Previously, Microsoft forced users to upgrade to Windows 10 before they could start fresh and do a clean install–which was annoyingly complicated and time-consuming. Now, things are much easier, since you can activate Windows 10 with a Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 key. May 18, 2014 With the release of Windows 8, Microsoft offered Windows 8 upgrade for very cheap. Many people purchased without realizing that they can not install fresh copy of Windows with this license. It can be used only to upgrade existing copy of Windows installed. Even if you have valid Windows 7 license, you can not do a clean install. RE: Clean install of windows, 8.1 or 10 All of the devices in the Device Manager are happy, to include USB. The only exception of course being the Airplane Mode device as it cant find all of its driver due to my renaming of them. If you do a clean install using the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant, you should be fine—but if you've already formatted your drive or you're moving to a new drive, you can't do a 'clean install'. How to do a clean install of Windows 8.1/8 Step 1: Getting started. Step 2: Making the Install medium. Step 3: Installing Windows.
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Windows 8.1 Update has finally been released via Windows Update to all existing Windows 8.1 users and is a mandatory update. PC users who’re running Windows 8.1 can now get the major Update either via Windows Update or by manually downloading the same.
As you likely know, this is a free update to Windows 8.1 and is designed to fix many announces that keyboard and mouse users were experiencing while using Windows 8.1.
In addition to new features and tweaks, there are a number of improvements under the hood as well. Because of this reason, many users want to perform a clean install of Windows 8.1 Update to get the most of out of the newest version of Windows.
Clean Install Windows 8 Upgrade Advisor
Performing a clean install of Windows 8.1 Update is as simple as installing or reinstalling previous versions of Windows. You just need to prepare a bootable USB/DVD and then boot from the bootable media to begin the installation. This method is also helpful when your PC is unbootable (see how to backup data from unbootable PC) or you want to install Windows 8.1 Update on a newly assembled computer.
But if you’re not sure how to prepare a bootable USB drive of Windows 8.1 Update, simply follow the given below instructions to easily create bootable USB of Windows 8.1 Update and then clean install Windows 8.1 Update from the USB drive.
If you’re going to perform a clean install of Windows 8.1 Update by formatting your existing Windows 8.1 drive, you need to back up all data before beginning to install Windows 8.1 Update. Backup all data to an external hard drive or another drive on the same PC.
More importantly, you must have your Windows 8.1 product key in order to perform a clean installation. If you can’t locate the product key, please refer to our how to recover Windows 8/8.1 product key or how to recover the product key from unbootable PC guide to easily retrieve the product key.
Preparing Windows 8.1 Update bootable USB
While it’s possible to create a bootable USB of Windows 8.1 Update with the help of Command Prompt (see how to install Windows 7/8/8.1 from USB drive to see the Command Prompt method), we’re going to use a free tool named Rufus to prepare the bootable USB, as most Windows users aren’t familiar with the Command Prompt and prefer using software with easy-to-use interface.
Step 1: Connect a USB drive that you would like to use as bootable media to clean install Windows 8.1 Update, and be sure to backup all data to a safer location as we need to format the drive in order to make it bootable. However, you can follow our how to create bootable USB without formatting the drive to prepare the drive without having to erase the data.
Step 2: Visit this page of Rufus (free) and download the software on a working PC. You can run Rufus on a PC running Windows XP or higher version of Windows.
Step 3: Run the tool with admin rights. To do that, right-click on Rufus.exe file and then click Run as administrator option. Click on the Yes button when you see the UAC dialog.
Step 4: Once Rufus is running, under Device section, select your USB drive.
Step 5: Next, select your partition scheme as MBR partition scheme for BIOS or UEFI computers and select the File system as FAT32, as a bootable USB formatted with NTFS can’t be used to install Windows on a UEFI based computer. However, if you’re sure that your PC is not a UEFI PC, you can simply select NTFS as the File system. But if your PC is UEFI, be sure to select FAT32.
Clean Install With Windows 8 Upgrade
Step 6: Click the small CD/DVD icon next to ISO image button to browse to your Windows 8.1 Update ISO image file and select the same.
Step 7: Finally, click the Start button and then click OK button when you see the confirmation box to begin preparing your Windows 8.1 Update bootable USB.
Step 8: Once your bootable USB is ready, restart your PC, make necessary changes to BIOS/UEFI settings to enable booting from USB.
Step 9: Press any key when you see Press any key to boot from DVD… message on the screen.
Step 10: When you see Install Windows screen, select your language, keyboard and then click Next button to continue.
Step 11: In the next screen, click Install Windows button.
Step 12: When you’re asked to enter the product key, enter a valid 25-character product key and then click Next button to proceed to the next step.
Clean Install Windows 10 Upgrade From Windows 8
Step 13: On Where do you want to install Windows screen, select your Windows 8.1 drive or any other drive on which you want to install Windows, format the drive (if required), and finally, click Install button to begin installing Windows.
Step 14: From here onwards, you can follow the extremely easy on-screen instructions to sign in with Microsoft account and complete the installation.
The Windows 10 upgrade process drags old files, settings, and programs from your previous Windows system to your new one. Microsoft allows you to get an entirely fresh system by performing a clean install.
