Moving to a Windows 10 PC

Making the move to a new Windows 10 PC? We’re happy you’re here and we’ve got you covered.

This guide will help you discover the best Microsoft has to offer and help you transfer your favorite files and apps to your new device so you can get up and running quickly, and get back to doing what you love.

If you’re on a Windows 7 device, note that support has ended and we recommend you move to a Windows 10 PC to stay secure. Learn more about the Windows 7 end of support and how to get Windows 10.

Step 1: Learn the benefits of a modern Windows 10 PC

Shopping for a new PC? Watch videos about common device-related terms you might come across in your research, including storage types, graphics processing units, and more.

Regular updates are built in to Windows 10, meaning you’ll always have the latest features. Explore what‘s new in the latest Windows 10 updates.

Get customized info about your current Windows 7 PC health and performance with the Guide to Windows 10 app (for Windows 7 devices).

Step 2: Purchase your new PC

For quicker startup times, longer battery life, and more responsive apps, a new PC has you covered. Find a new PC that fits your needs.

Step 3: Sign in with Microsoft to streamline your experience

Never forget a password again. Get personal access to all things Microsoft with a single, secure sign-on, plus get free OneDrive storage to help you move your files to your new PC. Good news—if you have an Xbox or Office account, you may already have a Microsoft account. You can also sign in with any email to get started.

Step 4: Bring your files and favorites with you

There’s no need to leave your files or browser favorites behind. Bring them with you to your new PC using one of the following options. We recommend using OneDrive so your files are backed up and protected in the cloud.

Select your current version of Windows to find instructions on how to move your files.

How to quickly set up a new gaming PC with Windows 10

By James Norris 26 December 2018

Install Windows 10 on a new system in less than an hour with a USB stick and these tips.

If you haven’t installed Windows lately, you may remember it as a frustrating ordeal. But things have changed since the optical drive era, and installing Windows 10 is faster and smoother than it was even with Windows 7. With a bit of prep and a quick flash drive or two, you can be cruising with a clean OS on your new rig less than an hour after you click the install button.

Here’s the fastest way to get Windows 10 installed on a new gaming rig.

Fast drives at 16+ GB will make your installation easier.

Pick a pair of speedy sticks

You’ll need media to install from, and USB flash drives are the perfect choice. Pick two in USB 3 flavor and get the fastest ones you can. It makes a difference during installation. It’s also smart to shoot for larger sizes, at least 16 GB. While the OS files themselves don’t take up much space, there will be other important uses for those free gigabytes before installation is over. The 32GB version of our favorite flash drive is cheap, and you can find even cheaper budget drives that are still plenty fast for the job.

Start with software

You won’t need to find Windows 10 installation media or get a retail product from a store; Microsoft offers a media creation tool via free download directly on their website, which creates an installer for you. Grab the version compatible with your system and, this is important, have your Win10 product key ready, as you’ll be entering it in eventually. You can buy that from the Windows store or from Amazon, where you can get a cheaper OEM version. If you’re undecided on which version to grab, see our guide for the difference between Windows 10 Home and Pro. As HowToGeek points out, you can likely also use a Windows 7 or Windows 8 key to register, too, if you’re upgrading from an old PC.

Select “Create installation media for another PC” and click “Next.” Language, edition and architecture options follow. Pick the appropriate edition for your product key and stick with 64-bit variants unless you absolutely require 32-bit for legacy reasons.

Picking the right media type on the next screen is less obvious than it seems, as there are merits to both direct USB installer creation and the more flexible Win10 ISO images. The flash drive method is usually the best way to go, but if your system has problems booting with them, there are speedy alternatives using the ISO and third party utilities like Rufus, which offers a wider variety of options for creating bootable USB media. The ISO version also comes in handy when installing Windows 10 to a virtual machine for a test drive using software like VirtualBox.

Select the USB flash drive option and pick the attached device you’ll be using as the installer. While the installer itself is less than 5 GB, the extra space will come in handy for the next step. For now, the media creation tool will format the flash drive, download and transfer the installer, and make the USB bootable.

Driver Directions

The first use for that extra space is a folder housing all the drivers for the motherboard, graphics card and whatever other components you have installed, along with a few choice utilities to keep handy on any system.

Avoid using any drivers that shipped with your hardware, and download the newest version from the manufacturer instead. Otherwise you may end up installing them all over again. The software that comes inside the box with most hardware is usually outdated before it leaves the factory. Keep in mind that this is step is mostly going above and beyond; these tools can be handy, and sometimes you will need to manually install some drivers for your hardware, but Windows 10 is typically very good at getting everything running out of the box.

Go to the manufacturer’s website and find the product support page for your hardware and operating system, then download all relevant files for your system. Since these are probably compressed, do your future-self a favor and decompress them now into logically named folders you’ll be able to read at a glance. Folders with names like APRP_Win7-8-8-1_V10028 aren’t very helpful.

