How to do a clean installation of Windows 10 (and keep the license activated)

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A very common question for those who want to upgrade to Windows 10 is how to perform a clean installation of the new operating system, in order to enjoy a fresher experience and get rid of unhelpful applications and crapware remains on our PC at once."

By clean install we mean getting the same experience you would get if you installed Windows 10 directly from a DVD or USB drive to a disc new or formatted hard drive.

This is not so difficult in principle, but complications can arise, mainly regarding the activation or validation of the Windows license Remember that to use Windows 10 for free, the installer must be able to verify that we have a valid Windows 7/8.1 license, and when doing a clean installation there may be cases that process fails.

That is why here we will teach you the procedure to avoid 100% of this risk, and make a clean installation successfully.

Step One: Upgrade from Windows 7/8.1

To ensure we can activate Windows 10 after the clean install we have to first install the system using upgrade mode or upgrade , from a correctly activated Windows 7/8.1. For this we have to follow the steps detailed in this other tutorial.

It is important to first install Windows 10 via upgrade as this will activate the system using Microsoft's new online activation platform, and the identification information of our team will be permanently associated with the edition of Windows 10 that corresponds to us.This will then allow us to reinstall Windows 10 on that computer, even formatting the hard drive, as many times as we want.

This applies even if we participate in the Insider program Although when installing the preliminary builds of Windows 10 from Windows 7/8.1 the system remains activated, Microsoft does not guarantee that this state will be maintained when doing a clean installation on a computer that reached the final version of Windows 10 by updating Windows Insider builds, so it is appropriate to return to Windows 7/8.1, activate the system, and there upgrade to Windows 10 RTM.

Second step: verify that Windows 10 is correctly activated

Once we have already installed Windows 10 through the update mode, we must verify that the activation has been carried out correctly The normal thing is It may complete during or shortly after installation, but in some cases there are issues that slow the process down.

To check the activation status you have to go to Settings > Update and security > Activation, and there should be the message Windows is activated, and also indicate which edition of Windows 10 we own (it can be Home or Pro).

"If Windows 10 is not yet activated (and for example, the message Connect to the Internet is displayed) it is probably because the Microsoft activation system servers are saturated, so we will have to wait a couple of hours (we can speed up the process by repeatedly pressing the Activate button)."

Third and final step: Reinstall Windows 10 using a clean installation

If Windows 10 is already correctly activated, it means that we can now do a clean installation of the operating system, erasing all the current content of the disk Lasted.It is worth saying that before doing so we must make a backup copy of all the files that we want to keep (Windows 10 itself allows us to do this in Settings > Update and security > Backup).

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Then go to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery, and click the Get Started button>"

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A box like the following will appear, in which you have to choose the option Remove all (the option Restore factory settings> "

Finally we can only wait. The end result will be a Windows 10 installation completely fresh, and activated forever.

Alternative: Clean Install Using a DVD or USB Drive

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The Reset PC option in Windows 10 makes unnecessary having to resort to a DVD or USB drive to return the system to its pure and original state, but if we prefer to do things the old way>"

To do this, we also have to comply with steps 1 and 2: upgrade to Windows 10 from a valid copy of Windows 7/8.1, and then verify that Windows 10 is correctly activated. You also have to make a backup copy, but we must also write down or remember the following information well:

• What is our edition of Windows 10 (can be seen in Settings > Update & security > Activation)
• What is the architecture of this edition: 32 or 64 bit (can be seen in Configuration > System > About > Type of system)

Then you have to download this tool from the Microsoft website, and start it. We will be shown a screen like this:

In which you have to choose the second option: create an installation medium for another PC ( although in reality we are going to use it on this same PC). Click Next , and we will be asked to select the language, architecture and edition:

In language we simply choose the one that best suits us, but it is VERY IMPORTANT that in Edition (Home or Pro) and Architecture (32 or 64 bit) we choose the alternatives that correspond to our activated version of Windows 10, or else activation will not work properly after clean install.

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You will be asked to choose between creating a USB installation drive, or a ISO file If we opt for the ISO image, then we will have to burn it to a DVD. Windows 10 allows you to do this without resorting to external software, so it should be enough to right-click the file, and select burn."

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It only remains to restart the computer and boot from the DVD or USB drive, start the installation. After a while we will be asked what type of installation we want: Update or custom The second is the one that corresponds to a clean installation, although its name may be misleading . We will also be asked for a password, but we must press Skip, since the equipment will be activated automatically afterwards. From then on the process is totally intuitive."