How to Install Windows 10 – Instructions with Screenshots

September 21, 2015

5 Min Read

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With the launch of Windows 10, Microsoft is all set to dominate the personal computer segment once again. As of this day, Windows 10 has already achieved more than 14 million installations and is still increasing rapidly. A majority of these installations were done via the free upgrade system which Microsoft integrated into windows 7 and 8 PC’s via the windows update. Thanks to this many genuine windows 7 and windows 8 users were able to upgrade to windows 10 for free and without any hiccups. At the same time Microsoft was even kind enough to let some pirates enjoy the same experience for free
However, as usual you can also install Windows 10 via a Bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive. In fact the retail version of windows 10 also comes in a bootable USB drive. For those who want to perform a clean installation of Windows 10 on your PC. Here’s how you can create a Bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive and use it to install Windows 10 on your PC.

Prerequisites

Here’s a list of all the prerequisites required to create a Bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive.

A USB flash drive with a storage capacity of more than 8GB.
Windows 10 ISO image.
Rufus ( Optional )

With Windows 10, Microsoft has made it very simple to create a bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive. Microsoft now provides a Windows 10 media creation tool which can be used to download a ISO image of Windows 10 or directly create a Bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive. In this guide we are going to use the later option to create a bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive and use it to perform a clean installation of Windows 10.
I’ve already created an instructional guide on creating a bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive using the Windows media creation tool provided by Microsoft. You can visit the following link to view the detailed instructions with screenshots.
Read: How to create a Bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive using Microsoft’s media creation tool.
In case you are not able to create a bootable USB flash drive using Microsoft’s media creation tool, you can use a free tool called Rufus to create a bootable windows 10 USB flash drive. Once you’ve read the above guide and create a bootable windows 10 USB flash drive, you can proceed forward to install Windows 10 using the bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive.
Read: How to create a Bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive using Rufus

How to Install Windows 10 using a Bootable USB Drive

Step 1: Connect the Bootable USB flash drive with your PC and reboot it.
Step 2: As soon as your PC boots, press the F11 ( this key will differ from one pc to another ) key to bring up the boot drive selection menu and select the Bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive. This key will differ from one pc to another, so do a quick Google search to find out the correct key to bring up the bios boot menu.

Alternatively, you can also go into the bios of your PC and set the Bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive with the First boot priority.

Step 3: Press any key when you see the “ Press any key to boot from the USB option ”

Step 4: Wait for a few seconds for the files to load.

Step 5: Select language, Time and currency format and keyboard input format and click on Next.

Step 6: Click on Install now.

Step 7: Wait for a few seconds for the setup to start.

Step 8: If you have a product key, enter it, otherwise click on Skip.

Step 9: Accept the license terms and click on Next.

Step 10: Select “ Custom: install Windows only ( Advanced ) “

Step 11: Select the drive where you want to install Windows 10.

Note: Make sure the drive is formatted, if not you can format by selecting the format option provided.

Step 12: Wait for a some time until Windows is being installed. This may take from a few minutes to a hour depending on the hardware of your personal computer. once this process is complete, your PC will restart.

Step 13: Choose Windows 10.

Step 14: Wait for a some more time.

Step 15: Enter a serial key, otherwise click on Do this later to skip this option.

Step 16: Click on Use express settings to use the recommended settings. Alternatively you can even click on Customize settings to customize the settings.