Windows 10 Clean Install

Gadgetman496

I have only availed of the upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10 so far but now want to do two clean installs.

I have two questions.

(1) Can you do a clean install of Win 10 on a new build without inserting a key and add the key afterwards or do you have to insert the key during the install process?

(2) If you have a machine with Win 10 Home installed and you want to do a clean install of Win 10 Pro using a Win 10 Pro key, will that work ok or will the machine know it had Win 10 Home and revert to that once installed? I seem to recall reading somewhere that Win 10 puts some sort of activation tag into the BIOS or something.

smuggler.ie

1. Clean install. Without key some features disabled.
2. Upgrade 10 Home to 10 Pro

Gadgetman496

smuggler.ie wrote: »

1. Clean install. Without key some features disabled.
2. Upgrade 10 Home to 10 Pro

Cheers smuggler, as per question 2, I don't want to upgrade for Home to Pro, I want a clean install of Pro.

smuggler.ie

While booted in to Win 10 Pro media(USB, CD), just before proceeded with installation(Install button), hit Shift+F10 to start CMD, once in CMD, type:
1. Diskpart and hit Enter
2. List disk and hit Enter. Here you will be presented with list of disks, numbers of disks and sizes.
3. select disk X , where X disk number with you current OS installation(if not sure type diskmgmt.msc before Diskpart to open disk manager and see disk numbers)and hit Enter
4. clean and hit Enter. Caution: this will completely wipe you drive, make sure you select correct drive in step 3.
5. exit and hit Enter
6. exit and hit Enter(yes...twice)
7. continue with installation of Win 10 Pro(Install button....)

From here it should be as per option 1 regarding key.

TerrorFirmer

The above is unnecessary. You can install Win10 Pro without a key and add it at a later date without issue.