The Windows 10 Clean Install Thread

[anon(8032808)]

You have to upgrade from 7 or 8 (Or Windows Insider maybe) to Windows 10. Then you should have an activated key (which is generic by the way, we all have that same key, Microsoft activates based on your hardware in their cloud). Once you're there, you can clean install how you wish.

 

[Prathameshk]

You have to upgrade from 7 or 8 (Or Windows Insider maybe) to Windows 10. Then you should have an activated key (which is generic by the way, we all have that same key, Microsoft activates based on your hardware in their cloud). Once you're there, you can clean install how you wish.

I think i need samsung support center
Because after installation of w10 it disabled my recovery partition so i cant recover and also somewhere i read that after u install w10 (clean install)on oem u will unable to access ur previous recovery partition and also u will not able to activate w10 so i think there is only one solution samsung support center

 

[a5cent]

I think i need samsung support center
Because after installation of w10 it disabled my recovery partition so i cant recover and also somewhere i read that after u install w10 (clean install)on oem u will unable to access ur previous recovery partition and also u will not able to activate w10 so i think there is only one solution samsung support center

No you don't. You can download a W8 or W7 ISO from MS and install that, then start over with the update procedure as MS intended.

 

[Prathameshk]

No you don't. You can download a W8 or W7 ISO from MS and install that, then start over with the update procedure the way it's intended to be done.

But i read that oem key dont work on the other isos
Is that true?please reply me so i'll downlaod the iso now

 

[a5cent]

But i read that oem key dont work on the other isos
Is that true?please reply me so i'll downlaod the iso now

I have no idea why that shouldn't work. I've done it a few times on my wife's HP Ultrabook which contains the OEM license key in its UEFI BIOS. Worked fine.

 

[Prathameshk]

I have no idea why that shouldn't work. I've done it a few times on my wife's HP Ultrabook which contains the OEM license key in its UEFI BIOS. Worked fine.

Ok i'll try after i download the iso file...and thanxx for reply...hope so this will work fine if all things goes right...

 

[Jan Ernemyr]

Same for me,,

 

[WindowsX]

We're all making it far more complicated than it actually is. All you need to know is this:

1. You can't activate W10 without a valid W10 license key!

2. You can acquire a valid W10 license in one of two ways:
a) purchase a W10 license key online or through retail
b) upgrade your older W7 or W8.x license key to a W10 license key

2b is the tricky one! Doing this requires that you start with a genuine and activated W7 or W8.1 installation and then go through the online in-place upgrade process at least once! It doesn't matter if this happened before the 29th with an insider preview version of Windows, or after with the RTM version. It just must have occurred. This creates a new W10 license and associates it with both your hardware and your MS account. All that is stored in the cloud.

Without having gone through that process, your MS account has no record of your hardware being associated with a W10 license. If you do a clean install, Windows will ask you for a key during installation. All you'll have is your older license key and that won't be accepted as a valid substitute for a W10 license.

So if I skipped the upgrade process (tried to go straight to a clean 10 install from an ISO image), I need to go back to windows 7 and reactivate it, go through the upgrade process and make sure it gets activated and associated with my MS account, THEN I can try a clean install and hope all goes smoothly from there?

Can I do the "official upgrade" from the ISO disk I have by simply choosing the "upgrade" option instead of "custom" or whatever it was that I chose?

 

[AndresFelipe38]

I just did the clean install after upgrading, the activation remains.

 

[James8561]

Had activated Win7pro on desktop. Upgraded to win10pro. did clean reset deleting all files. now I'm running fresh win10pro activated no issue

 

[iamtim]

So if I skipped the upgrade process (tried to go straight to a clean 10 install from an ISO image), I need to go back to windows 7 and reactivate it, go through the upgrade process and make sure it gets activated and associated with my MS account, THEN I can try a clean install and hope all goes smoothly from there?

Yes.

 

[a5cent]

So if I skipped the upgrade process (tried to go straight to a clean 10 install from an ISO image), I need to go back to windows 7 and reactivate it, go through the upgrade process and make sure it gets activated and associated with my MS account, THEN I can try a clean install and hope all goes smoothly from there?

Yes. Ehem... one minute too late Thx Tim!

Can I do the "official upgrade" from the ISO disk I have by simply choosing the "upgrade" option instead of "custom" or whatever it was that I chose?

I have no idea what the term "official upgrade" means.

If you're asking if it's possible to do an in-place upgrade using DVD or USB installation media, the answer is "yes".

 

[Grimlock]

It doesn't matter if they were reserved or not, it only matters if they were upgraded. If you didn't do the in-place upgrade through the icon on a given machine, Windows 10 won't activate on that machine. Once you do the in-place upgrade through the icon, then Windows 10 will activate.

Not true- I activated two of the machines without the in-place and by using the ISO (as many others have). But I wonder if had something to do with using my MS account, because I did not login on the third machine and used a local account.

Today I was able to get the third machine to activate by using the win 10 media creation tool and doing the in-place upgrade.

