Windows 10: Windows 10 Clean Install On New PC With Windows 10 Pre-Installed????

Hey all

I'm having a boat load of glitches, I think mostly coming from Cortana (works maybe 3 out of 10 times correctly and sometimes not at all and locks up the windows menu until I kill her in task manager). I spoke to Microsoft who said to do an upgrade that will re-install windows 10 from their website. Second he said I could do a clean install by downloading to a usb but needed a product key. So I called Toshiba and they said to just reset the pc that would reinstall the windows on the partition "clean" (hahahaha, if bloatware is clean) and back to factory specs. The guy at Microsoft said if the problem is with the windows 10 itself it wouldn't help b/c it is the same software. Toshiba says my product key is embedded into the firmware and will only work with the software of windows 10 on my partition. Can anyone here tell me what is what, I don't trust any of these people. The way I see it I have these options and not sure what to do:

1. Try the "reset this pc" option that puts the computer back to when it was new with software on the partition (no product key issue)
2. Try to "upgrade" to the latest windows 10 software (not sure what that means b/c I am up to date?) from microsoft.com.
3. Do a clean install by downloading windows 10 to usb (was told there would be a product key issue from Toshiba and they won't give me mine, said it was proprietary OEM yada yada, whatever).

Please any help/advice/clarification would be helpful.

:)

 

Window 10 Home Retail or OEM

Did you upgrade or is this a new PC with Windows 10 installed.

1. If a new PC that came with Windows 10 pre-installed then it will be OEM.

2. If the PC had the operating system pre-installed before the upgrade, then it is OEM.

3. If you purchased a boxed MS disc then it is retail.

 

Windows 10 64 bit compatibility issue with old Civ 3 Conquests

Correction, It is a clean install on a new pc that was pre loaded with windows 10.

The game also would not run on the previous computer which was upgraded to 10

 

What I do (but you need a USB/External hard drive, or network storage location) is make an image of the entire hard drive using Macrium Reflect Free. Create a Macrium Free Rescue USB/DVD. Export all non-Microsoft drivers using DISM to the same location I stored the image of the hard drive. Create a vanilla Windows 10 install USB/DVD directly from Microsoft. Boot computer from the vanilla Windows 10 install USB/DVD, delete every partition on the hard drive, clean install to the unallocated space. Look in device manager for any "unknown devices" or exclamation points - manually install those drivers from the drivers I exported earlier.

The clean Windows 10 install from the USB/DVD created from Microsoft will read the Windows 10 product key stored in your bios and should not even ask you for a product key and it will activate itself. If you need any specific instructions on the above steps, please ask.

Macrium Reflect Free:
Macrium Reflect Free

OR
Kyhi's recovery drive (contains Macrium Reflect Free rescue):
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

Windows 10 install media:
USB Flash Drive - Create to Install Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

Dism command to export drivers (run from an elevated "run as administrator" command prompt):

Dism /online /export-driver /destination:E:\Drivers

NOTE: the path in red is to a folder that you create to hold the exported drivers. I would recommend at least 1 GB free space before you do the export, some of the drivers can be quite large.

 

A It's a new PC? How new? Still under warranty? Your contract with the vendor may allow you to reject the product as DOA, if the problem existed since day 1 or soon after purchase, and get a refund, and then to repurchase a different model or another of the same type if you wish.

B It has OEM software. Your contract for support is with Toshiba, not Microsoft. If you follow Toshiba's advice and "brick" it then they may have to repair it, with you left waiting for the product to be returned to you.

If you go it alone and follow Microsoft's advice, however technically good, and the machine fails, you may affect your warranty with A or B.

 

2 Weeks old, probably can't return unless I do it today and I have stuff on it already and would be a PITA. The issues are relatively small I guess, mostly that Cortana crashes all the time now, especially when I run her for the first few times, then she seems to smooth out some. The other issue is with the mail and calendar app and notifications, so maybe I should just get outlook and not care about being notified. I didn't even have the option in 7 but kind of got used to it the last couple weeks in 10, just is irritating everything doesn't work like it should. I did install some outdated software (Adobe CS2) which is 7 years old, and some other stuff that worked on Windows 7, maybe it just doesn't like that stuff I don't know.

I also installed a bunch of apps from the store b/c it seemed like a fun idea, I have since removed them but maybe that did something who knows. I should probably try the reset pc option and only install the essential programs I need to use and see what happens then. Can anyone tell me is the majority of people having issues with things in 10 or only a small % of the users, this would be directed at the people who bought a new pc and it came with it.

I did call Toshiba and he wanted to remotely take over my computer and install stuff and I was like "um....no" that is not a good idea to let someone in an international call center take over your computer I'm assuming or is it ok?

 

At Best Buy, when you buy something, you've got 15 days to send it back. I think 2 weeks, you are probably unlikely to return, but I could be wrong *Smile

 

I would let Toshiba fix by remote under these circumstances - I don't think they would be out to discover your innermost secrets to blackmail you with, would they?

You don't do terrorism as a sideline or any other illegal activity, do you? *Smile

You buy a brand and with that brand comes support over that of a no-name box, and that's why brands cost more.

Besides, you may learn a lot seeing what the technician does to fix your machine.

 

Hi,

No big deal really.

It's either option 1 or 3
If option 1 still doesn't work I'd go with option 3 and/or follow NavyLCDR's advice. If it were my laptop that HD would have been wiped an hour after purchase already... Hehe.

Don't worry about activation, for as long as install the same edition as in Home to Home Pro to Pro etc. It will activate once you hook up the machine to the net.

One more thing, before doing anything drastic, did you run SFC /Scannow from an admin command prompt already for I'm pretty sure it's going to return errors ?

Cheers, *Wink

 

Yes I ran sfc /scannow found nothing.

 

If you want to do a clean install.

1. Go to Settings
2. Next go to System
3. then you should be able to find "Install a Fresh Clean Windows". Or something like that. Then click "Start" under that message.

This should give a fresh, clean reinstall and you should be happy *Smile

Hope this helps you any. *Smile