Can I Install Windows 10 On My Computer

Now change the boot order to put the device you want to boot from first; this will be DVD or USB, depending on your installation media type. Bootable USB flash drives are sometimes listed as hard disks. If this is the case you'll need to set 'hard disk' as the first boot option, then go into the hard disk boot order sub-menu and put your USB boot disk at the top of the list. Find and select the Save and Restart option or equivalent.

Your PC should now boot into the Windows 10 setup program - you may see a message to 'press any key to boot from USB', so do so. The installation process of Windows 10 has two main parts, including the setup and out-of-box experience . The out-of-box experience happens after the setup is complete, and it's the stage where you'll configure your settings, such as region, network, account, privacy, and other settings. If you are using bootable installation media to perform a clean install on a PC that has never been upgraded to Windows 10 and activated, you will need to enter a product key. You can enter a product key from Windows 10 or from a matching edition of Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1. Residents of the United States who don't own a qualifying Windows license can skip entering a product key and purchase a license online from the Windows Store after setup is complete.

If you don't have a boot override menu, you'll need to go into the BIOS or UEFI Setup program, which is where you change some of your computer's more low-level settings. The right key to enter Setup varies from PC to PC, but is usually Delete, F2 or F10, and you'll need to press it almost immediately after you turn your PC on or restart it. If you look carefully, you may see the relevant key displayed onscreen as the computer turns on. Some more modern laptops, such as certain Lenovo models, have a special button to enter the Setup program, which you'll most likely find next to the power switch.

Setup menus vary widely in look and layout, but all follow a similar logic, so if you look carefully you'll be able to find all the options we mention in this guide. After you complete the steps, repeat the instructions to backup the remaining accounts . Upon initiating a Reset, Windows will give you options for saving, or not, the user data and personal files you've saved on your PC since you began using it.

However, the Reset process always deletes installed applications – that is, any software that didn't come with the Windows 10 OS. If you don't want to reinstall your personal software, consider fixing your system by reinstalling Windows 10 using installation media . The Reset process returns the operating system to factory-install condition using a "recovery image" . The recovery image is created when Windows 10 is first installed and saved in a discrete portion of the hard drive, so you don't need installation media to use the Reset option.

You don't even need an Internet connection, although you do need a decent amount of free disk space, since the stored image must be maintained throughout the process. Whether your PC came with a Windows 10 license or you previously took advantage of the free upgrade offer, you won't need to enter a license key during this process. Your Windows 10 license will be automatically acquired from your PC's hardware or via Microsoft's servers. The second option is that you're trying to install Windows from a USB flash drive or DVD, but you created the installation media without the proper permissions. To change that, download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and locate it on your hard disk. Right-click it and select Run as Administrator.

Follow the wizard through as before and re-create the installation media. You should now be able to install Windows 10. This method is available when your PC cannot boot properly. It will use a tool to create installation media, which you can use to completely wipe the disk and install a fresh copy of Windows 10. If you don't want to use a CD or DVD, you can use a USB, SD card, or external hard drive. If you decide to change a hardware component of your Windows 10 PC, you should not run into issues with your PC's digital entitlement .

Your Windows digital license is the unique signature that is given to your PC by Microsoft and stored on Microsoft Activation Servers. If you upgraded from a previous Windows version to Windows 10, the license you were previously running is exchanged for a diagnostics product key. If you are a current Windows 10 user and you want to upgrade your PC's hard drive, you should be able to do it without any issues with your Windows 10 digital license. However, there are many other ways to restore a crashed computer without sacrificing this disk space. First of all, you can always use an existing restore point or full system backup to get back to where you were right before the crash.

If you don't have a backup and need to start from scratch, you can create a Windows 11 or 10 install USB by downloading and using Microsoft's own installation media tool. If you have a laptop or even most OEM desktops, your original Windows key will already be recorded in your BIOS. And, if you don't have a key, you can always get Windows 10/11 for Free or Cheap. This is a somewhat controversial recommendation so consider your options. Most laptops and pre built desktops come with a recovery partition that eats up at least 20GB of disk space. The point of these recovery partitions is to enable you to get back to a factory state if your computer becomes unbootable, perhaps even stuck on a blue screen of death.

This factory state is not just a clean Windows 11, but one with all the drivers and preloaded software the computer came with. Usually, you can invoke these from some kind of emergency menu before boot. On Windows 10, a clean installation defines the process to wipe out the hard drive and start from scratch with a new setup when the device is having problems. For instance, this method can resolve memory, startup, shut down, apps, and performance issues. In addition, a fresh install can improve battery life, and it's perhaps the best approach to eliminating viruses and other types of malware.

First make sure you have a full backup of your data since will be installing on top of the existing data. You can download the Windows 10 media from the Windows 10 .iso download site and then set the computer to boot from the flash drive. Typically, I find this is often the hardest part of the process — finding the combination of keys that allows you into the bios to force the system to boot from the flash drive. If you already have a backup of the device and files. The computer is configured to start from a USB flash drive, and non-essential peripherals are disconnected.

Then you can skip this part and jump to bootable media creation and a clean install process. Also, your most important personal files should always be backed-up to external storage (USB drive, DVD, cloud account, etc.). Even though multiple reset/reinstall options promise to preserve your data, unexpected problems can sometimes occur.

And while you can reinstall your favorite software and redefine your application settings, personal photos and business files may be irreplaceable. Windows 10 should install without a hitch, but driver problems are a possibility and, during any system update, there's always a chance something will go wrong. This free download allows you to create a bootable USB flash drive directly. Windows Setup will now ask you to activate Windows by entering a product key. If you've already purchased Windows 10, enter the key, otherwise click on "I don't have a product key" to move forward. You can activate Windows after the installation.

But if you don't provide a product key, the setup will ask you to choose which Windows 10 version you want to install. Pick the one you're planning to buy as you won't be able to change it later. Once you complete the steps, the computer will start from a USB flash drive to proceed with the clean installation process. The process for installing Windows 10 on a new computer without an operating system is exactly the same as it would be if you were doing so on a computer with an operating system.

The only caveat to that is that you need the installation media, whether that's a Windows 10 disk, or a bootable USB drive with Windows 10 installation files loaded on it. Getting that can be a little harder without an active PC. After you complete the steps, Rufus will download the ISO file from the Microsoft servers, and it'll create the bootable media to perform a clean install of Windows 10.

Before you can install Windows using a USB, you need to create the installation media itself. This will be read by your computer once the USB flash drive is connected, allowing it to boot from USB. Below are the steps to create this bootable USB flash drive using the Media Creation Tool issued by Microsoft.

When you finally get to the Windows 10 desktop, connect to the network and allow a bit of time for Windows 10 searching for drivers for your hardware. The screen resolution may be wrong but will be all right after drive update. And you will have to manually transfer your files and install the apps once Windows 10 is installed. If you have a 4GB or larger USB flash drive or a blank DVD handy , you can create your own Windows 10 install disk. Having your own disk allows you to run the upgrade on multiple computers without waiting an hour for a fresh download.

You also have the option of doing a clean install or running the upgrade a second time if you run into problems later. Here's how to create a Windows 10 install disk. Beginning with version 1903, Microsoft began offering feature updates for installation separately from security and reliability updates. The company says these updates will not be downloaded or installed automatically unless the current version is at or near the end of its support window.

Can I Put Windows 10 On My Computer For more details about these changes, see "Windows 10 Home edition users are big winners as Microsoft overhauls its update process." If you are running any unmanaged edition of Windows 10 using default settings, these feature updates are delivered through Windows Update. In versions prior to 1903, feature updates download and install automatically. You can schedule the installation for a more convenient time or postpone it for a few days, but you cannot delay the update indefinitely. After running the Media Creation Tool, choose Create installation media for another PC. By default, the pre-selected options choose an architecture (32-bit or 64-bit) that matches that of the current PC.

Open the drop-down list shown here if you want to choose a different architecture or download an ISO file that includes both architectures. There are so many touch keys on the keyboard for wifi, sound etc which some times works and some time don't work. The scroll area on touch pad also doesn't work. If you have an OEM computer (e.g., Acer, Dell, HP, etc.), the computer will not have a genuine Windows CD, DVD, or USB thumb drive. Instead, you would reinstall Windows and the software using a hidden partition or a set of restore discs.

