How To Clean Install Windows 7 From Upgrade Disc

Sometimes, the best way to set deep-seated Windows issues is to burn everything to the ground and start from scratch. Reinstalling Windows refreshes the operating arrangement, which gets rid of almost abuse, errors, and viruses. Microsoft has tried to make this process easier with the Refresh and Reset features starting with Windows 8, only power users withal might consider a skillful ol' format and make clean install. A clean install using a stock Windows disc or flash drive also gets rid of programs and bloatware installed from the factory.

If you take reward of Microsoft'southward gratuitous offer to upgrade Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 to Windows 10, the default method is an in-place upgrade. This sounds user-friendly since it's supposed to go on all your files and programs intact, but as an It professional person I've seen many issues ascend from this upgrade method, such as organization slowness, errors, and other strange behaviors. A clean install of Windows 10 requires more effort, but eradicates all those potential headaches too as any lingering bloatware on your PC.

Upgrading to Windows ten via a clean install is much easier since the big Version 1511 "November update," which allows you lot to clean install Windows 10 and activate it using a Windows vii, 8, or 8.1 product key. Before this update, you had to practise an in-place upgrade in guild to get the free upgrade offer from Microsoft, and and so y'all could do a make clean install of Windows 10. Now you can skip the in-between step.

Performing a clean install the right way takes some pre-wipe prep work in order to preserve your files and other saved data, though. Here's everything y'all need to know, step-by-stride.

Get a backup drive

To salvage your files and data, you need some type of backup drive, which could exist an external USB hard bulldoze, a USB wink drive if information technology's big enough, or even a secondary internal hard drive if your PC has i.

Further reading: If we testify you how to back up your PC for free, will y'all finally practice it?

If y'all're backing upwards to a secondary internal bulldoze, be sure it'southward physically a dissimilar drive than your main bulldoze. Drives can be partitioned and so they appear equally dissimilar drives in Windows but are really the same physical bulldoze. If yous save your data to a partitioned space, y'all could lose the data when doing the clean Windows install. So if you're unsure what you have, use an external hard drive or wink drive.

Back up personal files and documents

First, back up the usual user folders, which is where you likely have stored all or virtually of your personal files and documents. Go to the Users directory of Windows—typically C:Users. Hither you'll see a folder for each Windows user as well every bit a Public folder. You lot may run into multiple user folders fifty-fifty though y'all have one Windows user; cheque each folder.

Here are the usual folders you should see for each Windows user business relationship.

Also scan through your main hard drive (typically the C drive) to see if you've saved any personal files or documents in unusual places.

Prep programs for reinstall

Consider making a list of all the installed programs you want to reinstall subsequently the clean Windows installation. To refresh your retentivity on what programs you take currently installed on your PC, take a look at your Start Menu (or Start Screen in Windows 8 and 8.ane) or navigate to Control Console > Programs > Programs and Features.

Further reading: Your new PC needs these 15 free, excellent programs

For each program, figure out how y'all'd reinstall it. Is it offered free via its website? If you purchased it, practice you have a disc or tin you log in to the site where yous purchased it to download once more, and do you have any required product fundamental to actuate it? You'll desire to respond these questions before wiping out the programs during a clean install.

For commercial software you've purchased, such as Microsoft Part or Adobe Photoshop, you may exist able to retrieve the production keys stored on your figurer using a tool similar ProduKey or Magical Jelly Edible bean Keyfinder. Later reinstalling Windows, you may exist able to download a setup file or a trial of the same version of the software and and then activate it using that retrieved product key. Some software, such as Microsoft Office 2013 and afterwards and some antivirus programs, allows y'all to log into its website to download the setup file and become the product key.

Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder allows you to save the product keys for many programs.

Y'all tin can get more details on how to download and reinstall Microsoft Office from the Part website.

For each program, bank check to meet if you lot demand to save or export additional data for restoration after you reinstall Windows. Some programs also store data in the cloud, which typically allows you lot to but log in to restore your information after reinstalling the software on your clean Windows build. For instance, Chrome and Firefox each allow you to sync your data to an online profile. The syncing stores your bookmarks, saved passwords, and settings online.

If you don't utilise your spider web browser's syncing option, you may desire to manually relieve your bookmarks earlier wiping your arrangement. Cyberspace Explorer'due south bookmarks are saved in the Favorites folder of your user directory, which we already discussed how to back up. Likewise consider exporting your saved passwords if you're non utilizing a browser sync option. WebBrowserPassView is a quick and easy way to round up passwords stored by all the popular browsers.

