Windows 10: how to tell if pc upgraded to windows 10 or clean install

Is there any way to tell
if a pc has been upgraded to windows 10 or clean install.
thanks

:)

 

How to install app

on the store my phone lumia 620

[Moved from Internet Explorer 10]

 

How to tell if Windows 10 is Retail or OEM?

Use Show Key Plus:

ShowKeyPlus - Windows 10 Forums

 

At the search box type winver > Enter
The popup box show s you what you have.
The following is just one of many ways to tell if it is a clean install...........................
If it is a clean install and you have not installed any programs afterwards, your Programs and Features will have nothing on it.
If it is an in-place upgrade, Programs and Features will list all the programs you have had installed from your previous OS.

 

ran winver and got windows 10 - 10240
wanted to know if this was an upgrade or clean install, not sure this tells me ...

 

An upgrade will have a folder called Windows.old on the C: drive, a clean install won't.

This isn't fool proof, someone could have done the upgrade and then deleted the Windows.old folder. I also believe that the Windows.old folder gets deleted by the OS after 30 days.

 

Have you read the rest of my reply after " winver " ?

P.S. You are a little behind on the Windows version.
We are now currently running version 10586.

 

Windows.old gets deleted after 30 days. That's good to hear. Hopefully mine will go soon. Mine was a clan install new PC that came with windows 10 already on it. The TH2 update dumped that Windows.old folder on the machine and it's gnawing at about 20 gb of space which is annoying. I cannot remember when TH2 landed on my desktop but I guess it must be around 3 or 4 weeks ago. Will be good to get that space back. I know Disk cleanup could of done it but it's nice it will do it automatically

 

Please do wait to see if Windows.old will be deleted after 30 days.
That has been my understanding too, but I never waited that long to find out. I just manually deleted it every time.
I have read somewhere in this forum that it is not deleted automatically after 30 days.
I'd love to know for sure.
Thank you.

 

Ok thanks, yes I will wait. I hope it does. I have always avoided manually doing it. I know highly unlikely but I worried deletion would unsettle something in the system so prefer windows does itself. I guess if it doesn't delete I can afford the 20 gb approx. that it takes up as I guess it gives a rollback option (although I do take regular images via Windows Backup). What would be sole destroying though is if everytime there is a threshold update it creates another windows.old. So you end up with Windows.old, Windows2.old, Windows3.old etc taking up loads of space and forcing the user to take action. Not a problem for those of us who know but for the benefit of many users who don't traverse forums and aren't computer literate it would be good to be sure of what happens. Trouble is Windows 10 hasn't been going long enough to know the pattern.

 

yes I did, this has been used since windows 10 so dont know if was upgraded or new install, windows.old filder gone but might have been deleted.....thanks

 

OK. Thank you for replying back.
If you view your Programs and Features, can you not tell which programs were installed long ago, before the current version ?

Just curious. Why is it necessary to know if it was an upgrade or clean install ?

Thank you.

 

Hi
I was having trouble with not being able to pin apps to the start memu...only on the PC not the laptop....couldnt remeber if i clean installed the
aptip or upgradd......but after doing a full update on the PC all is now well, so really doesnt matter now, was just looking for reasons..

thanks for your help

 

You are welcome.
Happy computing.

 

In addition you can tell by looking in the registry. If you upgraded there will be a key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Upgrade if your system has been upgraded. If it is clean install it will not exist. Note that upgrading from 10240 to 10586 counts also as an upgrade.

There are some pictures describing it in more detail in the 2. Edit Registry section of this tutorial Users Folder - Move Location in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums