settings. The right key to enter Setup varies from PC to PC, but is usually Delete, F2 or F10, and you'll need to press it almost immediately after you turn your PC on or restart it. If you look carefully, you may see the relevant key displayed onscreen as the computer turns on. Some more modern laptops, such as certain Lenovo models, have a special button to enter the Setup program, which you'll most likely find next to the power switch.

Setup menus vary widely in look and layout, but all follow a similar logic, so if you look carefully you'll be able to find all the options we mention in this guide. This method is available when your PC cannot boot properly. It will use a tool to create installation media, which you can use to completely wipe the disk and install a fresh copy of Windows 10.

If you don't want to use a CD or DVD, you can use a USB, SD card, or external hard drive. If you decide to change a hardware component of your Windows 10 PC, you should not run into issues with your PC's digital entitlement . Your Windows digital license is the unique signature that is given to your PC by Microsoft and stored on Microsoft Activation Servers. If you upgraded from a previous Windows version to Windows 10, the license you were previously running is exchanged for a diagnostics product key. If you are a current Windows 10 user and you want to upgrade your PC's hard drive, you should be able to do it without any issues with your Windows 10 digital license. Beginning with version 1903, Microsoft began offering feature updates for installation separately from security and reliability updates.

The company says these updates will not be downloaded or installed automatically unless the current version is at or near the end of its support window. For more details about these changes, see "Windows 10 Home edition users are big winners as Microsoft overhauls its update process." I have old laptop which I had bought with Windows Vista OS preinstalled.

I had upgrade it with Windows 8.0 pro 32-bit and later automatically upgraded to windows 8.1 pro (32-bit). The laptop is getting old now and I am thinking to buy new machine . Question is, can I install "Windows 10 pro update (64-bit)" on the new system using my windows 8.1 pro key?

If 'yes', how should I proceed correctly, so that I don't end up in mess. If I am able to build new system successfully, I plan to decommission old laptop or use it with Linux OS or so. So definitely I am not going to use current Windows 8.1 license on that laptop. To install Windows bit, purchase Windows bit from Microsoft and perform a clean install of Windows bit from the Microsoft download site. In some cases HP might not provide compatible software and updated drivers for your model.

Once you complete the steps, the computer will start from a USB flash drive to proceed with the clean installation process. On Windows 10, a clean installation defines the process to wipe out the hard drive and start from scratch with a new setup when the device is having problems. For instance, this method can resolve memory, startup, shut down, apps, and performance issues. In addition, a fresh install can improve battery life, and it's perhaps the best approach to eliminating viruses and other types of malware. In most cases, it's best to start with unallocated space on a bare drive and let Windows perform the partitioning during installation. Once you've selected the drive, click Next and Win10 will finish the initial installation, reporting progress via the status screen.

Select the USB flash drive option and pick the attached device you'll be using as the installer. While the installer itself is less than 5 GB, the extra space will come in handy for the next step. For now, the media creation tool will format the flash drive, download and transfer the installer, and make the USB bootable. Select "Create installation media for another PC" and click "Next." Language, edition and architecture options follow. Pick the appropriate edition for your product key and stick with 64-bit variants unless you absolutely require 32-bit for legacy reasons.

Before you can install Windows using a USB, you need to create the installation media itself. This will be read by your computer once the USB flash drive is connected, allowing it to boot from USB. Below are the steps to create this bootable USB flash drive using the Media Creation Tool issued by Microsoft.

The process for installing Windows 10 on a new computer without an operating system is exactly the same as it would be if you were doing so on a computer with an operating system. The only caveat to that is that you need the installation media, whether that's a Windows 10 disk, or a bootable USB drive with Windows 10 installation files loaded on it. Getting that can be a little harder without an active PC. The second option is that you're trying to install Windows from a USB flash drive or DVD, but you created the installation media without the proper permissions.

To change that, download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and locate it on your hard disk. Right-click it and select Run as Administrator. Follow the wizard through as before and re-create the installation media. You should now be able to install Windows 10. If you have completed a clean installation of Windows and kept nothing, navigate the setup experience with the help of Cortana. If you chose to keep your personal files and apps, you do not need to set up Windows 10 again.

