The good news is that the saved image includes all the drivers, utilities, and hardware support so that all your devices work as designed, as soon as you sign in for the first time. If you purchased a PC with Windows 10 preinstalled, you might have the option to revert to the original image that the manufacturer supplied. Here are the pros and cons of each method, along with some advice on when to employ each one. Done right, the result is a PC that starts from a known good state, with either the default Windows 10 configuration or a previously tested configuration that includes specific third-party software and drivers.īy my count, there are four ways to do a clean install (short of buying a new PC). The Windows 10 update guide: How to install and manage security and feature updatesĪ clean install is the ultimate troubleshooting technique, virtually guaranteed to eliminate performance or compatibility problems caused by third-party software, temporary files, configuration errors, and garden-variety malware.Perhaps you've decided to replace a conventional hard disk drive with a fast solid-state drive to extend the life of an older PC.
You might be repurposing an old but still serviceable PC for use by someone else in your family or your organization. You can find plenty of perfectly good reasons to do a clean install. It also allows for a fresh Windows 10 reinstallation, or a factory imaged hard drive to be activated on a system that was previously upgraded.Are you looking for Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro? Not sure? Learn more about Windows 10 versions at Microsoft. The digital entitlement system is designed to allow normal hardware repairs while preventing abuse. But, swapping a hard drive from an activated system to an identical model that was not previously upgraded causes the Operating System to be deactivated. We confirmed that systems can be reactivated in these scenarios. Yet, the motherboard can be replaced without causing this entitlement to be lost.ĭell has tested different combinations of replacing the motherboard, hard drive, and reinstalling the Operating System.
This entitlement is tied to the hardware ID of the motherboard and other system components. A digital entitlement is used instead of a product key for Windows 10. These scenarios cause the Operating System to reactivate by contacting Microsoft servers. There may be concerns about reactivating Windows 10 on upgraded systems after hardware replacement or an Operating System reinstall. The free Windows 10 upgrade offer ended on July 29 2016. Summary: This article will cover Windows 10 activation questions after the free upgrade period when you have had hardware that is replaced or the OS reinstalled.
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