How To Install Windows | The Complete Guide for 2023

Use a free USB port in the front, or the back of your case.

Simple go to Windows search, in the bottom right-left hand corner of the screen, and type This PC. Click the monitor-shaped tab which is labeled this PC.

Inside this PC you should be able to locate your flash drive. It should be underneath your local Disk Drives.

Once found, simply right-click the drive and select Format from the drop-down menu.

Make sure the File system is set to FAT32 or exFAT. You can do this by selecting the File system drop-down menu and selecting one of the other.

Once you have selected Fat32 as the file system, simply click Start at the bottom of the tab. This will start the formatting process, readying your flash drive for the installation tool.

WARNING – Formatting your drive will delete all the content.

Once completed, you are ready to start the Windows installation process

The first thing you need to do is find out whether your PC is going to run a 32-bit or 64-bit of Windows. You can check this by typing System in the Windows Search bar. Under the System Type tab, you will see 64-bit system or 32-bit system. This tells us what version of Windows to download.

The size of the Windows installation is 4GB and thus you will need at least this on your flash drive.

Fortunately, flash drives are pretty cheap these days and you can grab a 16GB drive for around $10.

Start by plugging your flash drive into an available USB slot.

As mentioned above, you need to ensure your flash drive is formatted before starting the installation process. If the flash isn’t formatted, go back to the format section, complete the tasks, then carry on with the setup.

Start by finding the Windows 10 installation tool download page, then click Download tool now.

Find your download folder and double click the “MediaCreationtool” EXE file. When the file loads, simply install the tool and accept any terms.

Once the installation tool has been installed, open the tool and click the Create installation media tick box.

Once selected, choose a language, Windows edition, and the architecture of the system. Click next and select your flash drive from the options available.

This will start the Windows download process and will set your flash drive up for installation. This stage can take several minutes. Once completed, you are ready to change your computer’s boot order and start the installation process.

As soon as you press the power button to turn the computer on, start to mash the DEL or F2 button to access the BIOS.  If Windows loads up or you didn’t get into BIOS, you need to re-do this step until you enter BIOS.

All motherboard BIOS menu’s are different, but ultimately they have the same settings. In your specific motherboard BIOS find the boot options tab, and enter it.

Inside the Boot options, you will be able to select the flash drive from a drop-down menu. You should be able to select it for primary boot, or boot option 1.

Once you have changed the boot option to your flash drive, simply save your BIOS settings and reset the PC. This is usually done by pressing F10.

By now your computer should be set up for booting off the flash drive and your PC should be restarting. If so, excellent news.

If you have done all the above steps correctly, you will see the above screen. This is the start of the Windows installation. Simply start by selecting a language and clicking next.

Click the install now button which appears, this will take you through to the activation screen where you can enter your product key to activate Windows.

Next, Windows will give you a list of Windows versions to choose from. Choose the required edition of Windows and click Next.

You will be asked to read and agree to the licensing terms. Simply read, or just scroll to the bottom of the text, and click next when you are satisfied.

You have two options to choose from, upgrade or custom. For new PC builds choose custom and click next.

This is where you create the primary and recovery drives for Windows. Simply select new in the bottom right-hand corner of the page and click apply.

Once the partitions have been created, you can click next which will start the installation of Windows.

Once Windows has finished installing it will automatically restart your computer. This signals the completion of Windows install. Once your PC reboots you will be following a setup guide. Once completed, Windows should be installed and ready to use.

The easiest and most practical way of getting Windows for free is to simply use it without activating it.

Ok, don’t worry, your system isn’t going to shut down after 30 days, neither will Microsoft lock you out of applications. The worst that will happen is a watermark will appear on your desktop asking you to activate your Windows. You’ll also be blocked from customizing your desktop.

Apart from that, you pretty much have a fully operational version of Windows.

If you’re looking to upgrade from an older version of Windows, try the old free upgrade route, I’m pretty sure it still works for some folks.

When Windows 10 was first introduced, Microsoft allowed users of old versions to upgrade to the latest version for free. They would simply run Windows update and it would prompt them to install the latest version of Windows, free of charge.

Luckily for some, this method still works. Try running your Windows update and seeing if you are prompted with the free upgrade. If so, great!

Microsoft has been offering free versions of Windows to students for a while now, and it’s a sure way of getting a copy at no cost. It may not be a fully-fledged version of Windows home, but it certainly does the job for most people’s needs.

You need to prove you are a student via the OnTheHub service, but when you do, you have the chance of snagging yourself a free copy of Windows Education. Well worth a go.

First things first, install the migration tool. Simply download the .EXE file and install it. Restart your computer once it has installed.

Once your computer has restarted, simply double-click the EaseUS icon to load it.

On the menu you should see a tab for System Clone. Select the System Clone tab. Once selected, click the System transfer tab.

It will ask you to choose a source for the new data. Simply select the old storage device. Once done, you will need to choose a destination for the transfer, this is where you select the new drive. Once selected click proceed.

You will be greeted with a popup box of advanced options. Tick the Optimize for SSD box. Click OK and the cloning tool will begin.

When the tool finishes the transfer, you will be prompted with the data. Simply restart your computer at this stage to finalize the process.

At this stage, you might need to change your primary boot option for your computer. This will ensure that the new Windows is booted instead of the old drive.

Simply follow the steps in Part 3 to change your primary boot drive.

In the bottom left-hand corner of your Windows, search for Reset this PC and press enter.

At the top of the Recovery tab, you will see an option for Reset this PC. Simply select the Get Started button to start the process.