How To Install Windows On Home Built Computer

How To Install Windows 10 On Home Built Computer At one time building desktop PCs was a popular hobby. The growing popularity of laptops and tablets led to a mobile first design methodology that is difficult for home builders to duplicate economically. Recently PC parts have become cheaper, and people are starting to build computers again. With the rise of virtual reality headsets such as the HTC Vive, the demand for high performance has risen.

Competitive games with their own dedicated tournaments have brought about more builders due to more effective customization in performance. Insert the Windows installation media you created into your computer and boot from it. How you do this depends on your computer, but most have a key you can press to initiate the boot menu. If the flash drive doesn't show up as an option, you may need to restart the computer. Sometimes it will show up only if you've inserted the media before turning on the computer.

If you see a message like, "press any key to boot from the installation media," press a key. Select your language and keyboard style and click Next. After you complete the steps, repeat the instructions to back up the remaining accounts . In addition to copying your files, it's also a good idea to create a list of the installed programs with their respective product keys to know the apps to reinstall after the installation. If you already have a backup of the computer and files. The device can start from a USB flash drive, and non-essential peripherals are disconnected, then you can skip this part and jump to the bootable media creation and a clean install process.

The installation process of Windows 10 has two main parts, including the setup and out-of-box experience . In the setup process, that's where you will select some of the basic settings, and you'll find the options to erase the hard drive, configure the partitions, and clean install Windows 10. The out-of-box experience happens after the setup is complete, and it's the stage where you'll configure your settings, such as region, network, account, privacy, and other settings.

Welcome to the fifth article in the "Build Your Own PC" series, powered by AMD Ryzen and Radeon. In this article, we're going to be installing Windows 10 and all the drivers for your PC. First make sure you have a full backup of your data since will be installing on top of the existing data.

You can download the Windows 10 media from the Windows 10 .iso download site and then set the computer to boot from the flash drive. Typically, I find this is often the hardest part of the process — finding the combination of keys that allows you into the bios to force the system to boot from the flash drive. Can you please, lemme know is it possible for me to use the windows 8.1 pro key that i received from microsoft store via email to activate windows 10 pro clean install on the macbook pro. If yes please lemme know the exact steps, right from deactivating the key on air to getting it activated on pro. Then I tried following the steps here by deactivating the product key on my old pc. Then I tried to add the product key to my new pc, but it said the key is activated or tied to my old pc.

I called Microsoft and they tried some things with me, but it didn't work so they said they'd escalate it and someone else fr Microsoft call me back tomorrow. I didn't try reactivating the license in command prompt until after the tech support call. I have old laptop which I had bought with Windows Vista OS preinstalled. I had upgrade it with Windows 8.0 pro 32-bit and later automatically upgraded to windows 8.1 pro (32-bit). The laptop is getting old now and I am thinking to buy new machine . Question is, can I install "Windows 10 pro update (64-bit)" on the new system using my windows 8.1 pro key?

If 'yes', how should I proceed correctly, so that I don't end up in mess. If I am able to build new system successfully, I plan to decommission old laptop or use it with Linux OS or so. So definitely I am not going to use current Windows 8.1 license on that laptop. Advanced users may want to do a Minimal install instead, which has fewer software applications installed by default. In addition, you can choose to download updates and whether or not to include third-party software and drivers.

The best way to install Windows 7 is to do a clean install. It is not difficult to perform a clean installation. Before you start the installation process I recommend that you checkWindows 7 System Requirements listto ensure that your hardware is supported by Windows 7.

Run the tool, follow the instructions and install it on your USB stick using another PC. Once that's done, plug it into your freshly built PC and turn it on. You'll need to then press DEL as soon as the computer starts up and enter the BIOS. From there, look for the boot menu - this is an order through which the computer tries to load and select the USB drive you've plugged in as the first drive to try. This means when you exit - save the changes and reset - the machine will then load from the USB drive and prompt you to install Windows. However, there are many other ways to restore a crashed computer without sacrificing this disk space.

First of all, you can always use an existing restore point or full system backup to get back to where you were right before the crash. If you don't have a backup and need to start from scratch, you can create a Windows 11 or 10 install USB by downloading and using Microsoft's own installation media tool. If you have a laptop or even most OEM desktops, your original Windows key will already be recorded in your BIOS.

And, if you don't have a key, you can always get Windows 10/11 for Free or Cheap. This is a somewhat controversial recommendation so consider your options. Most laptops and pre built desktops come with a recovery partition that eats up at least 20GB of disk space. The point of these recovery partitions is to enable you to get back to a factory state if your computer becomes unbootable, perhaps even stuck on a blue screen of death. This factory state is not just a clean Windows 11, but one with all the drivers and preloaded software the computer came with.

Usually, you can invoke these from some kind of emergency menu before boot. In most cases, it's best to start with unallocated space on a bare drive and let Windows perform the partitioning during installation. Once you've selected the drive, click Next and Win10 will finish the initial installation, reporting progress via the status screen. Keeping your CPU cool is critical to your system running properly, and though many CPUs come with a cooler, often times you'll want something a little more powerful.

These options can range from simple fans and heatsinks to elaborate liquid cooling solutions. For your first build, you'll probably want either a fan based solution, or an All In One liquid CPU cooler if you're planning on overclocking your CPU. When you first set up a new PC with Windows 10, you create a user account. By default, your new account is set to log in automatically at startup.

If you're at home all the time or don't have access to any sensitive data, then this might not be a problem. But it can create a serious security risk if anyone can open your computer, then immediately get access to your data and company systems. This is especially important if you travel with a laptop, bringing it with you to places like a coffee shop, airport, or open co-working spaces.