This is particularly useful if you’ve purchased a new Windows 10 PC and it includes manufacturer-installed bloatware you don’t want. Or, you may need to perform a clean install on a computer without an existing Windows system after installing a new hard drive. Of course, you’ll miss out on the good pre-installed apps, like the free DVD player program that comes with many PCs. However, you can always install VLC to get DVD playback or use one of the more fully featured Windows Media Center alternatives.
RELATED:Windows 10 is Out Today: Should You Upgrade?
Previously, Microsoft forced users to upgrade to Windows 10 before they could start fresh and do a clean install–which was annoyingly complicated and time-consuming. Now, things are much easier, since you can activate Windows 10 with a Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 key.
Option One: Create Installation Media and Install Windows from Scratch
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The classic method of performing a clean install is still our go-to option with Windows 10. You just need to download and create installation media, either on a DVD or a flash drive, and install it from there.
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.
Be sure to select the correct type of installation media for the copy of Windows 10 that’s licensed for your PC — Windows 10 Home or Professional. (If “Windows 10” is the only option, you can safely use that and it will detect what version you want.) You should also choose your language and select whether you want the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows here. Most people will want the 64-bit version, but you can create installation media that includes both, and the installer will automatically select the most appropriate one when you use it to install Windows on a computer.
Install Windows 10 from the installation media like you would any other operating system. Restart your computer with the USB drive or DVD inserted, and boot from that device. This may require you change a setting in the BIOS, access a boot menu, or use the “Use a device” option 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.
Next, you’ll see the activation screen. What you do here depends on your situation:
- If you’ve never installed and activated Windows 10 on this computer before, you’ll see the activation screen. Enter your Windows 10 key here. If you don’t have one, but you have a valid 7, 8, or 8.1 key, enter it here instead.
- If you’ve ever installed and activated Windows 10 on this computer before, click “I don’t have a product key”. Windows will automatically activate once it’s installed.
The second situation works because of how Windows 10 activates PCs. When you install and activate Windows 10 on a system for the first time, the installer confirms that you have a “genuine Windows” system installed and registers your hardware with Microsoft’s servers. After that, you shouldn’t have to enter that key again on the same PC–Microsoft will recognize your hardware the next time you install Windows 10 on that machine, confirm it’s registered, and automatically activate itself.
Go through the setup process normally until you see the “Which type of installation do you want?” screen. Select the “Custom” option to ensure you’re performing a clean install and not an upgrade install.
Partition your system drive however you like. If you just have a single Windows partition, you can tell the installer to overwrite it. If you have many partitions, you could delete them all and tell Windows 10 to install itself in the unallocated space.
After you log into your new, cleanly installed Windows 10 system, it should automatically activate itself after you connect to the Internet.
To ensure it activated correctly, open the Start menu and click on Settings. click the Update & Security button, and go to the “Activation” tab.
Verify that you see “Windows is activated” here. Also, note the edition of Windows 10 you have installed — either Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro. Most people will receive the Home edition as part of the free upgrade from 7 or 8, but you’ll get Windows 10 Pro if you previously had a Professional edition of Windows 7 or 8 installed.
When we reinstalled Windows 10 Pro on our computer, it activated immediately. But, if Microsoft’s activation servers are overloaded, so it may take some time before your system activates. If it’s not activated, you may see information here that can help you activate.
Some people report having to reboot several times, while others have just waited. The following command can force an activation to occur if it’s not happening automatically after going through the steps above. First, open an Administrator Command Prompt by right-clicking the Start button or pressing Windows Key + X and selecting Command Prompt (Admin). Type the following command and press Enter:
![Clean install windows 8 upgrade from 7 Clean install windows 8 upgrade from 7](/uploads/1/2/6/0/126078580/514278835.jpg)
slmgr.vbs /ato
Many people report having to run this command several times. if you see an error message, try rebooting and running it again, wait and run it again, or just wait and let Windows activate automatically. Microsoft’s servers may be overloaded at the moment you’re trying to activate.
Option Two: Perform a Reset and Remove Everything
If you’ve already upgraded to Windows 10 and want a fresh install, there’s an easier method. You can use the Reset feature to reset your Windows 10 system back to a fresh state. If you installed Windows 10 yourself, this should give you a fresh Windows system in no time.
There are a few caveats, however: this method isn’t ideal for every situation. If you purchased a computer that came with Windows 10, for example, this will likely bring back the bloatware that came with your Windows 10 PC. (There’s a way around this, but we’ve yet to test it ourselves.)
In addition, some people have reported that it won’t fix some system corruption issues, in which case you’d want to perform a real clean install using Option One above.
To reset your Windows 10 PC, open the Settings app, select Update & security, select Recovery, and click the “Get started” button under Reset this PC. Select “Remove everything.” This will wipe all your files, so be sure you have backups.
![Install Install](/uploads/1/2/6/0/126078580/675353134.png)
Microsoft’s free upgrade offer depends on your PC’s hardware so it may not activate properly if you’ve swapped out hardware inside your PC. You may need to call Microsoft and complete the phone activation process, explaining what happened, if you changed the PC’s hardware after taking advantage of the offer. The phone support line can give you an activation code that will allow you to activate Windows 10, even if it won’t activate automatically. However, you may have to provide additional information.
Technically, the free Windows 10 upgrade (as well as OEM copies of Windows and pre-installed copies of Windows 10) aren’t supposed to be transferred to a separate PC. But often, the phone activation process will let you do it anyway, so it’s worth a shot.
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Image Credit: Brett Morrison on Flickr
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