Clean install of win 10 after free upgrade?

By BorgDroneX
in The Fast Ring (Insider Previews)

 Share

Recommended Posts

Proficient

Cask1

Posted
Posted

Once it is upgraded, you can reactivate from an iso as many times you want, login with Microsoft account or not, I have tested with the RTM build and suspect it is the same behavior from upgrades coming next week.

 

I have tried on on my SP3 which was on the insider program and on another laptop that was on windows 8.1. Once upgraded successfully Microsoft register you HW id and you can reactivate as much as you want from a clean install.

Grand Master

offroadaaron

Posted
Posted

Basically, to start fresh and get rid of garbage.

 

 

What garbage are you talking about? You realise when you upgrade it's basically a fresh install these days, has been for ages now. It just moves your personal stuff aside, installs the OS and puts your stuff back (your profile). There really isn't much point in doing a clean install, people are just obsessed with doing it for some reason.

Veteran

Depicus

Posted
Posted

What garbage are you talking about? You realise when you upgrade it's basically a fresh install these days, has been for ages now. It just moves your personal stuff aside, installs the OS and puts your stuff back (your profile). There really isn't much point in doing a clean install, people are just obsessed with doing it for some reason.

 

Not correct, upgrades keep old registry settings which may no longer be needed and I'm sure other **** so a clean install will always be a better option.

Grand Master

+Anarkii Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted

What garbage are you talking about? You realise when you upgrade it's basically a fresh install these days, has been for ages now. It just moves your personal stuff aside, installs the OS and puts your stuff back (your profile). There really isn't much point in doing a clean install, people are just obsessed with doing it for some reason.

Even with the upgrade you will still get a 'windows.old' at the end of the upgrade process. This can be removed by doing a disk cleanup with admin privlidges to get rid of the previous windows installation.

BUT

It will still have alot of left over code even after that, so at that point he/she can do a clean install and retain activation or just do a system reset and keep nothing, which is basically a fresh install anyway. So for those of you worried bout activation, that would be the way i'd do it. 

Simply update whatever your on now to get the Windows 10 equivalent - then do a system refresh and keep nothing. Reboot, it will do its thing and boot you into a fresh activated Windows 10. Then just run disk cleanup to remove the empty windows.old folder as it can only be done with that program and ure good to go. Process takes all of about 20 mins if that.

Grand Master

chrisj1968

Posted
Posted

What garbage are you talking about? You realise when you upgrade it's basically a fresh install these days, has been for ages now. It just moves your personal stuff aside, installs the OS and puts your stuff back (your profile). There really isn't much point in doing a clean install, people are just obsessed with doing it for some reason.

 

well the last few windows OS'es would put your stuff when you upgrade into a windows.old folder. but clean install basically erases your entire drive. people like this because the system files are new and fresh and sometimes upgrades can do funny things even ruin your installation. If this mess is going the route it looks like, MS is going to get a kick in the nuts AGAIN for messing up yet another version of windows. I honestly think Bill gates should get his butt back in MS to straighten out this mess. since he left, it has been one windows failure after another. I just pray MS doesn't turn into the developer of call of duty and continue to throw trash at us. Somethign will happen with windows 10 it appears by my intuition and I hope I'm wrong but, what'll happen to MS if this 10 .iso file issue doesn't materialize, and then people are forced to buy the OS @ $119 for basic or $199 for pro? I might be stuck with windows 8.1. used to be a lot of certainty in the past this close to release but with 10... are we left to guess what'll happen?

Grand Master

adrynalyne

Posted
Posted

so essentially MS lied per se? way back when they announced the release of windows 10 and that it would be "free" as un upgrade from windows 7 and 8/8.1, then they screwed us over by lying. what is actually happening is, there will be an upgrade through the reservation system or store but, no physical copy and license to reinstall should we have to. then we have to plunk down $119 for the basic release on a usb stick. 

 

My apologies to those who are loyal to MS but, once again MS is BS'ing the consumers. eventually most people will have to do reinstalls for one reason or other, it happens. But now MS has ###### on windows phone users AND Windows 10 PC users unless there is a definitive .iso file to be had that one can install on a usb key with rufus. I'm beginning to think MS hates its customers on some level. They might NOT have out right lied but they sure are misleading us because this close to release day and here we are looking at each other and wondering..

Let the ignorance flow.

Grand Master

trek

Posted
Posted

so essentially MS lied per se? way back when they announced the release of windows 10 and that it would be "free" as un upgrade from windows 7 and 8/8.1, then they screwed us over by lying. what is actually happening is, there will be an upgrade through the reservation system or store but, no physical copy and license to reinstall should we have to. then we have to plunk down $119 for the basic release on a usb stick. 

