Upgrade or Clean Install....?

rezpower said:

You definitively have to update first. Once this is done you can go for a clean install.
The clean install is easy if windows finds all your hardware. What gets things a little
harder for some is when you have unknown devices in your device manager :)
For this you should lookup device ids and search to see what it is and get latest driver
from manufacturer site.

Thanks for your reply. Try telling that to a non-technical user and this is the colour they turn.....

T.

You can upgrade directly then, go to start -> settings -> update & security -> recovery
under the Reset this PC, click on "Get started" to reset your Windows.
However, I was upgraded my Windows 7 and 8.1 to Windows 10 and running smooth without problems.

Go the upgrade if you don't already bought 10. If you already bought 10 then fresh install.

Sorry, a tutorial to do a clean install? Well, here it is: First upgrade to Windows 10 either using the Windows update routine or by downloading the iso using MS media creation tool (link in these forums or can be found by google). Wait until Windows 10 is activated, then use the acquired iso (burn it to a dvd first if you haven't done already, then boot from it) to do a clean reinstall like you have always done with any Windows installation CD/ DVD. A Tutorial for that, really?

altae said:

Sorry, a tutorial to do a clean install? Well, here it is: First upgrade to Windows 10 either using the Windows update routine or by downloading the iso using MS media creation tool (link in these forums or can be found by google). Wait until Windows 10 is activated, then use the acquired iso (burn it to a dvd first if you haven't done already, then boot from it) to do a clean reinstall like you have always done with any Windows installation CD/ DVD. A Tutorial for that, really?

Yes really. The Tutorial is for when things go wrong..... not for when things work like they are supposed to.

As a technical person, when computer "stuff" goes wrong I either fix it or read up info on how to fix it. But if a person is non-technical with very limited knowledge of the workings of computers then even small things can completely throw them into a spin.

One of the biggest problems that technical people have to deal with (myself included) is how to explain to non-technical people how to do something; what an error message may or may not mean; what to look out for......

Explaining these things is called a Tutorial. Where those with knowledge can present that knowledge to those without knowledge in a manner that is comprehensible.

T.

Tabvla said:

Yes really. The Tutorial is for when things go wrong..... not for when things work like they are supposed to.

As a technical person, when computer "stuff" goes wrong I either fix it or read up info on how to fix it. But if a person is non-technical with very limited knowledge of the workings of computers then even small things can completely throw them into a spin.

One of the biggest problems that technical people have to deal with (myself included) is how to explain to non-technical people how to do something; what an error message may or may not mean; what to look out for......

Explaining these things is called a Tutorial. Where those with knowledge can present that knowledge to those without knowledge in a manner that is comprehensible.

T.

Thank you. As a non-technical person, I need all the help I can get. I'm planning to get a new laptop (with Win 8.1 pre-installed) and plan to upgrade it to Win 10 before I actually start using it. So I'm looking around the forums to see how to do a clean install properly (never done one before and I really don't want to mess up a new laptop). There's only so much Googling one can do, and when you bring stuff like partitions and drivers in, I get a headache.

So yeah, it would be awesome if there was a tutorial for laypeople like me.

Have a look around the tutorials dash. Windows 10 Tutorials

Akane said:

If you want to get free windows 10 offer you need to upgrade first and after that you can do the clean install

otherwise your windows 10 will not active.

so i guess i'll just have to format the ssd again. but by doing that will it erase the already activated free upgrade of windows 10?

or is that something the motherboard has in some memory?