Reinstalling Windows 10 with our instructions is the easiest process. You do not need any special knowledge, and the answer "how to reinstall the OS" fits into one small article.
Reinstallation is inherently no different from a full-fledged installation from scratch, but includes a preparatory stage.
What will go into this stage depends a lot on why you decided to take such a step. If your operating system "died" due to your awkward movements or viruses, then without special tools it will be problematic to save data from your hard drive. If the system works, but slow or the wrong version (Single Language, etc.), then you need:
- Save all the necessary files to external media or to the cloud;
- Create a bootable USB flash drive with an OS image;
The last stage is needed as insurance, since the physical presence of such a medium is not necessary, if the PC is working, there is a recovery option.
How to recover
Instead of reinstalling - recover! This is many times more convenient, as it allows you to save all files in their places. There are two options for how to do this:
- Inside a running OS;
- From a bootable USB flash drive;
The first method is available from the Update and Security tab in System Settings.
In this window, select the "Recovery" tab and click the "Start" button.
After that, the system itself will ask if you want to save your personal files.
But even knowing about such a function, still make backups if possible, as an error may occur in the process and you will have to format the HDD. It is also better to do this if the purpose of the whole operation is to get rid of the viruses that have made their way to your computer. To prevent them from being left, format the drive and after all, install or, in order to prevent a similar situation from recurring.
All this will be free, because the OS is already installed and works with a license. You do not delete it, and the activation key is not lost.
Reinstall Windows 10 if the system won't start
This option is universal, as it is also suitable for those for whom everything works, but does not work well. To do this, we need installation media. You can buy it from the store or make it on another PC. Use an official tool or special software like Nero that will allow you to burn a blank ISO image of the OS to your drive. Without this USB stick, everything described below will not work.
First of all, you need to go into the BIOS, and change the boot order of the computer. To do this, restart or start the system unit and press the F2 or DEL button from the first seconds. This will allow you to be in the bios.
This is just an example, yours may be completely different. Its appearance depends on the manufacturer of the motherboard and on the generation. It can also be in Russian or English. If you have an English version, then go to the Boot section, if it is Russian - Download.
In this section, select the USB stick in the 1st place. Then press F10 or on the screen select the advisory item - SAVE AND EXIT to save and exit.
After that, the system will reboot, but the start will not start from the OS, but from the installer. You will see exactly the same menu as in a clean installation from scratch.
Do not be afraid, you do not lose data. We click the button "NEXT". And you will find yourself in the context menu, where you need to select the "Diagnostics" tab. This will take you to the recovery section.
Follow the instructions on the screen and you will be in the "Reset your computer" section.
After that, you just have to wait. Depending on the speed of the system, this will take from 5 to 50 minutes, during which time the PC will reboot. During this time, do not remove the USB flash drive, otherwise the process will be interrupted and you will have to start from scratch. After all the procedures, as a result, you will see the following message:
But do not rush to rejoice, because after the first restart, you will again find yourself in the installer. To prevent this from happening, it is not enough to remove the USB flash drive. Yes, this will allow the PC to boot from the HDD, where there will be an already updated or refurbished system. But this will not allow you to work normally, because every time you start the OS, if there is a flash drive or other media (player and other) in the system unit, the operating system will not work, because the PC will try to start from the media.
Therefore, go back to the BIOS, and do the same thing that you did to restore and reinstall Windows 10, but in reverse order - put the HDD in the first place. Flash-disk is no longer needed for this, so either remove it from the download area altogether, or move it to one of the last places. Of course, for changes in the BIOS, a flash drive is not required; this can also be done by pressing DEL or F2.
In case, even after reading the instructions, you do not understand how to restore the system, we recommend the following video instruction. But even if you don’t understand after it, write in the comments, we will try to help you reinstall the system for free.
The activation key in new devices is embedded in the BIOS, and if you did not make an attempt to replace or delete it, then after all the above procedures it will remain in place. But if it still crashes, try to restore through Microsoft support. Of course, only if you had a full legal copy. In the opposite - download the activator, for example,
Windows 10 is the best version of Windows, but that doesn't mean it doesn't get slower over time. Any Windows, for that matter, starts to work differently than we wanted, there are delays, universal applications may not work, all this happens for a number of reasons, one of which is the time since the last installation or system update. The best way to fix this problem is to reinstall the operating system.
