Kilbane
Hagrid Look-A-Like
With Windows 10 becoming one of the most used OS platforms and support for almost all modern hardware being available, I thought it would be a good time to write an up to date installation guide for those who are looking to move to 10 but are unsure on the choices available.
Windows 10 is still available free through the upgrade offer made by Microsoft upon its release. However, be aware this offer will be ending on July 29th 2016.
Windows is available as a free upgrade before that time to any users of Windows 7 or above. As a quick reference, if your system is running any of those versions of Windows, your pretty sure to be able to run 10 with little issue.
UPGRADE
So the obvious route to go down to install Windows 10 would be to do a straight upgrade from your already existing Windows installation.
Pro's :
- Practically a single click installation
- Personal setting will be kept
- System compatibility will be checked by the software
- Drivers will be downloaded automatically before install
- Easy to revert back to previous version of Windows
Con's
- Driver conflicts possible
- Temp files and old files left on drive
***IMPORTANT***
Before you upgrade make sure you have backed up all important files, this includes photos, documents, music and game saves (Just some examples, non exhaustive list). If you are unsure on the location of any of these files, make sure you ask for advice before continuing!
The easiest way to upgrade would be through Microsoft's upgrade software. This should have been popping up in the lower right of your desktop for the last 6+ months now. However if you have disabled it or not received any notifications there is a simple way to start the upgrade.
Point your browser to the "Get Windows 10 " webpage linked Here.
Hit the "Upgrade Now" button at the top of the page, this will download the Windows upgrade tool. Run the downloaded software and follow the simple instructions.
Obviously depending on your PC specs, this could take some time. The software will check all hardware and software installed on your system. Once it has done that it will download any drivers it needs and inform you of any issues that any hardware or software may have with Windows 10.
Once this is done, your all set to welcome Windows 10 into your life.
Clean/Fresh Install
Personally this is always my preference when changing OS on my PC.
Pro's :
- No previous files/drivers to conflict during installation
- Full control over setting during install
- Smaller install size compared to upgrade path
Con's
- No compatability check with software/hardware
- Reinstall of all software/games
- Long process to get previous OS back
The process for doing a clean install of Windows 10 is a bit more involved than a simple upgrade.
***IMPORTANT***
Before you install a fresh copy of ANY OS make sure you have backed up all important files, this includes photos, documents, music and game saves (Just some examples, non exhaustive list). If you are unsure on the location of any of these files, make sure you ask for advice before continuing!
Now that is out of the way, we can proceed.
First off, make sure you check the appropriate vendors websites for compatibility with Windows 10 and to ensure you have the latest drivers available BEFORE you install a new OS. In my experience, the most important drivers to grab before install are graphics, sound and motherboard. These are the heart and sole of the PC, once you have these your system will be functional enough to grab any that you have forgotten post install.
Now the easiest way to install Windows 10 is from a USB drive. Luckily Microsoft offer a quick and simple tool to create the install media for you. Head over once again to the "Get Windows 10" site Here.. Scroll down to the "Get Tool Here" button and click.
Once you have downloaded the tool, you will need a USB drive that is 4GB or more in size and BLANK (any info on the drive will be wiped during media creation).
Run the software, follow the instructions and make sure you are ready to install (See "Important" section above).
So now comes the fun part!
Restart your PC with the USB disk attached. Make sure your PC is set to boot from USB in the BIOS. This can be done in either the BIOS boot priority list or through a keypress during POST (Each board is different so please refer to your Motherboard documentation on how to do this).
Windows install will now load up. Ignore the upgrade option and choose the "custom, install Windows Only" option.
You will be presented with your HDDs/SSDs in the form of "Drive number" and "Partition number" for each attached device.
Chose the drive you will be installing the OS on(Hint : look at the Drive size to decipher which drives are which). Once you know which drive you are choosing, delete the existing partitions on that drive to clean the drive and create a new single partition ready for the OS install. This step is not necessarily a must, but to avoid problems with previous OS installs I would highly recommend it. Please note, if you are doing this on a prebuilt system, the recovery partition may contain the only way back to a previous OS and backups of your original system configuration.
Once you have the Drive prepared, select the drive and click "Next".
Windows will create its own partitions in the drive for the install and proceed to copy the required files across before restarting your PC a few times to complete the installation of the base OS install.
***IMPORTANT, Product Key information, Please Read***
Microsoft have made it easier to migrate your existing system to Windows 10. If you have an Retail Key for Windows 7 or above, this key can now be used directly in the "Product Key" activation in the Windows 10 install. However if your version of windows is pre-installed on a system with no CoA and the key is stored on the BIOS Flash, there can at times be issues with a fresh install.
For this, I would follow the upgrade route, then Windows has an option within itself to do a factory reset to get to a clean install. Although once Windows 10 has been done through an Upgrade and activated, a fresh install using the "Fresh install method" is possible without any worry.
Windows will now go through the usual personalisation options before setting up for first time use. (Hint, make sure you choose the correct keyboard layout and language now, they can be a pain to change at a later date)
So that's about all you will need to know, you're all set to join the Windows 10 ecosystem.
Any issues you have with the install, please do not hesitate to ask for help!
Please do me one thing. This thread is designed to help people to ease the installation process and to guide them in the right choice of installation options. Please avoid posting about whether or not you are a fan of Windows 10, there are plenty of previous posts about the Windows 10 ecosystem, lets try and keep the thread on topic.
Good luck to all, please let me know if the guide has helped you, alternatively if there is something you feel I have missed.
***Thread to follow about Tweaking Windows 10 for those who have concerns about security and user privacy***
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