Windows 10 Pro - USB vs Official Download

Berton said:

My recommendation for using GPARTED is because it boots to a 'lite' version of Linux and does its work outside of Windows and offline, puts a drive back to the condition it shipped to market, nothing on it then let Windows or other OS do its thing in a clean install.

So does booting from the standard Windows USB flash drive, opening a command prompt and running the diskpart clean command - and with just a single flash drive that will do both, erase the drive back to manufacturer shipped condition and then continues to install Windows. Why would I want to boot from two separate flash drives, when I could accomplish the same tasks just booting from a single flash drive once?

Also, when you get to this screen:


If you delete each partition until you get down to 1 single unallocated space, it also accomplishes the same thing.

Berton said:

My recommendation for using GPARTED is because it boots to a 'lite' version of Linux and does its work outside of Windows and offline, puts a drive back to the condition it shipped to market, nothing on it then let Windows or other OS do its thing in a clean install.

I am considering getting Partition Wizard SSD Clean Wipe and then changing the BIOs to boot from USB and then install Pro 10 from the memory stick. I ordered a sealed retail box off ebay and should recieve it Tuesday or Wednesday and customer service told me to call back Monday on return directions for the mistakenly sent DVD.

Get my $250 back and spent $80 for the sealed box from a highly reputable seller.

- - - Updated - - -

And while I am at it I might as well reinstall the BIOs from the HP site before wiping the drive.

Sapien 1 said:

I am considering getting Partition Wizard SSD Clean Wipe and then changing the BIOs to boot from USB and then install Pro 10 from the memory stick. I ordered a sealed retail box off ebay and should recieve it Tuesday or Wednesday and customer service told me to call back Monday on return directions for the mistakenly sent DVD.

Get my $250 back and spent $80 for the sealed box from a highly reputable seller.

I spent $5 on a cheap thumb drive that will do everything yours does. In fact, it's better because I can update it at any time

hsehestedt said:

I spent $5 on a cheap thumb drive that will do everything yours does. In fact, it's better because I can update it at any time

Thats cool but the collector part of me needs the official item. I can however always get both.

Sapien 1 said:

Thats cool but the collector part of me needs the official item. I can however always get both.

The problem is I doubt anyone has official Windows 10 media for sale anymore. All sellers can do is download the ISO files from Microsoft and make media from that. The only official thing they can do is hopefully provide an official Product Key. Since you can make the media yourself buying it is unnecessary to buy it.

I built my first Windows 10 computer in 2017. If I would have bought official media for it then I would never use it again because it is outdated now. I just reinstalled Windows 10 a month ago. I used the Media Creation Tool to make a flash drive with Windows 10 21H2 which is the latest release of Windows 10.

Gone are the days when people need to buy Windows media. All you need is the Product Key and then make a flash drive with the latest release.

If @Sapien 1 wants to have an official, read-only, Microsoft original flash drive of Windows 10, and the associated carboard box it came in as a "collector's item" them more power to him or her. I kind of wish I still had my TRS-80 Model 1 computer as a collector's item. However, if @Sapien 1 thinks that the USB flash drive included has some magical powers to fix his/her problems with the current computer and corrupted files, then obviously it is a waste of money.

To @Sapien 1 - I hope you realize that the collector's value of the Microsoft Retail Boxed Windows 10 is increased if you leave it unsealed and in original condition - which is what I would recommend you do as a "collector". But if you want to unseal the box and use the flash drive inside to re-install Windows 10, then you are completely wasting your money. But, it is your money to dispose of how you see fit.

cereberus said:

Yep, I am still amazed after 6 years, people still do not understand how Windows 10 works.

The days of using one's original W7 dvd and then doing zillions of updates (often getting more updates to updates) has long gone.

Windows XP had 3 service packs and Windows 7 had 2 service packs. For some it made sense to slipstream in any service packs if needed. For example, if you bough a CD with Windows XP with SP2 it sped things up if slipstreamed in SP3 and burned a new CD. That was beyond what most people knew how to do so they stuck with the original disk and installed or reinstalled with it.

With Windows 10 major updates came twice a year until starting with this year when there will be one major update. It save a lot of time to always start with the latest release and make your own USB flash drive. For example, if you bought either a DVD or flash drive with Windows 10 in 2018 and installed it today you would have a long wait for it to complete four years worth of updates. If you started with the latest release 21H2 you would have at most 10 months of updates.

Microsoft has made it fairly easy for the average person to make the media for the latest release of Windows 10. Anyone that doesn't take advantage of that is just making more work for themselves.