Automatic activation of Windows 10 after reinstallation
Many users who have updated Windows 7, 8.1 to Windows 10 using a free update often ask if activation will fail after reinstallation, how to reinstall Windows 10 without losing the activation license, or how to activate Windows 10 again after a fresh installation.
Reinstall Windows 10 without losing your activation license
After the release of Windows 10, back in 2015, Microsoft assured that it is possible to reinstall and activate Windows 10 after a fresh installation without any problems, as long as you install Windows 10 on the same computer without major hardware changes.
Link Windows 10 license to Microsoft account
If you sign in to Windows 10 with a Microsoft account (version 1607 or later), Windows 10 automatically associates your Windows 10 license with your Microsoft account. makes it easy to activate your copy of Windows 10 when you reinstall or fresh install.
In fact, there is even an activation troubleshooter that you can use to activate Windows 10 if your copy of Windows 10 doesn't automatically activate after you make changes to your PC's hardware.
Users using a local account can also reinstall Windows 10 without losing license, activation. There are no tools to back up your Windows 10 license. In fact, you don't need to back up your license if you have an activated copy of Windows 10.
Activation after a fresh install of Windows 10
You can reinstall the same version of Windows 10 on the same PC (where you have an activated copy of Windows 10) without requiring you to enter your product key. When reinstalling Windows 10, if you see a prompt for your product key, just click the Skip button. Windows 10 automatically activates once the computer is connected to the network after installation is complete.
Before proceeding with reinstalling Windows 10, we advise you to go to Parameters → Updates and security → Activation and check the activation status of Windows 10.
Here you will see a message "Windows is activated with a digital license associated with your Microsoft account." if your copy of Windows 10 is activated and linked to your Microsoft account (automatically if you use a Microsoft account to sign in to Windows 10). If you are using a local account, you will see the message "Windows activated with digital license".
If you are still in doubt, contact Microsoft support using the built-in support app. In short, you can easily reinstall Windows 10 without losing your activation license.
Windows 10 is probably the best version from Microsoft, but this does not mean that everything is in order in it and over time it will not slow down. Any version of Windows starts to work slowly over time due to a number of reasons. You can try, but it is considered better to reinstall Windows 10.
Many users who have upgraded to Windows 10 from windows 7 or Windows 8.1 using a free upgrade often ask how to reinstall windows 10 without losing the license? Or activate Windows 10 after reinstallation? Microsoft made it clear that it is possible to reinstall Windows 10 and activate the license key after reinstalling without any problems on the same computer, without making significant hardware changes.
Link Windows 10 license to Microsoft account
Which will save you from many problems with activation after a clean reinstallation of Windows 10. If you already have a license on your computer and you are under a local account, then all this can be linked into one account. Your Microsoft account will digitally sign your license key, which will help you reinstall Windows 10 without losing your license key. When you reinstall windows 10 purely, then simply go to Account Settings and sign in to your account.
Troubleshoot Windows 10 license activation after a hardware change
If for some reason one or another part on your computer breaks down. For example, you decide to replace the motherboard or replace the old HDD with an SSD, then activating Windows 10 can be problematic. The license is tied to the computer hardware, and the created microsoft record can easily simplify the activation of the license after changing the hardware on the computer, but as a rule, nothing is perfect and there are jambs everywhere.
- Go Settings> Update & Security> Activation & Troubleshoot.
Important: Before changing hardware, you must create or register your licensed Windows 10 with a Microsoft account by simply creating it.
How to remove a license key in Windows 10
Many probably for all sorts of reasons need to delete the windows activation key. One of the most common reasons is to enter your license key on another computer that already has your key or you just wanted to sell your computer.
Open the command line by writing in the search, near the start CMD and right-clicking Run as administrator. To remove the Windows 10 activation key, enter the following commands:
- Delete key slmgr / upk
- Remove key entry from registry slmgr / cpky
Sometimes reinstalling Windows 10 is the only solution in various situations when working with a computer. And any self-respecting user should know how to reinstall Windows. This includes self-education and cost savings. Since the computer foreman, whom many call at home, and many service centers, are ready to rip off anyone who brings their PC to them for repair. I already mentioned this in the last article. Next, I will try to explain how to perform a so-called clean reinstallation of Windows 10.
Let's take the simplest situation. The computer has been attacked by a virus, or let's say an unexpected error has occurred that cannot be corrected in any way, or a system failure ... There are enough cases. And the only solution is to re-install "Windu" (as it usually calls it).
