Reformat upgraded win10 laptop

Good day!

I have a laptop that started with Windows 8. Then I upgraded to 8.1 then to 10 after the update was offered. However, I hate the bloatware included with the laptop for it takes quite some time for the laptop to be fully functional (normal Asus bloatware + VPN + Spyder calibration software).

I could buy an SSD to make it boot faster but budget does not permit me at the moment. I was thinking I would reformat my laptop to remove the bloatware but the thought of losing my license made me think twice.

What would be the best step to reformat my laptop while maintaining the license? Downgrade to 8 then upgrade to 10 or is there a process to install Win10 immediately?

If it's been upgraded to 10 already then the Microsoft servers will already know the Windows 10 hash for it , you should be able to just clean install and when asked for the licence number , skip it and it'll be activated automatically.

Is there a way to know what my license number is? Laptop is not with me at the moment so I could not check it. I believe it still has the sticker where the license is printed at. Does it retain the old license or a new one is made when I upgraded to Win10?

Second question, what would be the best step in reformatting the laptop? Is there an option in Win10 where it would reformat and come back immediately to Win10?

jaypels said:

Is there a way to know what my license number is?

Run showkey plus from this forum:
Showkey - Windows 10 Forums

jaypels said:

Does it retain the old license or a new one is made when I upgraded to Win10?

You get a digital entitlement for Windows 10 that is stored on Microsoft activation servers. A new install of Windows 10 of the same version (Home/Pro) on the same computer (motherboard, really) will activate itself by retrieving that digital entitlement from Microsoft activation servers.

jaypels said:

Second question, what would be the best step in reformatting the laptop? Is there an option in Win10 where it would reformat and come back immediately to Win10?

The best way to do a completely clean install is:

1. Create a Windows 10 USB flash drive (you will need an 8 gb flash drive for this) using the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool:
Windows 10

Scroll down to Download Tool Now. When you run the Media Creation Tool select the option for "Create installation media for another PC". Insert the 8 GB (or more) USB flash drive and let the Media Creation Tool make the Windows 10 Installation media. You probably want 64-bit Windows.

2. Export your computer specific drivers to the USB after the Media Creation Tool finishes making it. Make a new folder the flash drive called Drivers or whatever you want to call it. Then right click on start icon, select Command Prompt (Admin), and in the command window run the following command:

dism /online /export-driver /destination:E:\Drivers

The part in red is the drive letter and path to the folder you created on the USB flash drive. Then type exit to get out of the command window.

3. Reboot the computer from the USB flash drive. With the USB flash drive inserted, from the power icon on the start menu either select restart or hold down the shift key and click shutdown. When the computer restarts (or you turn it back on) there will be a specific key to press for your computer to enter a menu that picks what you want to boot from. You'll have to google it. On my computers it ESC, F9 or F12 depending on which computer. It could be the DEL key.

4. If you boot from the USB flash drive, you should be presented with Windows 10 install. If you are asked for a product key, click on "I don't have a product key", "Skip", or "do this later." Be sure to pick the same version of Windows 10 that you have now, Home or Pro if it asks you. When you get to the Upgrade or Custom Install choice, select custom install.

5. You will then be presented with a list of partitions on the hard drive. Click on each one and then delete. This will erase your entire hard drive! Anything you have not backed up previously will be gone forever. When you have only unallocated space left, click next to let Windows 10 create it's own partitions and install.

5a. On some computers, when it reboots during the install, it will reboot into the flash drive and you will get the initial Install Windows 10 setup screen again. If that happens, just pull out the USB flash drive, cancel the install by clicking the X in the upper right corner to close the setup window and let the computer reboot to the hard drive without the USB flash drive inserted. You can also watch for that first reboot message that says rebooting the computer in 10 seconds and pull the flash drive out during the countdown.

6. When Windows 10 is all done, and it has done all the updates, then right click on start icon, select device manager and see if you have any unknown devices or hardware with exclamation points. Right click items one by one and upgrade the device drivers. If the choice to automatically upgrade does not work, then choose the manual upgrade and just point it to the Drivers folder on the flash drive you created and let it get the previous drivers saved there.

NavyLCDR said:

5. You will then be presented with a list of partitions on the hard drive. Click on each one and then delete. This will erase your entire hard drive! Anything you have not backed up previously will be gone forever. When you have only unallocated space left, click next to let Windows 10 create it's own partitions and install.

5a. On some computers, when it reboots during the install, it will reboot into the flash drive and you will get the initial Install Windows 10 setup screen again. If that happens, just pull out the USB flash drive, cancel the install by clicking the X in the upper right corner to close the setup window and let the computer reboot to the hard drive without the USB flash drive inserted. You can also watch for that first reboot message that says rebooting the computer in 10 seconds and pull the flash drive out during the countdown.

Thanks for the detailed answer. Very much appreciated. I just have a clarification, do I need to delete all partitions? Or can I just delete the partition with Windows installed (Drive C)? I have a 1TB HDD on the laptop and I divided it into 3 partitions.

You should delete all partitions that are not partitions that you created specifically to hold data. Yes, you can leave data partitions alone.. Hopefully the data partitions are at the end of the disk and not in the middle.

NavyLCDR said:

You should delete all partitions that are not partitions that you created specifically to hold data. Yes, you can leave data partitions alone.. Hopefully the data partitions are at the end of the disk and not in the middle.

I'd like to clarify further. My drive is divided into 3 parts. C = Windows drive. D = temporary files. E = long term files (files also synced to Dropbox). Can I just delete C and not touch D & E?

jaypels said:

I'd like to clarify further. My drive is divided into 3 parts. C = Windows drive. D = temporary files. E = long term files (files also synced to Dropbox). Can I just delete C and not touch D & E?

If you are sure of C being the boot partition and holding the OS, yes.

The ideal situation for install would be to back up your data and turn all into a single unallocated space for W10 to install, you could then break it apart into another data partition afterwards and restore your data, install apps, etc.

Got it! Thank you for all the help!