Clean Install Windows 10  

thomaseg1 said:

A simple Clean install wiping the partitions would be easier, no need to clone. Download MCT (Microsoft Creation Tool)
Burn an usb key and boot to it , choose cleaning the partitions it will do all the work for you.

Aaah I see. I can use the MS creation tool to create an installation for another PC. Great I will look into that. Thanks

Delete all Windows partitions, which will become a single unallocated space as shown below. Click on "Next" to start the installation.

thomaseg1 said:

A simple Clean install wiping the partitions would be easier, no need to clone. Download MCT (Microsoft Creation Tool)
Burn an usb key and boot to it , choose cleaning the partitions it will do all the work for you.

Thanks a lot. I downloaded Windows 10 from MCT in the USB. Replaced the HDD with the SDD and then installed it on the SSD. Took an hour. Reduced start time from 15 minutes to 10 seconds. Windows activated as soon as it started.

I still have the Win Update problem so am stuck on 19042.388 since July/August 2020 like a number of other users. My PC is still running all my programmes and data is not corrupted so I am just following up different suggestions from time to time. In the meantime I have used the Media Creation Tool to prepare a USB stick with the Win 10 install. But one thing puzzles me!

When running the install I am advised to scrap all installed programmes and settings. I understand the probable necessity to do that, but how does the new install find all the drivers for my particular machine?

Tony

By the way, I know that the build I have came from something called Developer Channel. What I don't know is how that happened. I had never heard of it until a week or so ago and certainly never manually installed anything from that. I tried to put a message on an Insider Forum that seemed to have something to do with it, but my message was never answered except for being moved to Microsoft Community. When I tried to check back with Insider I got a response that I was not registered there!

Snugglebugs said:

how does the new install find all the drivers for my particular machine?

My Windows Updates MiniTool will find driver updates. See below:



Source: WAU Manager says "Install in Progress" days later ?

Matthew Wai said:

My Windows Updates MiniTool will find driver updates. See below:

I wasn't referring to driver updates.-What I meant was, how does the Win 10 install find all the drivers that originally came with the machine? Are they in a hidden file somewhere that does not get deleted when a clean reinstall is done?

Tony

To my knowledge, clean installation will delete all previous files whether they are hidden or not. That is why the installation is clean.

Matthew Wai said:

To my knowledge, clean installation will delete all previous files whether they are hidden or not. That is why the installation is clean.

That is what I understood. So what is the mechanism that finds all the drivers that were originally installed when the machine was first switched on and Win 10 installed? Either it is still on the machine "hidden" or a programme in the Win install media manages to find and download them? No?

Tony

Windows 10 uses the “Device Driver Retrieval Client” module to silently download and install device driver updates without any user input when there’s an active internet connection.

Source: Topic: How to stop Windows 10 driver updates? @ AskWoody


"Device Driver Retrieval Client" = "DeviceDriverRetrievalClient.dll", with which Windows comes.

C:\Windows\System32\DeviceDriverRetrievalClient.dll