Windows 10 Clean Install, what does it delete?

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  1. Posts : 15
    Windows 10 Pro 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #11

    No problem, happy to help. I have got a laptop which I upgraded from Windows 7 Home premium to Windows 10 the other day which I don't use that much and only have a couple of programs on so going to test on there to see if pressing remove everything does in fact do what it says it does. I'm normally used to booting off a usb or a dvd and installing fresh that way so completely new to the idea of doing it in Windows, will mess around and see.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 276
    Windows 10 Insider Program, Linux Mint 19, Arcolinux, MX-17
       #12

    Clean Install After Upgrading Windows 8.1 Pro


    Ztruker said:
    You must do an upgrade first, that's how MS determines if you are running a qualifying OS. Once you have activated Win 10 upgrade, then you can do a clean install.

    It will delete everything from your boot (C: ) drive, nothing else.
    I wanted to test whether or not the activation would carry through to the clean install and it did! I used the MS Windows 10 Pro ISO and booted with it to complete my clean install. During installation I was asked for a key twice which I just skipped and activation occurred without a problem.

    Rich
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 15
    Windows 10 Pro 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #13

    Just as an update, I decided to take the move to Windows 10 today. Was going to do it later on but had nothing else to do so thought I might as well go for it.

    Instead of upgrading Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 (keeping everything) and then selecting the option of 'Remove Everything' in Recovery after Windows 10 is in installed, I decided to fresh install Windows 8.1 first. I created a bootable Windows 8.1 USB, selected my SSD during setup and formatted it so there was nothing on there. After fresh installing Windows 8.1 (and making sure it was activated), I grabbed my Windows 10 Pro USB and ran the setup.exe on the USB in Windows. It took ~20 - 30 minutes from running the setup.exe file to having my desktop running Windows 10 Pro. I am now running Windows 10 Pro 64bit (activated) with no programs and I have just deleted a load of stuff of my storage drive aswell, so basically it is like a clean install.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 14,046
    Windows 11 Pro X64 22H2 22621.1848
       #14

    That is probably the best and fastest way to get to a Clean Install of Windows 10, way to go!
      My Computers


 

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