 

[Lumious]

This has been a HUGE disaster/pain in the *** for me. I'm like THIS close to reverting all my devices to Windows 8.1 Pro and just staying there. At least I had an OS that was fast and didn't have to deal with all these headaches. So everything went fine with upgrades from 8.1 to 10 on every device. One of them I had to force the upgrade through media creat. tool. But, I don't want an upgraded version of 8.1 to 10 with all the old files, partially deleted crap, and programs etc, etc, etc. I, like most us, want a nice clean installed Windows 10 that's fast and snappy like its brand new. So yesterday I tried to do a reset on my laptop since I figured hey that shouldn't be a problem, its an option that is included in windows 10, why wouldn't it work. I got to 99% and I got the BSOD with face saying "your pc ran into a problem and will reboot now: error no bootable device" So now I was screwed and had to reinstall Windows 8.1 from scratch which im currently on right now. I figured something went wrong, or this is just because this computer is so old (2009). So I have windows 10 installed on my main pc from an upgrade, and again its slow bc of the upgrade. So I tried this process but only selected to reset and just delete files (not clean the drive) this time. Same problem, windows ran into a problem and got stuck on a continuous reboot cycle. Now I am installing 8.1 pro on my main pc from scratch. On my surface pro 2 im downloading the Media creat tool so hopefully I can install windows 10 from scratch and because I went through the upgrade process on both PCs already it should magically activate. But somehow I highly doubt that's going to happen. If not then I will have to reinstall 8.1 pro AGAIN and just stay there because im not settling for an upgraded version of windows 10 that I cant clean install nor reset or refresh. ugh.

(note: I asked @surfacesupport on twitter about clean installing windows 10 on SP2 and they said the only path supported is upgrade and I will run into activation issues if I clean install. I clarified that I already upgraded and want to do it for performance reasons, again they repeated, upgrade is the only possibility.)

 

[iamtim]

Not true- I activated two of the machines without the in-place and by using the ISO (as many others have). But I wonder if had something to do with using my MS account, because I did not login on the third machine and used a local account.

Today I was able to get the third machine to activate by using the win 10 media creation tool and doing the in-place upgrade.

It probably does have something to do with your account, then.

All I can say is what I've read, and what I've seen on the 5 machines around me running Windows 10 (2 of which I installed, 2 of which my co-worker installed, 1 of which my step-son installed). Which is... if you do an in-place upgrade, Windows 10 will be activated on that machine. You can then do a clean install from installation media, skipping every prompt for a CD key, and your clean install will also then be activated.

It's not supposed to work any other way; if, for some strange alignment of cosmic circumstance it does, consider that a fluke and a bonus and be happy.

 

[Lumious]

There are no prompts for a CD key when doing an in-place upgrade via windows update or choosing upgrade now in the media creation tool, I think you mean if you install from a CD or USB you have to skip the prompts there.

 

[EL620]

Direct upgrade from windows 8.1.
All I did was mounted the ISO, Load the windows 10 setup, Skipped updates and didn't keep any files.
My windows 8.1 key was replaced with the insider pro key but windows remained activated. (checked with key finder)
Preview builds off. (successful clean upgrade)

 

[krague17]

It will only prompt for the key if you do a clean install from USB or DVD that deletes your original Windows partition. But if you did the Win 7/8 to 10 upgrade you can just skip through when it asks for keys and it will automatically be activated when you log in the first time. What I'm not sure of is if you have to log in using a Microsoft ID or if you can do it with a local account.

I also would think to do a real clean install with reformatted partition your Windows key would have to be stored in the BIOS for it to know while it's installing. The installation USB/DVD won't take your old Windows 8 or 7 keys during the installation and it seems the key that is provided after activating Windows 10 is a generic key. Does anyone know what to do if your key isn't embedded in the BIOS?

 

[krague17]

I think some people are confusing "Clean Install" with something else.

A clean install is when you either have a new hard drive with no partitions or you delete and recreate the partitions during the installation - reformat. A clean install will not contain any old folders or files on the drive.

If you run the Windows 10 insallation while logged into Windows 7/8/10 it will install new copy of Windows 10 but will keep your old Windows files around under a windows.old folder and put the installation files into another folder. It won't delete/reformat the old windows partition like a real clean install. You will still end up with a fresh copy of Windows without any previous programs, personal files, or drivers but it will also have some folders that will remain after that will take up a lot of space. This should be fine for most people unless you need the disk space.

The other method is to do a "Reset" through the Recovery section of the Settings screen. This will give you the option of keeping your personal files but will wipe out all previously installed programs, drivers, and settings. This will result in a fresh version of Windows 10 but will put your previous files in a windows.old folder.

Just remember that in order to do an official clean install where your drive or previous Windows partition is reformatted you will need to have an upgraded Windows key. The only way to upgrade your key so it works for a clean install of Windows 10 is to do the upgrade from Windows 7 or 8 first. Hope this helps some people.

 

[iamtim]

There are no prompts for a CD key when doing an in-place upgrade via windows update or choosing upgrade now in the media creation tool, I think you mean if you install from a CD or USB you have to skip the prompts there.

Right, my mistake. I edited my post above. Thanks.