▷ Reinstall windows 10 [step by step]

If you are looking for a tutorial on how to quickly reinstall Windows 10, you are in the right place. Windows has many options for system recovery in case of critical system failures. But we must also admit that many times these are not very helpful, it usually happens quite often that the 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 new copy through a system update.

Index of contents

So let's see what we have to do to reinstall 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 the different preparations to be able to reinstall the operating system.

Create a drive with a copy of Windows

Obviously, to be able 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.

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.

If you don't know how to create a bootable USB with Media Creation Tool visit this tutorial:

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, or what 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 ". Then we click on properties and at the top it should come out 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 should reinstall Windows with the same version that you currently have.

Set BIOS to boot from USB

Finally, we must ensure that our equipment is capable of booting from a USB or DVD drive rather than from the hard drive. In this way we can start the bootable USB created to reinstall Windows.

To configure the BIOS properly visit this quick tutorial:

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 we can select which one we want to start. So we will choose the USB and the installation will begin.

Reinstall Windows 10

Once the preparations have been made, it is time to start the installation. For this we will go step by step during it:

• We insert the storage device with the copy of Windows inside the computer. We start it and access this unit. The system installation wizard will start. We must first select the language of installation On the next screen we choose " Install now "

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

• The next thing to 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 is 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 get the tool for creating partitions and choosing the installation directory. Here we must take into account a number of things for its correct use.

• If we want to do a new installation, but if we want to save the files 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 stored. Inside it will be among other things our files

• We can also delete all the partitions there are or make them again as we want. For this 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, the normal thing is that there is only one with a partition, or two, one smaller and one larger. Possibly the smallest is for the system and the largest for files.

Once these customization actions are done, we end up clicking “ Next ”. The installation will begin. Windows will restart twice until the new configuration wizard appears. During this process we should not touch anything.

After the installation , 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. Directed 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 within it previously.

To delete the folder we will only have to select it and with the combination of keys " Shift + Del " we will definitely delete it 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 it's time to install your favorite programs and leave everything ready to use it.

Maybe 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 manner what we should do. If you have had any problem or question, just write it in the comments.