How To Install Windows 10 Home On New Pc If you have a computer pre-installed with Windows 10, such as a Surface Laptop 4 or a Dell XPS 13, you are dealing with an "OEM" license. In this case, the product key is not transferable, and you are not allowed to use it to activate another device. After you complete the steps, Rufus will download the ISO file from the Microsoft servers, and it'll create the bootable media to perform a clean install of Windows 10. Picking the right media type on the next screen is less obvious than it seems, as there are merits to both direct USB installer creation and the more flexible Win10 ISO images. The ISO version also comes in handy when installing Windows 10 to a virtual machine for a test drive using software like VirtualBox.

After opening this tool, Windows 10 Setup will take 1-2 minutes to get things ready. Then, create installation media to install Windows 10 on another PC. Next, choose a USB drive to directly download and burn ISO to it. If you choose ISO file, you need to burn it to a DVD later, which will extra take some time. Ensure the security of your data and system.

To do fresh or clean install, it's better tobackup filesthat are important to you, because personal data on the old hard drive will be removed during the process. To prevent unexpected system failures, you could backup the system as well, this is especially important for a novice. I want to do a clean install of Windows 10 OS on a new ssd and make this the boot drive. I would like to keep the old WD 1T hard drive as a storage drive. What is the best/easiest procedure for extracting the old windows 10 OS from the old hard drive. I'm not sure that I know how to properly identify the OS files.

Unlike older versions of Windows, Microsoft makes it easy to install Windows 10 on your PC without a valid license. If you didn't enter a license key or sign into a Microsoft account that has a digital license during the setup process, you should activate now. This will let you access all the functions of Windows 10.

Based on step 5 above, when it prompts "Which type of installation do you want?", you should select "Upgrade" to keep your files and settings. If you select "Custom", you will have a clean installation and all of the files and settings of your previous version of Windows will be cleaned. Microsoft offers several ways to download Windows 11 manually. One is to use the Installation Assistant app, which you install on your PC to trigger a normal upgrade install via Windows Update. The second is to use the Windows 11 Media Creation Tool, which automates the process of creating a bootable USB install drive or downloading an install ISO file. Once you have a USB drive, you can either boot from it to perform a clean install or run the Setup app from within Windows 10 to do a normal upgrade install.

You can also burn the ISO to a DVD, but installing from any USB drive, even an old USB 2.0 drive, will be much faster, so you shouldn't do that. Finally, you can just download an ISO file directly from Microsoft's site. After the upgrade is complete, your new copy of Windows 10 will be activated with what Microsoft calls a "digital license." If you are running any unmanaged edition of Windows 10 using default settings, these feature updates are delivered through Windows Update. In versions prior to 1903, feature updates download and install automatically. You can schedule the installation for a more convenient time or postpone it for a few days, but you cannot delay the update indefinitely.

After running the Media Creation Tool, choose Create installation media for another PC. By default, the pre-selected options choose an architecture (32-bit or 64-bit) that matches that of the current PC. Open the drop-down list shown here if you want to choose a different architecture or download an ISO file that includes both architectures. Can you please, lemme know is it possible for me to use the windows 8.1 pro key that i received from microsoft store via email to activate windows 10 pro clean install on the macbook pro. If yes please lemme know the exact steps, right from deactivating the key on air to getting it activated on pro. Hi, ive upgraded my retail cd version of win 8.1 pro to win 10 pro and is fully activated and functional.

Ive also signed up for a microsoft account username and password. From what i heard is the win 10 pro key is tied with your ms account? So if you install on a new hard disk or system it will automatically activate your win 10 pro as soon as you sign in using the ms login. Is is true and will the possibility for end of support free upgrade program affect this auto activation process? Click the Select Download drop-down menu and choose the Windows 11 (multi-edition ISO) option.

Choose the product language and click Confirm. Then click the 64-bit Download button and save the ISO file to your hard drive. The "Go Back" feature, which allows you to reinstall a previous version of Windows, is available for 10 days after installing Windows 10.

The Windows installation files occupy a large amount of hard drive storage space during that time. The files are deleted automatically after 10 days. However, if you want to regain the storage space before 10 days have passed, you can manually delete the files.