Windows 10 - clean install vs upgrade?

[Perixx]

alright, so I'm planning on upgrading to Windows 10 from 8.1 on my pc. Should I just upgrade to Windows 10, keeping all my data and such, or backup all my stuff to an external hard drive, do a clean install, and then put all my stuff back on? What would be the benefit of a clean install? I've seen many people saying to do so, but why?

[Exploded117]

[xTrekStorex]

clean install is always the best way to go.

it will not leave any registry keys or temp files behind, there will be no mess of unknown files that even windows forgot what they were and no one knows if you should delete them, you have no old drivers that can cause issues etc etc.

Windows10 doesnt introduce a new version of the NTFS filesystem so that isnt an argument but overall if you can backup your data, do the fresh install. a lot less problems.

[Perixx]

First upgrade, copy the serial key with ProduKey and then do a clean install, it will take some time but I guarantee it will work much better.

Do you have a Link to produkey?

[Perixx]

Here's the direct link:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/produkey-x64.zip

No need to install it, just open the program once you upgraded and take pic of the screen.

Thank you so much. Do you have any suggestions going about backing up my files to an external hard drive? Would the plain ol' drag and drop method be sufficient or is there a better way?

[Speaker1264]

First upgrade, copy the serial key with ProduKey and then do a clean install, it will take some time but I guarantee it will work much better.

 

You actually don't need the serial key at all.  The serial is the same between all windows 10 machines, I believe.  My desktop and my laptop had identical serial keys after doing the upgrade.  Instead, windows determines if you have a valid windows 10 license by authenticating the hardware attached to that system.  You still need to do the upgrade process to do the initial authentication of the hardware, but after that you are good.  When you get to the windows key prompts you just hit skip and it will validate automatically once you load into windows.

 

Windows 10 keys are just for people who purchase a new copy of windows, because they either have no OS since it is a new computer, or don't have windows 7/8 and cannot upgrade.