Upgrading to windows 10 how to fresh install

[Nexxus]

So im in the process of upgrading my gaming machine to win 10, I was wonmdering how can I fresh install windows, I know that  I need to upgrade 1st, thus why im making this thread now.

Note I AM NOT talking about refreshing, I want to fully reformat the drive and put windows back on it since this windows installation has some permission issues that I cannot fix and I dont wanna run into them again.

[STRMfrmXMN]

So im in the process of upgrading my gaming machine to win 10, I was wonmdering how can I fresh install windows, I know that  I need to upgrade 1st, thus why im making this thread now.

Note I AM NOT talking about refreshing, I want to fully reformat the drive and put windows back on it since this windows installation has some permission issues that I cannot fix and I dont wanna run into them again.

Make a bootable flash drive, delete the drive partitions on your C drive you want gone (all of them) and then make sure to install EFI format.

 

Done.

[Agazed]

You need a USB stick or blank CD you can burn to. Download their upgrade tool here and select USB or CD and it will write Windows 10 to selected media.

[Nexxus]

Make a bootable flash drive, delete the drive partitions on your C drive you want gone (all of them) and then make sure to install EFI format.

 

Done.

 

 

You need a USB stick or blank CD you can burn to. Download their upgrade tool here and select USB or CD and it will write Windows 10 to selected media.

I should have been more clear.

 

My Main issue is with the activation process. I know windows 10 generally handles this stuff automatically now, but im just worried if I wipe the drive and try to reinstall windows its gonna give me an "eh I dunno, buy a key"

[STRMfrmXMN]

I should have been more clear.

 

My Main issue is with the activation process. I know windows 10 generally handles this stuff automatically now, but im just worried if I wipe the drive and try to reinstall windows its gonna give me an "eh I dunno, buy a key"

If you do an upgrade and have never had a pirated copy of Windows on your PC ever then you're good. What I mean by this:

 

I have had both a legal copy of Windows 7 and an illegal (sort of) copy of Windows 8.1 on my machine. I currently use the legal copy of Windows 7 as Windows 10 had issues on my system but when I had Windows 10 I did the following:

 

Had Windows 7 on machine. Did a fresh install of Windows 10 instead of an upgrade. I get the notification that my copy isn't legal. Well this is because I have a copy of Windows 8.1 I use exclusively for Macrium Reflect which has saved me a few times. It used to be a legit key but since Windows 8 has issues on my system (same ones W10 has) I ended up de-activating it so the key could be used for another PC later. So this is why W10 told me I had an illegitimate copy of Windows - I sort've had. So I ended up doing a fresh install of Windows 7 then upgrading to 10 so a legit key was tied to my motherboard. Later, as I mentioned I reverted back to 7 as 10 has issues for me but I now have a legitimate key tied to 10.

 

So basically, if you've ever had an illegitimate copy of Windows on your machine then that's of concern.

[Nexxus]

If you do an upgrade and have never had a pirated copy of Windows on your PC ever then you're good. What I mean by this:

 

I have had both a legal copy of Windows 7 and an illegal (sort of) copy of Windows 8.1 on my machine. I currently use the legal copy of Windows 7 as Windows 10 had issues on my system but when I had Windows 10 I did the following:

 

Had Windows 7 on machine. Did a fresh install of Windows 10 instead of an upgrade. I get the notification that my copy isn't legal. Well this is because I have a copy of Windows 8.1 I use exclusively for Macrium Reflect which has saved me a few times. It used to be a legit key but since Windows 8 has issues on my system (same ones W10 has) I ended up de-activating it so the key could be used for another PC later. So this is why W10 told me I had an illegitimate copy of Windows - I sort've had. So I ended up doing a fresh install of Windows 7 then upgrading to 10 so a legit key was tied to my motherboard. Later, as I mentioned I reverted back to 7 as 10 has issues for me but I now have a legitimate key tied to 10.

 

So basically, if you've ever had an illegitimate copy of Windows on your machine then that's of concern.

I always buy my OSes. Im just paranoid something is gonna get lost in translation so to speak when the OS came out I was looking into things like key extraction and what not just to be safe but ya seems to not be necessary, but I dunno how much of those kinda things are based off a "refresh" rather then a "purge" of windows

[STRMfrmXMN]

I always buy my OSes. Im just paranoid something is gonna get lost in translation so to speak when the OS came out I was looking into things like key extraction and what not just to be safe but ya seems to not be necessary, but I dunno how much of those kinda things are based off a "refresh" rather then a "purge" of windows

You should be fine, just go through the EFI installation like I said. Definitely worth the extra 30 seconds it takes to speed up boot times and automatic driver finding within Windows.

[Nexxus]

You should be fine, just go through the EFI installation like I said. Definitely worth the extra 30 seconds it takes to speed up boot times and automatic driver finding within Windows.

mind explaining this EFI installation thing a bit? its the 1st ive heard of it tbh,

[STRMfrmXMN]

mind explaining this EFI installation thing a bit? its the 1st ive heard of it tbh,

All prebuilts have it. That's why you see the motherboard manufacturer's logo instead of the blue Windows logo.

 

Basically it makes everything faster to boot, shut down, restart, etc. Drivers, at least in my experience, are more easily automagically detected by Windows (hardware native ones like GPU drivers, USB 3 drivers, etc) though I'm not 100% sure this is something that actually happens.

 

Basically, what you need:

 

Make sure EFi-only is the boot option in your BIOS. No Legacy allowed!

When installing Windows so that it doesn't break itself, delete all drive partitions from your C drive in that menu when you can.

Then, when the C drive is clean, click on New. There will be some large number of megabytes listed. Just ignore that number and click Apply. there should now be 4 partitions on your C drive now.

Make sure "Primary" is the drive selected and continue the installation as per normal.

[Nexxus]

All prebuilts have it. That's why you see the motherboard manufacturer's logo instead of the blue Windows logo.

 

Basically it makes everything faster to boot, shut down, restart, etc. Drivers, at least in my experience, are more easily automagically detected by Windows (hardware native ones like GPU drivers, USB 3 drivers, etc) though I'm not 100% sure this is something that actually happens.

 

Basically, what you need:

 

Make sure EFi-only is the boot option in your BIOS. No Legacy allowed!

When installing Windows so that it doesn't break itself, delete all drive partitions from your C drive in that menu when you can.

Then, when the C drive is clean, click on New. There will be some large number of megabytes listed. Just ignore that number and click Apply. there should now be 4 partitions on your C drive now.

Make sure "Primary" is the drive selected and continue the installation as per normal.

mkay, unfortinately im at an impass and cant proceed cause windows doesnt wanna activate for...reasons keep getting some error code

[STRMfrmXMN]

mkay, unfortinately im at an impass and cant proceed cause windows doesnt wanna activate for...reasons keep getting some error code

You can install Windows 10 without a product key you know.

Not sure I quite understand your problem.

[Nexxus]

You can install Windows 10 without a product key you know.

Not sure I quite understand your problem.

it wasnt activating I dunno how else to explain, anyways I turned off my windows firewall manager and its activated.

[STRMfrmXMN]

it wasnt activating I dunno how else to explain, anyways I turned off my windows firewall manager and its activated.

Well GG!