How to Install Windows 10 — Quick Tutorial

In this tutorial, you can learn how to install Windows 10. You may want to install Windows 10 for different reasons, for example:

• You have a new computer with no operating system installed
• You have a previous windows version already installed
• Your current windows 10 installation is faulty, corrupted, or useless because of system errors, malware, or slow performance.
• You need a clean Windows installation to start again.

(About 2 hours to complete a full installation) 2 hours.

How to install Windows 10

1. Download a copy of the current Windows 10 ISO image
2. Go to https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10ISO to select a specific version and language for your Windows operating system. Also, you need to select the right architecture, 32-bit or 64-bit. In general, 64-bit is the right option for any modern system.

1. Transfer the image into a USB Drive
2. Since most of the new computer devices don’t have an optical DVD drive to burn the image, and that one is more than the regular 4.7 GB limit. The best option is to install Windows from a USB flash drive. Follow the instructions from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/install-windows-from-a-usb-flash-drive to mount the image, format the USB drive and copy the contents of the ISO image into your USB drive. In this example, D: is the mounted image drive and E: the USB drive
   Powershell Mount-DiskImage
robocopy D: E: /s /max:3800000000
Dism /Split-Image /ImageFile:D:\sources\install.wim /SWMFile:E:\sources\install.swm /FileSize:3800

1. Boot your system from the USB Drive
2. In this step, you may need to go to the BIOS options to make sure your system can boot from USB. Follow the instructions from your specific system to enable this feature. This article is a good tutorial to start if your machine does not boot into the USB Drive automatically after restarting your PC.

1. Select the installation preferences
2. Select your preference for system language, localization, and keyboard to start the process.

1. Start the Installation process (or repair)
2. The next window is to start the installation. Also, you have available some “Repair” options if you experienced any issue with your current setup (boot and filesystem repair, for example). If everything is ok, just press “Install Now”

1. Enter your product key (optional)
2. In this step, you can enter the Windows 10 product key. If you already purchased your computer with Windows 10, the product key could be found at the bottom/rear of your computer. If you don’t have it. No problem, you can omit this step by pressing “I don’t have a product key” (Then you can enter this information after installing your system)

1. Select the Windows 10 version to install (optional)
2. In some cases, you will be prompted to select a specific windows 10 edition. If you have a product key, you probably need to select the same edition of your purchased license, otherwise, the product key will be invalid. If you are not sure, you can view this comparison about Windows 10 Home and Pro to check the specific features.

1. Select the installation option:
2. You can choose to Upgrade if you have any existing windows installation, keeping current files in your system and move any existing windows installation to a backup folder) or just Install windows (for a first installation or if you want to perform a clean install)

1. Setup new partitions for a new installation (optional)
2. If you have a new hard disk, you need to allocate space and create a new partition(s) to install Windows: press “New” and select the drive size you want (default is the full size). Additional space will be created for boot resources.
   After creating the new partition you need to format the unit. Press “Format” and select “NTFS” as the filesystem.

1. Select the partition and start the Windows installation
2. If you already have an active installation of windows, you can select the same drive to install windows. Any existing file will not be deleted. In case you have another drive with enough space to install windows (> 20GB) you can select it if you want.
   In case you want to start a totally clean installation, format the drive using the NTFS filesystem before installing.

1. Follow after-installation instructions
2. After finishing the copy of the windows installation files, the system will restart and you will be prompted to select a region (country), keyboard layout, a second keyboard layout (optional), and set up for personal or corporate use (optional)

1. Create or use tour existing Microsoft account (optional)
2. If you already have a Microsoft account (eg: Outlook, Skype, OneDrive) you can use it. Also, you can create a new account.
   If you select this option, you will be prompted to use your existing online password to access your computer. Otherwise, select the option “Offline account” mode in the bottom-left corner and go to step 13.

1. Create an “Offline” local account (optional)
2. This option allows you to create a simple username and PIN to access your computer. First of all, select “Offline account” from the previous step window. Then select the option ‘Limited experience’ in the next window.

1. Then you could create your local username and password in the next screens.

1. Also, you will be prompted to enter some security questions and
2. Select privacy Options
3. In the next screen you can select to deactivate some privacy options to remove some features. Feel free to deactivate any option you don’t want to use.

1. Enable Cortana (optional)
2. Also, you will be prompted to activate Cortana as your personal voice assistant. Press Accept to enable it, or “Not Now” to skip this step. After this step, the system will finish the installation.

1. Transfer old files to your new profile (optional)
2. After the last setup steps, you will have completed the Windows installation process. If you have a previous windows installed before. You may want to transfer your old files (eg: Desktop, Documents, Downloads) to your new installation.
   You can find the old windows installation in C:\Windows.old\ folder.

1. Inside you could find Users\MYUSERNAME\ to copy all or part of the content to your current Desktop or Documents folders