 

My apologies to those who are loyal to MS but, once again MS is BS'ing the consumers. eventually most people will have to do reinstalls for one reason or other, it happens. But now MS has ###### on windows phone users AND Windows 10 PC users unless there is a definitive .iso file to be had that one can install on a usb key with rufus. I'm beginning to think MS hates its customers on some level. They might NOT have out right lied but they sure are misleading us because this close to release day and here we are looking at each other and wondering..

 

Did you even read the link you replied to? 

 

Please be aware that you cannot use the free upgrade offer to perform a clean install on first attempt. You must first upgrade from the qualifying version of Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 (whether you do it through Windows Update or using the .ISO file). Ensure the upgrade is completed successfully and then ensure that it is activated. You can then proceed to do a clean install by using recovery media or using the Reset function in Start > Settings > Update & Security > Recovery > Reset this PC (Get Started).
 
 
The upgrade will store the machine's hardware GUID with MS (if you login with an MSA you can see the machines registered at accounts.microsoft.com). Clean installs will automatically activate against it.
 
I already have a few VM and Surface activations in my MSA from the insider program.
msid-pc.JPG
Rising Star

Neu B

Posted
Posted

What garbage are you talking about? You realise when you upgrade it's basically a fresh install these days, has been for ages now. It just moves your personal stuff aside, installs the OS and puts your stuff back (your profile). There really isn't much point in doing a clean install, people are just obsessed with doing it for some reason.

That's not a clean install. That  is an upgrade.

Grand Master

chrisj1968

Posted
Posted

 

Did you even read the link you replied to? 

 

 
 
The upgrade will store the machine's hardware GUID with MS (if you login with an MSA you can see the machines registered at accounts.microsoft.com). Clean installs will automatically activate against it.
 
I already have a few VM and Surface activations in my MSA from the insider program.
msid-pc.JPG

 

 

don't worry I got my ESDtoISO! :D

Contributor

pinTero

Posted
Posted

Associating the motherboard ID or product key with your MSA sounds like a reasonable plan, UNTIL we bring up, what Gabe Aul said in the blog back in June:

 

 

 

Once available on July 29th, you do not need an MSA to upgrade Windows 10 on your Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 PCs if they are not receiving Insider Preview builds. You will not be required to use an MSA on new PCs that come with Windows 10 preinstalled or clean installed from media. Some features in Windows 10 do require an MSA to use, such as downloading apps in the Windows Store.

 

So how can something be tied to your MSA or Windows Store, if you presumably are not required to use MSA at all? It just doesn't add up.. 

According to Gabe, you can use your local account, never touch the Windows Store and it still should activate and somehow be later clean-installable. 

Guess we will see in 6 days, how it really works though..

Grand Master

trek

Posted
Posted

Associating the motherboard ID or product key with your MSA sounds like a reasonable plan, UNTIL we bring up, what Gabe Aul said in the blog back in June:

 

 

So how can something be tied to your MSA or Windows Store, if you presumably are not required to use MSA at all? It just doesn't add up.. 

According to Gabe, you can use your local account, never touch the Windows Store and it still should activate and somehow be later clean-installable. 

Guess we will see in 6 days, how it really works though..

 

The Activation and Hardware GUID pair is stored by MS. Hence why I said *if* the machine is logged in to using an MSA then it would be listed at accounts.microsoft.com. MSA not required for activation.  :)

Rising Star

Neu B

Posted
Posted

Oh nose, not putting your profile back... That's not clean enough! I'll have crazy bugs and stuff! Whatever will I do!

 

Seriously this clean install thing is hyped why to much... 

WOW! Why do you even care if people clean install? Does it effect your life that much?

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Posts

    • Tidal won't monetize AI slop music, company says

      By Steven P. · Posted

      I like Tidal, but it still does not control devices from the mobile/app and still no surround support. And yeah re: above comment I still get a lot of network errors and I am on a 4/4 Gbit Fiber connection.
    • Microsoft Edge gets tons of security features, including AI model that can see your screen

      By Riggers · Posted

      Aren`t "security features" and "AI model that can see your screen" a tad diametric!
    • Samsung, Amazon extend 990 PRO 2TB NVMe SSD deal beyond Prime Day 2026