WebBrowserPassView can listing and save all the passwords stored by most web browsers.

If you have Windows 8, 8.i, or 10, consider signing into a Microsoft account if you haven't already. Microsoft accounts let yous sync your Windows apps (moderns apps, not traditional applications) and their settings, your Windows theme, your Internet Explorer settings, your saved passwords, and other miscellaneous Windows settings across multiple computers. Signing into Windows after the make clean install with that aforementioned Microsoft account should restore these settings, making restoration a breeze.

If you use a desktop email client program such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla's Thunderbird, take a wait at the server settings of your email accounts. If they're set upwards as IMAP, your messages are likely stored on the email server. If they're setup as POP3, however, the emails are downloaded to your estimator and may not be stored on the server. In other words, you'll desire to salvage or export the emails for accounts using POP3. For either method, make annotation of the incoming and outgoing server addresses and settings. If you've forgotten the email server passwords, you can use a utility similar Mail service PassView to recover them.

Mail service PassView can quickly reveal your saved passwords for electronic mail client applications like Outlook.

If y'all accept games and would like to salvage your settings or games, either search online almost how to back up and restore private games, or use a utility similar GameSave Manager to perform backups on multiple games.

Back upwards your drivers

After a clean install of Windows, the drivers for your hardware must be reinstalled. In Windows 8 and 10, most drivers are reinstalled automatically past Windows. In Windows 7, yous'll likely take a couple drivers y'all must manually reinstall before all hardware is working correctly.

Though PC manufacturers typically allow you to download hardware drivers from their websites, sometimes it'southward hard to identify exactly which ones y'all need. So consider bankroll up your current drivers before performing a clean install or upgrade—especially if it's Windows vii—using a utility like DriverBackup!. You lot can and so restore the drivers, if needed, after the clean install, or just utilize the list of saved drivers to identify which drivers you demand and download the most up-to-date drivers from the manufacturer's website.

DriverBackup! tin can dorsum upwardly/restore all drivers, or those for OEM or third-party hardware just.

Download Windows and obtain a product cardinal

Before you lot can practice a clean install of Windows you need to create the installation media—a disc or flash drive you lot can boot from to run the setup—if you lot don't already have information technology.

You can download Windows 7, 8.1, and 10 directly from Microsoft and and follow the directions to create the disc or flash bulldoze. Currently, Microsoft doesn't announced to offer a download for the first version of Windows 8. If yous have a Windows 8 central, retrieve information technology won't activate eight.1, so upgrading to Windows 10 might exist the easiest pick if you lot don't accept a Windows 8 disc.

Michael Male monarch

A product fundamental sticker on a Windows 7 PC.

Make sure you lot have a valid production primal for the particular Windows version and edition you're make clean installing in order to activate Windows afterwards. For Windows vii computers, await for the Windows product key on a label physically somewhere on the computer. If yous tin can't find the sticker, the product key recovery tools discussed before can as well retrieve the Windows product key stored on your estimator.

Starting with Windows viii, product key stickers aren't placed on the computers. For Windows eight and 8.1, the Windows cardinal is typically stored in the BIOS of the calculator, which means Windows should automatically find and use the stored key even during make clean installs. I still suggest retrieving the stored key using a tool, also—just in case. For Windows 10, the production key or digital entitlement is stored on Microsoft servers and should be automatically downloaded if the computer was running Windows x prior to your clean install.

As mentioned before, if you're doing the free upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7, 8, or 8.1, you can at present clean install Windows 10 and actuate using your one-time Windows production key.

Fifty-fifty though the installation media for Windows viii is gratis, yous'll still demand a valid product central to install it.

That's it! You're done with the hard part. Now that all the prep work is washed, slapping your installation media into your PC and setting up a fresh Windows installation should be an easy-peasy stride-by-stride procedure. If your reckoner doesn't kick into the installation media when yous restart information technology, you lot may need to dive into its BIOS settings and alter its kick society, or press a cardinal during the boot procedure to access a kick menu and cull a kicking device other than your primary hard drive.

One terminal annotation: If you're prompted for a product key for any reason when clean installing whatever Windows version, I advise inputting it then,not skipping to practice afterward. If there's an effect with the key—maybe you chose the wrong Windows edition or an OEM central isn't working—you want to know earlier y'all accident away your electric current Windows installation.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/420004/how-to-clean-install-windows-the-right-way.html

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