Clean installation of windows 10

If what you are looking for is a tutorial on how to Clean the installation of Windows 10, you are in the right place. Windows has plenty of options for system recovery in the event of critical system failures. 

But we must also admit that many times these are not very helpful to us, it usually happens quite often that restore points fail, that we do not have previous versions of Windows or different combinations that in the end result in the need to reinstall Windows 10 in a fresh copy through a system update.

So let's see what we have to do to  Clean the installation of windows 10 step by step and in detail. We will explain how to do a clean installation of the system with a bootable USB.

Preparations before reinstalling Windows 10

First, we will have to make various preparations to be able to reinstall the operating system.

Creating a drive with a copy of Windows

Of course, in order to install the operating system from 0, we will need a clean copy of it. We recommend creating a bootable USB with Windows 10 using the free Windows Media Creation Tool. You can download it from here.

RUFUS

It is a very simple process to do and requires practically no explanation. In addition, through this tool, we can download Windows 10 for free. Although of course, although once installed on our computer, we will need to put a password if we wish, in case our computer does not have a pre-installed key in the BIOS, for a specific version.

Know what version of Windows my computer has installed

This section is important if our PC was purchased with Windows 10 pre-installed. In this way, we will know whether it is activated, as well as which version is activated on our computer. 

In this way, when we reinstall a new copy of Windows of the same version, it will be perfectly activated without the need to buy another license.

To see what version of Windows we have, we must open the file explorer and right-click on "This computer". Next, click on properties and at the top, it should show what version of Windows 10 we have.

At the bottom, we can see if it is also activated or not.

We recommend that if you do not want to buy a new activation key for Windows 10, you reinstall Windows with the same version that you currently have.

Configure BIOS to boot from USB

If we have a UEFI type BIOS (with graphical interface and mouse) we can also try to press the "F8" or "F12" key directly on some laptops just when starting the computer. It will seem like a menu with the installed devices so that we can select which one we want to start. So we will choose the USB and the installation will begin.

Once the preparations are made, it's time to start the installation. For this we will go step by step during it:

• Insert the storage device with the copy of Windows into the computer.

• Start the same we access this unit

• The system installation wizard will start. We must first select the installation language

• On the next screen, we choose "Install now"

• Next, the window to insert the Windows key appears. We owe it to "I don't have a product key"

• The next thing we must do is select the version of the system that we want to install. As we said in the preparation section, it is advisable to choose the same version that we had installed and activated.

• The next thing that will appear will be a window indicating if we want to "Update Windows" or "perform a custom installation". We will have to choose the second option since if we choose "Update" the following message will appear.

In the next window of the wizard, we will see the tool for creating partitions and choosing the installation directory. Here we must take into account a series of things for its correct use.

• If we want to do a new installation, but we want to save the files that we have on our system, what we must do is select the partition where the system is installed and click "Next". Windows will automatically create a folder in this partition called "Windows. old" where the operating system that we had so far will be housed. Inside it will be among other things our files

• We can also delete all the partitions that exist or make them again like us that

we must play with the buttons "New", "create" and "delete". For this, we must know what hard drives we have and how they are partitioned, normally there is only one with a partition, or two, a smaller one and a larger one. Possibly the smallest is for the system and the largest for files.

Once these customization actions have been carried out, we finish by clicking "Next". The installation will begin. Windows will restart twice until the new configuration wizard appears. During this process, we should not touch anything.

Once the installation is finished, the Windows 10 first configuration wizard will appear. If you want to know more about this configuration wizard, we have another tutorial where we can do it. Go to the section "First configuration of Windows 10"

Windows. old file recovery and folder deletion

After installing and configuring Windows 10, if we previously chose to install Windows on the same partition where it was installed, we will have the opportunity to recover our personal files from it.

• For this, we are going to open the file explorer and we are going to go to the local disk C:

• There we will see a folder called old. If we enter it, we will see the typical Windows folders.

• If we access the "Users" folder, we will have at our disposal the files that we had inside it previously.

To delete the folder we will only have to select it and with the combination of keys "Shift + Del," we will delete it definitively since it will take up a lot of space.

Another way that we will have to eliminate it is through the tool to free up disk space. For more details visit the corresponding tutorial.

You already have your operating system installed again, now you have to install your favorite programs and leave everything ready to use it.

Perhaps these tutorials will help you.

Everything went well? As you can see, reinstalling Windows is very simple, as long as we know in an orderly fashion what to do. If you have had any problems or questions, you just have to write them in the comments.