      By hellowalkman · Posted

      Samsung, Amazon extend 990 PRO 2TB NVMe SSD deal beyond Prime Day 2026 by Sayan Sen Recently, we had Amazon's Prime Day 2026 sales wherein there were several great deals including on SSDs. One of those discounted components was the Samsung 990 PRO SSD as the 2TB variant of it was selling for $370, a very good price after a long time. Although that deal was supposed to expire today, Amazon has now extended that sale further (purchase link under the specs table down below). The 990 PRO is a PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD and still one of the fastest drives available today for under $400. Speaking of fast, sequential reads and writes are rated at 7450 MB/s and 6900 MB/s, respectively. The random throughputs for reads and writes are 1400K IOPS and 1550K IOPS, respectively. The 990 PRO is based on Samsung's 7th Gen V-NAND flash, and it too is TLC. It packs 2 gigs of LPDDR4 DRAM cache, which helps the random performance. The endurance rating for this is 1200 TBW (terabytes written), which should be sufficient for most users. The Samsung 990 PRO is compatible with the PlayStation 5, but if you are going to use the 990 PRO on a PC, check out the Samsung Magician app that lets you track your drive's health, update its firmware, customize various settings, and more. The technical specs of the Samsung 990 PRO 2TB are given in the table below: Specification Value Form Factor M.2 2280 Interface PCIe Gen 4.0 x4, NVMe 2.0 NAND Flash Samsung V-NAND TLC Controller Samsung In-house Controller Cache Memory Samsung 2GB Low Power DDR4 SDRAM Sequential Read Speed Up to 7,450 MB/s Sequential Write Speed Up to 6,900 MB/s Random Read (4KB, QD32) Up to 1,400,000 IOPS Random Write (4KB, QD32) Up to 1,550,000 IOPS Random Read (4KB, QD1) Up to 22,000 IOPS Random Write (4KB, QD1) Up to 80,000 IOPS Operating Temperature 0°C to 70°C Reliability (MTBF) 1.5 Million Hours Endurance 1,200 TBW (Total Bytes Written) Get it at the link below: Samsung 990 PRO SSD 2TB NVMe SSD (MZ-V9P2T0B/AM): $369.99 (Sold and Shipped by Amazon US) Good to know This Amazon deal is U.S. specific, and not available in other regions unless specified. We only use first-party seller links (at the time of article publishing); ensure that you purchase from a first-party seller link only. Check out Today's Deals on Amazon | or our recent tech deals. Become a Prime member (for Students or SNAP) via Neowin Get Prime Access - Prime for half price (for qualifying Medicaid, EBT, SNAP) Subscribe to Prime Video, Audible Plus, Music Unlimited or Kindle Unlimited via Neowin As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases
    • Tidal won't monetize AI slop music, company says

      By grik · Posted

      Glad im on the right boat. Tidal has lots of issues in terms of app and music mix, its worst than spot but its honest. Spot algo is very tendentious and they pess less to artists, so im comfortable with the tidal errors, for now.
    • Tidal won't monetize AI slop music, company says

      By David Uzondu · Posted

      Tidal won't monetize AI slop music, company says by David Uzondu Image via Tidal Tidal has announced an AI policy aimed at protecting artists and their crafts, as AI music generation tools continue to improve both in speed and quality. According to the music streaming platform, AI-generated music will be accepted, but these tracks will be held to a "higher standard" of content integrity. Next month, the company plans to auto-identify and tag these uploads. Listeners will spot a special icon next to content that algorithms flag as 100% AI-generated starting mid-July, and the platform hopes to expand this tag to partially generated songs as detection tech improves. Any AI music that exploits an artist's voice or likeness will be taken down, and Tidal will immediately block tracks associated with fraudulent activity, which includes artificial streaming and deceptive content that interferes with real creators. And finally, music that's 100% AI-generated will not be monetized. Tidal said there is "ongoing debate" about whether certain licensed synthetic models deserve payouts, so it's possible that this part will change in the future. Streaming platforms are absolutely getting flooded with AI-generated music because of how easy it is to pump out endless tracks every minute. To give you an idea of how "bad" it is, Deezer alone reported that synthetic uploads now make up about 44% of its daily intake, which translates to roughly 75,000 automated tracks hitting its servers every single day. Interestingly, Deezer found most people cannot tell the difference between human and machine creations, with an Ipsos study revealing that 97% of listeners failed to spot the AI-generated tracks. Spotify's CEO recently pushed back against listeners who call AI music "slop," urging people to stop using the term and instead embrace the creative potential of AI music. The Swedish platform partnered with Universal Music Group to test "legal and controlled" generative AI tools that let subscribers remix songs with AI.

  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Week One Done
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      BA the Curmudgeon earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Conversation Starter
      rosiecharles earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • First Post
      KMilenkoski1202 earned a badge
      First Post

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      539
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      269
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      153
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      98
    5. 5
      macoman
      66
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!