While there are a few technical exceptions, which we'll explain below, the plain truth is that Windows can only be installed on one machine. To fix this problem, you can include a Windows Setup configuration file to force Windows Setup to display the select edition screen during installation. It is an optional setup configuration file that you can add to automate the edition selection and product key verification steps during Windows installation. Hi, ive upgraded my retail cd version of win 8.1 pro to win 10 pro and is fully activated and functional. Ive also signed up for a microsoft account username and password.

From what i heard is the win 10 pro key is tied with your ms account? So if you install on a new hard disk or system it will automatically activate your win 10 pro as soon as you sign in using the ms login. Is is true and will the possibility for end of support free upgrade program affect this auto activation process? High-end PCs most often fall in the realm of heavy processor and/or memory usage applications such as a multimedia PC, home theater PC, music production, engineering, and many more.

Generally a high-end system is capable of meeting the demands of gaming and can be used as such. A major difference between a high-end PC and a gaming PC is likely to only be the choice in video card since they will share a majority of other components. A less-intensive type of build satisfies or exceeds the needs of most computer users.

When you see the following screen, Windows is installed and you're ready to set it up. Just follow the instructions and create your account. Going through the setup process shouldn't take more than about 15 minutes, and you'll be dropped onto the familiar Windows desktop. On the next screen, you'll have to select the hard drive on which you're going to install Windows. Most people here will just get one hard drive, but if your computer includes two hard drives, select the one on which you want Windows to be installed on.

Rule of thumb is to select the faster one if you have multiple hard drives. At this stage, you can also create multiple disk partitions on your computer if you want. If you do end up creating multiple partitions, select the one on which you want to install Windows and click on 'Next' to continue. Windows Setup will now ask you to activate Windows by entering a product key. If you've already purchased Windows 10, enter the key, otherwise click on "I don't have a product key" to move forward.

But if you don't provide a product key, the setup will ask you to choose which Windows 10 version you want to install. Pick the one you're planning to buy as you won't be able to change it later. Avoid using any drivers that shipped with your hardware, and download the newest version from the manufacturer instead. Otherwise you may end up installing them all over again. The software that comes inside the box with most hardware is usually outdated before it leaves the factory.

Picking the right media type on the next screen is less obvious than it seems, as there are merits to both direct USB installer creation and the more flexible Win10 ISO images. The ISO version also comes in handy when installing Windows 10 to a virtual machine for a test drive using software like VirtualBox. You will need an 8GB USB flash drive for this process. Plug your USB flash drive into your friend's computer and google for Windows Media Creation Tool. You'll end up on the Microsoft Web Page that allows you to download the tool. Scroll to the section that reads "Create Windows 10 installation media" and click on the "Download tool now" button.

You will initiate the download of the latest version of the tool. Run the tool and it'll connect to the internet to get the latest details from Microsoft's servers. You'll be presented with the License Agreement first, read through it if you wish to and then Accept the Agreement.

If your copy of Windows came on a USB flash drive, or you have a Windows product key and no installation disc,download a Windows 10 disk image from Microsoft. Graphics cards are produced by two manufacturers - Nvidia and AMD. We're aiming to create a high-end gaming machine, so the 20-series of graphics cards from Nvidia is the current pinnacle. These cards support RTX Ray Tracing and deliver stunning visuals across a variety of the most modern games as well as blistering gaming performance. Regardless of what kind of PC you're building , the components you need are going to be the same.

You'll need a motherboard, a central processing unit , storage, memory, a power supply, a case, and a monitor. The only thing you might not need if you're mostly using this PC for home-office tasks is a GPU , but it's necessary for photo or video editing and gaming. That's a lot of stuff, so what follows is a little breakdown of what each component does, along with some hardware recommendations.

If you are using bootable installation media to perform a clean install on a PC that has never been upgraded to Windows 10 and activated, you will need to enter a product key. You can enter a product key from Windows 10 or from a matching edition of Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1. The most crucial part to get right is picking parts that do what you want and working with each other. Choosing wrong or incompatible PC parts may cause issues, damage to other components, or require time for returning said products to retailers. In short, we'll need a case, processor , graphics card , RAM, power supply , motherboard, cabling, and some storage to complete the barebones checklist. Head to this website on another Windows computer and download the Media Creation Tool from Microsoft.

Plug in a blank flash drive with at least 8GB of space. Note that anything stored on this USB drive will be deleted by the installation process, so if you have anything on it, move it somewhere else now. Double-click the program, then follow the steps below.

Now that your speedy flash drive is packed full of Win 10 goodness, it's time for installation. Plug the drive into a USB 3 port and restart your PC. You should see a command for selecting the drive to boot from, like the Delete key. Hammer on it to bring up the boot menu, and select your USB flash drive from the list to load the Windows installer tool.

Select the USB flash drive option and pick the attached device you'll be using as the installer. While the installer itself is less than 5 GB, the extra space will come in handy for the next step. For now, the media creation tool will format the flash drive, download and transfer the installer, and make the USB bootable. First the Chipset or System drivers, followed by the LAN drivers and then you can go with the Audio, VGA and Storage drivers. Windows will automatically install the LAN, Audio and Storage drivers during the setup so you're only upgrading those to the latest drivers. If at any stage, if any of the driver setups ask to reboot the system, please do so before proceeding to the installation of the next driver.

Some drivers are only partially installed before the restart and the restart process completes the installation. It's best to let one thing completely install before moving to the next driver. The tool will now download the latest Windows 10 setup from Microsoft's servers and copy it to your USB flash drive. It will also make the USB drive bootable which is necessary for you to install Windows using the Flash Drive. Once the process is completed, you can remove the flash drive and plug it into your newly assembled desktop PC.