Before doing this, be sure (if possible) copy all your important documents, passwords, photos, videos to a safe place, say, a USB flash drive, DVD or cloud. Synchronize all information in browsers so that after recovery nothing is lost and can be returned with ease.
Didn't seem to have forgotten anything. Now you can start.
How to reinstall Windows 10
Open the "Start" menu -> right-click on "This computer" and call "Properties".
For ourselves, we specify "Release" and "System Type".
We connect a ready-made, formatted flash drive to the USB connector of a computer or laptop.
We download a special program from the official Microsoft website. There she is . We launch it.
a) We need to accept the license agreement.
b) Check the box "Create installation media for another computer"
Select: Language, Bit Depth and Release (which I mentioned above).
c) Note that we are using a USB device.
Wait a while until the flash drive is detected.
The procedure can be lengthy. Since the Windows 10 distribution itself will be downloaded from the Internet. And the download speed will directly depend primarily on the speed of your connection, file size, etc. etc.
At the end, we reboot the computer into the BIOS.
In BIOS, we set the values so that the USB flash drive is loaded first. Save the update and exit.
In the installer window that opens, select the language we need and click "Install".
We enter the license key to activate Windows 10.
We mark the required version (as we remember from the screenshots above, we have it PRO)
We agree with the license.
Checking "Custom Installation"
We format the necessary partition of the hard disk, on which we will install the system.
Again, we need to wait a while. After that, a new window will appear on the screen, where we have to set the default parameters or customize them for ourselves.
Consider this situation. You had Windows 7 or 8.1 installed. Then you upgraded it to Windows 10. The system activated automatically. And now you need to cleanly reinstall Windows 10 without losing your license. Will there be any problems with activation?
"Top Ten" should be activated automatically if you install the same edition that was installed and activated before (for example, Pro x64 Russian) on the same computer. With the release of the Threshold 2 update, the system activation procedure has been significantly improved and simplified. Now, activating Windows 10 should be easier on both a clean install and an upgrade.
Reinstall Windows 10 while maintaining license and activation
0. Step number zero: before reinstalling the OS, make a backup copy of the boot and system partitions if your license or software installed on the system is extremely dear to you. Of course, we checked the instructions below, but anything can happen. And it's better to have a backup so that you can restore Windows to its current state at any time.
1. Create an installation flash drive or disk from Windows 10 to.
The creation procedure has not changed, however, no matter what time you create a bootable USB flash drive, the distribution kit written to it will always be up-to-date thanks to the proprietary Microsoft Media Creation Tool utility. As a reminder, in build 10586, the mechanism for activating Windows 10 has been significantly simplified. Now the system can be activated with a key from Windows 7 or 8.1.
2. Connect the USB flash drive and just restart your computer.
3. from this flash drive.
4. In the window prompting you to enter your product key, select Skip:
Reinstall OS: skip entering product key
5. Format only the system partition. (In most cases - "C: drive". Focus on the size of the drive in GB). You do not need to format other sections.
6. Then select a formatted partition for installing Windows 10 and click Further.
Format drive C for subsequent OS installation
After installation, the operating system must be activated (if it was legally activated before reinstallation). After a couple of days, when you are convinced of the normal operation of the freshly installed OS, you can in order to free up disk space.
Other ways to reinstall Windows 10 on a laptop
If your laptop was sold with a pre-installed "ten", then you have another way to reinstall the operating system if necessary. Each laptop manufacturer has its own specific system recovery procedure. For example, if you have an HP laptop, you need to restart it and press the key F11, for Samsung it is F4... Lenovo generally has a dedicated button - Novo Button, which serves to enter the BIOS and restore (actually reinstall) Windows.
In order to reinstall Windows 10 on Toshiba laptops, hold down the key while the laptop is powered off. 0 (zero) on the main keyboard unit, without releasing it, turn on the laptop with the Power button. Release the 0 key when you hear the system speaker sound. Some laptops come with a recovery disc. You need to boot from it and run the Recovery program.
The difference from the procedure that we described in the previous paragraph is that when you reinstall Windows using the recovery procedure, you get an operating system without up-to-date updates - the same as it was at the time you bought the laptop. But the essence remains the same - you somehow perform a clean reinstallation of the system, getting rid of all the glitches and problems of the old operating system.
