Windows 10: Upgrade or Clean Install....?

Go the upgrade if you don't already bought 10. If you already bought 10 then fresh install.

 

Sorry, a tutorial to do a clean install? Well, here it is: First upgrade to Windows 10 either using the Windows update routine or by downloading the iso using MS media creation tool (link in these forums or can be found by google). Wait until Windows 10 is activated, then use the acquired iso (burn it to a dvd first if you haven't done already, then boot from it) to do a clean reinstall like you have always done with any Windows installation CD/ DVD. A Tutorial for that, really?

 

Now.. just my 2c but right now with all of the testing I've done with upgrading one build to the next I found that doing a clean install is really not as necessary with Win10 as it was with previous versions of Windows.

I've got a USB flash drive ready for a clean install but I'll only use it if I have to.

Jeff

 

Yes really. The Tutorial is for when things go wrong..... not for when things work like they are supposed to.

As a technical person, when computer "stuff" goes wrong I either fix it or read up info on how to fix it. But if a person is non-technical with very limited knowledge of the workings of computers then even small things can completely throw them into a spin.

One of the biggest problems that technical people have to deal with (myself included) is how to explain to non-technical people how to do something; what an error message may or may not mean; what to look out for......

Explaining these things is called a Tutorial. Where those with knowledge can present that knowledge to those without knowledge in a manner that is comprehensible.

T.

 

Thank you. As a non-technical person, I need all the help I can get. I'm planning to get a new laptop (with Win 8.1 pre-installed) and plan to upgrade it to Win 10 before I actually start using it. So I'm looking around the forums to see how to do a clean install properly (never done one before and I really don't want to mess up a new laptop). There's only so much Googling one can do, and when you bring stuff like partitions and drivers in, I get a headache.

So yeah, it would be awesome if there was a tutorial for laypeople like me.

 

Have a look around the tutorials dash. Windows 10 Tutorials

 

so i guess i'll just have to format the ssd again. but by doing that will it erase the already activated free upgrade of windows 10?

or is that something the motherboard has in some memory?

 

No, it's a hardware ID based on your machine components captured during upgrade activation that the Microsoft Activation server now has in ITS memory - that is, assuming you're asking about the activation itself, rather than the system data on your system drive prior to formatting it.

 

activation itself. i know since its been activated i can install "that" windows 10 version (id number technical) on this machine.

kinda like with windows 7 i guess. i can't install windows 7 ultimate 64 or 32 bit on 2 different machines. if i had done that i would have to activate 1 of them using the telephone system for the machine i wanted it on.

 

Right, so since you know its been activated and HOW it's been activated (by recording machine ID on MS Activation server), then you can conclude that formatting the SSD will have no effect on the activation status of your machine as far as MS is concerned. You can wipe out all the partitions on the SSD, simply reformat your SSD OS partition, or, in fact, even swap it out with another blank SSD and still have a clean install of Win 10 activate with MS as it will recognize your already recorded and activated machine.

 

i'm on windows 10 now. it's really fluent *Smile

 

Not sure what you mean by fluent, but fluency is usually a good thing...*Cool

 

cortana not supported in scandinavia \ norway. bit sad about that. i meant kinda that i can see its abit better than win 7 and 8.

 

Ah, OK, got you. Well, I understand your wish that Windows and Cortana were "mer flytende i norsk" but, like most people in your part of the world and Europe, it's good that your fluency in English can compensate.*chuckle