Windows 10: How do YOU clean install ? Do you follow a plan ?

Thanks for the kind words Ed *Smile

At some point I would like to do a TUT, in particular for installing and using AOMEI. Not enough hours in the day at the moment.

 

There is a little doubt a clean install is the best option for a fresh start... but all the work involved *Eek

Well the last time I did this I documented the steps (applicable to me of course) and found that it speeds the process up tremendously as you are following a definite plan and line of attack. All the latest versions of the programs needed are on a USB flash drive so that no going on line is needed. Note, the odd partition sizes are chosen so that a perfect 30Gb of 30Gb and 120Gb of 120Gb etc are displayed correctly in file explorer view of 'This PC'.

This is how I do it. Note all the backups made along the way. These ensure that should anything go amiss, I can roll back and correct the issue afresh without compromising the 'perfect install'.

Having a set out approach definitely pays dividends time wise... its worth trying imo.

Code: Windows W10 Spring Update Installation. 01/ Install on 20 gb partition. Do not connect to Wi-fi until desktop appears. Wait for display driver to be installed. Remove USB drive. 02/ Minimise brightness. 03/ Run update check. Turn OFF Delivery Optimisation. 04/ Turn off Bluetooth. 05/ Set partitions. Re-allocate DVD drive letter first. C: = 71780 mb D: = 30820 mb (Data) Y: = 123084 mb (AOMEI) Z: = 10340 mb (Recovery) 06/ Set single click option. 07/ Copy recovery files to newly created recovery partition. Remove drive. 08/ Install Quickset. 09/ Install Realtek Audio Driver. This is not self extracting and running. Run setup.exe from within program files. 10/ Install card reader driver. 11/ Set power plans. 12/ Set Intel graphics battery options. 13/ Set power plans. 14/ NETPLWIZ 15/ Restart. 16/ Install AOMEI and set VSS option to use AOMEI and NOT Windows own VSS. Pin tile to taskbar only. 17/ Restart. 18/ Make backup image. 19/ Apply .NET2/3 changes. Use DISM if this is non functional. 20/ Restart. 21/ Make backup image (differential). 22/ Apply dark theme (located under colours). 23/ Apply 125% scaling. 24/ Apply mouse pointer selection via Ease off Access centre. 25/ Apply registry font size settings. See details in reg folder and/or at end of this file. 26/ Apply registry file for clock seconds display. 27/ Open Media Player and turn off Auto Updating of content. Create start menu tile. 28/ Apply registry file for clock seconds display. 29/ Change Windows Update settings as required. Run Windows assessment tool (winsat). C:\Windows\system32>Winsat formal -restart clean 30/ Restart. 31/ Make backup image (differential). 32/ Install Ashampoo BS2018. License code xyz123abc. Create start menu tile. 33/ Install Audacity plus LAME and ffMPEG plugins. Set DPI scaling and create start meunu tile. 34/ Install Diptrace. Set DPI scaling for all four executables and create start meunu tile for launcher. 35/ Install Foobar and ABX comparator. Leave Foobar open while applying ABX. Create start menu tile. 36/ Install Gimp. Create start menu tile. 37/ Install Irfanview x64 version. Create start menu tile. 38/ Install LibreOffice. Create start menu tile and taskbar launcher. Turn OFF auto update checking. 39/ Install Movie Maker MM26. Change DPI scaling of executable and create start menu tile. 40/ Restart. 41/ Make backup image (differential). 42/ Install LTSpice XVII and create start menu tile and taskbar shortcut. 43/ Set LTSpice options. Create Temp folder as required on Data partition. 44/ Install PicKit2. Create start menu tile plus taskbar shortcut and alter DPI scaling from .exe file. 45/ Install MPLAB. Create start menu tile and alter DPI scaling (located in MPLAB > Core folder in x86 program files. Decline final driver options. 46/ Restart. 47/ Make backup image (New full backup). 48/ Tidy and arrange start menu and desktop. 49/ Set up news and MSN Money (already installed). Create tiles. 50/ Set up weather tile. 51/ Create start menu shortcuts for Notepad, Wordpad and Paint. 52/ Restart. 53/ Make backup image (Differential). 54/ Create Library shortcut and apply icon. Filepath is %WinDir%\explorer.exe /e,::{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5} 55/ Add calculator to taskbar. Already present by default on start menu tiles. 56/ Add character map to start menu. 57/ Organise task bar. 58/ Organise Start Menu and create name groups. 59/ Full disk clean including system file clean. 60/ Restart. 60/ Make backup image (differential). 61/ Install Adobe Reader DC. Obtain directly from web at time of installation. Uncheck all optional offers. 62/ Install Dropbox. Move folder to D partition. Disable start up. 63/ Make image backup (differential). 64/ Install Epson printer. Accept all options BUT DO NOT install firmware. 65/ Create start menu tile for Epson Scan. Set DPI scaling, copy and paste shortcuts file path location to ensure correct target. 66/ Restart. 67/ Make backup image (differential). 68/ Install 'MSN Translator'. Just type type Translator into search box to find. Add to Start Menu. 69/ Enable Libraries and add library title headers. 70/ Restart. 71/ Make backup image (differential). 72/ Full disk clean including system file. 73/ Restart. 74/ Make image backup. Note, start new backup. This is now virtually a finalised image minus user data. 75/ Add Chess Titans and Mahjong (Vista copies) to a new folder called MS Games. Locate this in Documents and not program files. Create tiles. 76/ Import all user files. 77/ Add LTSpice modelfile to root of C drive. 78/ Set up One Drive. 79/ Import Edge HTML file and set up Edge as required. 80/ Make final recovery image. Current Font Sizes: Font sizes. AU CU CFU/SCU/April 2018 update Title Bars 11 Bold 11 Bold 11 Bold Menus 9 Bold 11 Bold 11 Bold (this setting alter top line view such as File/Edit/View etc) Message Boxes 9 Bold 9 Bold 9 Bold Palette Title 9 Std 9 Std 9 Std Icons 12 Bold 14 Bold 13 Bold (this alters the file explorer view) Tooltips 12 Bold 12 Bold 12 Bold[/quote]