The steps mentioned on this page would still work, but you'd need a copy of Windows. You can borrow a friend's Windows disc, as long as it's the same version of Windows that came with the computer and have a product key. On the next screen, you'll have to select the hard drive on which you're going to install Windows. Most people here will just get one hard drive, but if your computer includes two hard drives, select the one on which you want Windows to be installed on. Rule of thumb is to select the faster one if you have multiple hard drives.

At this stage, you can also create multiple disk partitions on your computer if you want. If you do end up creating multiple partitions, select the one on which you want to install Windows and click on 'Next' to continue. Once you are in the UEFI/ BIOS settings, navigate to the boot section and change the order to take your installation USB drive to the top.

Your computer will now automatically start using the new boot order and the Windows 10 setup will kick off. Some computers, depending on the motherboard manufacturer, may allow you to directly select the boot order without jumping around in the UEFI/ BIOS settings. If you wish to run both macOS and Windows on a single Mac computer, UITS recommends using Apple's Boot Camp utility to install Windows 10 on your Intel-based Mac. Once you complete the steps, if Windows Update finds any updates, it'll automatically download and install them. A restart may be required to complete the update process.

To boot from USB, you need to change the boot order in your computer's BIOS. Because CD and DVD disks are becoming less practical, many computers and laptops no longer come with a drive to read and write physical disks. This makes it impossible for you to create or use an installation media unless it's on a bootable USB drive.

While this may sound impractical at first, USB sticks have a huge advantage over disks. If your PC is not performing properly, an operating system reset or reinstall may be what you need. Fortunately, Microsoft makes it easy to reset or reinstall Microsoft Windows 10.

There are several options that allow you to preserve your personal files, installed software and so on. Or, if circumstances warrant, you can start from scratch – like you're using Windows 10 for the first time. Based on step 5 above, when it prompts "Which type of installation do you want?", you should select "Upgrade" to keep your files and settings. If you select "Custom", you will have a clean installation and all of the files and settings of your previous version of Windows will be cleaned. Microsoft offers several ways to download Windows 11 manually. One is to use the Installation Assistant app, which you install on your PC to trigger a normal upgrade install via Windows Update.

The second is to use the Windows 11 Media Creation Tool, which automates the process of creating a bootable USB install drive or downloading an install ISO file. Once you have a USB drive, you can either boot from it to perform a clean install or run the Setup app from within Windows 10 to do a normal upgrade install. You can also burn the ISO to a DVD, but installing from any USB drive, even an old USB 2.0 drive, will be much faster, so you shouldn't do that. Finally, you can just download an ISO file directly from Microsoft's site. You first need to make sure your computer is set to boot from your DVD drive or from USB.

Insert your DVD or USB installation disk and restart your PC. You may find that your PC has a special boot override menu, which you can access with a key such as F10; look out for the message while your computer starts. If this is the case, press the key as soon as the message is displayed, then select your DVD drive or USB stick to boot. After a fresh install, it's the best time to create a factory image and you can set a scheduled backup task to track changes you made later. After that, you can use this freeware to backup files, partition, or entire disk for data protection. As a professional disk clone software, it also has the ability toclone disk to larger disk, clone larger HDD to smaller SSD, clone only OS, etc.

Option is available for only ten days after installing Windows 11. If you perform a disk cleanup, refresh, or reset in Windows 11, you do not have the option to go back. If you have deleted the windows.old file from your computer, you do not have the option to go back. If your installation required an external USB flash drive, you must connect the same USB flash drive to your computer to go back. If your computer has less than 128 GB of free hard drive space, you are prompted to connect a USB flash drive to continue with the installation. Use a blank USB flash drive that is 32 GB or larger.

When the installation is complete, Windows 11 Upgrade copies the windows.old file to the USB flash drive. The file is required if you decide to revert to the previous operating system. Before you install Windows 11, install updated drivers, software, and BIOS, and then create recovery media and back up your data. You might also need to decrypt your hard drive. No matter which method you use, to reinstall Windows 10 without losing data, it is recommended to back up your important files before starting a reinstallation. We suggest using the professional PC backup software for Windows 10/8/7, MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial Edition, to back up files or folders with simple steps on the desktop or in WinPE.