Windows 10: Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First

Great news L.V.. *Smile

 

Thanks for this, Brink.

I saw this first appear on the net somewhere very near end of August and wasn't sure how to view it - a hack, legitimate, etc.... Now that it's up in your tutorial, I'm more prone to give it a try should the need ever arise.*Nerd

 

I needed this option back at the end of July only wouldn't have seen first hand some of the problems people were likely to run into where this offers a working solution as lvgandhi and others are and will be finding. This will most likely be the only solution for the smaller netbook and tablet type devices where the space is rather limited.

The method still uses the same method for detection of a legitimate previous version's installation and offers a valuable shortcut for seeing working results over any number of fruitless upgrade attempts some of them ending up a mess and a half at times! When the time comes I will be trying this out on a pair of 8.1 laptops and another desktop where the couple want to preserve the 8.1 installs intact by swapping drives out before 10 goes on which I can understand.

OUT OF CURIOSITY? I decided to see what come up when trying the gatherostate.exe from the folder I keep 10 set up files in to prep any more flash drives with and ran it from there and pasted a copy on the desktop for a quick and it works in the blink of an eye when right clicking on it to select the "run as administrator" option there.

A little late for the main build here of course but that was simply to take a fast look at how it works when opening up the ticket result for a quick view.

 

Thanks a bunch Shawn! Just clean installed W10 on my laptop and activated it no problem following the above steps. What a great time saver!!

 

Wondering if this method will work in my situation.

I bought an Asus x550ca a while back that came with Windows 8 pre-installed on the HDD. I never even booted the machine with that drive in it. Instead, I opted to install an SSD and put a Linux distro on it as my OS. Now, having install Win 10 on another machine and liking it, I'm wondering if I could use this method to do a clean install of Win 10 on the SSD. *Huh

 

Need to put the old drive in and connect to the net to activate your 8 install (make sure it is) Follow the guide then go ahead with your "clean" install.

 

That's what I was thinking. Sweet! Gonna have to give it a shot when I get some time. *Smile

 

Question on this method of doing a clean install. Can you use a windows 10 Pro iso dvd disk on a computer with Windows 7 pro OEM installed?? Or does that take a special windows 10 pro iso file???

 

YES, Pro to Pro/Home to Home.

 

Hi
I followed your tutorial today and it went without a hitch. Before I started I created a new partition on C drive and clean installed Windows 10 onto it following your guide. Now I have Win 7 and Win 10 as a dual boot, and I can install programs in Windows 10 at my leisure and go back to Windows 7 when necessary. Thanks for the information.

 

If you used that Windows 7 to get the free Windows 10, then you are violating the EULA by having both installed and activated at the same time. Eventually one or both will become deactivated.

You are suppose to no longer have Windows 7 activated as long as you have the free Windows 10 installed and activated.

 

Just curious, both systems can't run at the same time, so in reality only one licence running. Is there any fine print that covers this?

 

They cannot be installed and activated at the same time. Even if you don't have them both running at the same time.

Part of the agreement to get the free upgrade to Windows 10 is that you do not use the product key of the activated Windows 7/8.1 that you upgraded from afterwards. You would have to uninstall Windows 10 first before you can legally.

It's always been that way for upgrade copies of Windows.

The Windows 10 EULA and the free offer FAQs states this.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Uset...10_English.htm

Windows 10 FAQ Tips - Microsoft

 

Here I dual boot both at the same time.





I couldn't connect via USB WiFi with 10 on a second remote desktop But I can still try things out on both versions as well as transfer files in between the two machines by remote access. I can even make videos of the main build viewing remotely from the second in reverse.

The solution for seeing both on of course would be simply to buy 10 outright where it will have it's own retail key for seeing 10 running on another drive. You can run multiple licenses on one machine.

 

Shawn, this is a great tutorial, thanks. I don't know if you recall my issues with the clean install earlier but in short, I went through the upgrade path to Windows 10, got the upgrade activated. Later I did a clean install and it wouldn't activate. So I had to go back and reinstall Win 8.1 and go to the upgrade path again and that is where I am at today.

My question is can I do this step from the current Windows 10 installation that I'm running on? I am gun shy of trying another clean installation for fear it won't activate again.

Thanks for listening.

Greg