:)

 

How do you do a clean install of free Windows 10 iso so that internet can be restored as I have no interbnet connection

Hi, The reset restored my computer finally to version 1703 build 15063.413 which I assume is the latest public version of Windows 10 so it has not really reset my computer as that was version 1607. No matter it did solve a lot of problems which I was unable
to resolve myself. Have a good day.

 

How do you do a clean install of free Windows 10 iso so that internet can be restored as I have no interbnet connection

Thanks for that, Jelo San.

Was reluctant to do that as I wasn't sure if it needed an internet connection and I did not really want to lose my files and apps.

However it was the only way to do it and as part of the installation process it fixed my internet so that it could download updates.

I saved some files on an external hard drive so it's not a total loss. Thanks again for taking the time and trouble to reply. Have a good day.

 

If I have read it write you hope to install on 20 gig which is never going to work Windows is closer to 30 gig and to do major updates it needs 30+ gig of free space

 

Clean install of Windows 10 is less than 15GB even in 64bit!

 

My windows is 21gig then you have to add software pagefile etc and an up date it will need 20 gig for install and windows old

 

So far I've downloaded drivers, Office 365 64-bit, SpeechExec Pro (Philips dictation control software), PDCC (microphone control software), and QuickBooks. Still have quite a few programs to download tonight in preparation for tomorrow. Things available in the Microsoft Store (iTunes, Pandora, Netflix, etc.) will get installed after everything else.

I have to go through to write down how I have Windows configured. Is there a master configuration file that will display this info (i.e., minutes until screen saver is activated, power settings, themes, display settings, notification settings, etc.)?

 

I do this a lot for my clients.

1. Backup current configuration. Twice would be better - one as an image and one as a straight copy.
2. Inventory all the software you want to reinstall. Note serial numbers, login info, product keys, etc.
3. Note all drivers on current system. Not much of an issue with Windows 10.
4. Note printers and how they connect (USB or wireless).
5. Less important for you - note desktop icon layout, desktop background, screen savers, Wifi passwords, browser passwords
6. Download latest Windows 10 and create boot USB.
7. Install Windows, latest updates, hardware drivers, printers.
8. Reinstall software
9. Restore data - from straight copy in step 1.
10. Tweaks - time zones, desktop icon spacing, power plan, mouse settings, task manager settings, etc.

Give yourself at least several hours start to finish.
When everything is perfect, do an image backup so it will go much faster next time.

 

[/quote] I noticed that you usually restart your system before making a backup image. I do that myself when making updates. The thing is, I’m not sure which updates require a restart (assuming it’s not forced) so I just restart anyway. Are there any rules/guidelines about when to restart?

 

System image? How do you go about doing that? I'm assuming you make a USB or DVD that basically replaces everything as is?

I'll have to Google how to back up current configuration.

 

Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free

Create System Image in Windows 10 Windows 10 Tutorials

It`s so simple, you just need a place to store your images.

And you have to create Rescue Media, by clicking on Other Tasks at the top.

 

With W7 and up, when I want to do clean install, I "kill" all partitions on the disk (the only one installed) and bring to to RAW state. Than I let Windows (or any other OS) to make partitions as it needs.
First I make a bootable USB/disk with OS to be installed, verify it boots from it and eventually put all drivers on it too so I have them handy from the start.

 

I always initially install onto a small partition, one which I create using the installation media, first having deleted all pre-existing partitions on the drive. So the clean install always begins with unallocated space. The reason for 20Gb is perhaps a carry over from when Windows would/could throw install files way out onto a drive, in some cases enough to limit shrinking the drive beyond a certain point.

As soon as the initial part of the install is done the partition is expanded to 70Gb (my chosen size).

A clean install for me, and with all the programs you see listed in the above procedure installed comes in at around 27Gb. This figure also includes all my personal files.

 

Rather than put Windows on such a small partition, unplug secondary drives so there's no change of system files migrating. I realise that's no so practical on a laptop.

I just have a fast m.2 drive for Windows and software, user files go on my 850 Pro and games are on an 850 Evo.