Need to reinstall the program of Windows 10 Pro 64-bit edition

imcanadian · 11 Dec 2018

What I would like to know before doing to reformat the hard drive and reinstall the operating system of Windows 10 Pro 64-bit edition. Should I write down my activation key from Settings > System > About folder. But am not sure which one to write down and all I see are two. Here is below:

Device ID with the letters and numbers across xxxxxxxx - xxxx - xxxx - xxxx - xxxxxxxxxxxx

Product ID with five digits in each four boxes like xxxxx - xxxxx - xxxxx - xxxxx

Let me know which one to write down then I will start to reformat and reinstall the operating system of Windows 10 Pro 16-editon.

Thank you,

John

Ztruker · 11 Dec 2018

They are not your installation key. That key is buried in the registry. Since you now have a legally activated Windows 10, you don't need to worry about the key as it's stored on a Microsoft server and will be automatically retrieved when you do the reinstall.

Do you need to do a Clean install which includes formatting the partition or can you do a reset which can either leave your files intact and just replace Windows 10 or you can elect to remove everything which is much like a clean install.

See this tutorial by Shawn Brink: Reset Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials

imcanadian · 11 Dec 2018

Thank you Rich for the tutorial and will use the tutorial for clean install of my desktop. Will use the tutorial on my laptop so I can follow step by step with clean install on my desktop.

John

Ztruker · 11 Dec 2018

John, to do a true Clean Install, follow this Tutorial: Windows 10 - Clean Install

I think the Reset select not to save anything is just as good, maybe even faster over all.