While you should install all the necessary drivers for your system, you don’t need to install all the software available for every component. Many manufacturers include optional, bloated versions of their drivers, third-party utilities and other extras that aren’t required for operation and occasionally cause trouble. Keep your system lean and mean by avoiding software kruft and fluff.

Tools for the road

Check out our guide to the first programs you should install on your new PC for more suggestions, which you can download to your drive now or simply download when your OS is installed. We recommend bundling them all up with Ninite, which makes installing the basics on a new system incredibly convenient.

As usual with Windows, there’ll soon be more space devoted to drivers, utilities and updates than to the operating system itself. Having all this at your fingertips during the initial install is one reason why it pays to prep beforehand.

Installing Win 10

Now that your speedy flash drive is packed full of Win 10 goodness, it’s time for installation. Don’t worry, it won’t take long. Plug the drive into a USB 3 port and restart your PC. You should see a command for selecting the drive to boot from, like the Delete key. Hammer on it to bring up the boot menu, and select your USB flash drive from the list to load the Windows installer tool.

Select your language, click Next, and start the installation.

At this point you’ll be prompted for your Product Key. Enter it or click Skip if you prefer to do this later. Keep in mind that you’ll be running an unactivated version of Windows if you install without the product key, and some features will be disabled until you enter it.

Next up is installation type. You can either install over an existing version of windows and keep your settings, or go for a clean install with the Custom option. For a new system you’ll be picking Custom.

You’ll need to pick the target drive where Windows 10 will be installed, and there’s the usual set of drive tools available to assist, including deleting, formatting and extended partition options. In most cases, it’s best to start with unallocated space on a bare drive and let Windows perform the partitioning during installation. Once you’ve selected the drive, click Next and Win10 will finish the initial installation, reporting progress via the status screen.

Error note: the most common issue we’ve run into installing Windows is the «We couldn’t create a new partition error» on an SSD or hard drive. Usually you can solve this problem using a walkthrough like this one, which takes you through the diskpart utility.

Once the installer is finished, you’ll be presented with a settings configuration process using Cortana, Microsoft’s AI assistant. Our advice: mute Cortana so you don’t have to listen to it. But if you want the voice guidance, you can leave the sound on.

You’ll go through several screens asking you to set your region, keyboard layout, and Microsoft ID, which you can use to sync settings and files between Windows PCs, or ignore and just create a local login for your PC.

After setting up a login and password, you’ll come to the privacy settings. There are now lots of options here, after the launch version of Windows 10 caused many users to riot over the lack of transparency around data usage. My recommendation is to turn all of these options off unless you have a specific reason to leave them on. There’s little to gain by sharing this information with Microsoft or people on your contact list.

After a few moments configuring apps and settings, the system will boot to the new Win 10 desktop.

Now it’s time for the final step. Copy the driver folder from the USB flash drive to your local disk and take stock. You probably won’t need drivers for your ethernet or Wi-Fi connection, if Windows 10 did its job right. If you need or want to manually install the drivers yourself, go through your installer folder starting with the programs for your motherboard, and following with other utilities and your software essentials like Chrome or Firefox and Steam. After some clicking and a reboot or two, you’ll be done. Welcome to Windows 10!

As a precaution during wrap up, consider using the built-in Windows System Image Tool tucked away in the File History controls to back-up your new OS install to a flash drive, so next time you install Win 10 it’ll take 10 minutes, instead of 45.

Otherwise, you’re good to game. Make sure you’ve got the latest updates from Nvidia or AMD installed, download Steam, and start queuing up some games!

For more advice on how to get started with your new gaming PC, check out the following guides:

Download Windows 10

Before updating, please refer to the Windows release information status for known issues to confirm your device is not impacted.

Windows 10 October 2020 Update

The Update Assistant can help you update to the latest version of Windows 10. To get started, click Update now.

Create Windows 10 installation media

To get started, you will first need to have a licence to install Windows 10. You can then download and run the media creation tool. For more information on how to use the tool, see the instructions below.

Here’s when to use these instructions:

• You have a license to install Windows 10 and are upgrading this PC from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
• You need to reinstall Windows 10 on a PC you’ve already successfully activated Windows 10.

If you are installing Windows 10 on a PC running Windows XP or Windows Vista, or if you need to create installation media to install Windows 10 on a different PC, see Using the tool to create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) to install Windows 10 on a different PC section below.

Note: Before you install Windows 10, check to make sure your PC meets the system requirements for Windows 10. We also recommend going to the PC manufacturer’s website for any additional info about updated drivers and hardware compatibility.

1. Select Download tool, and select Run. You need to be an administrator to run this tool.
2. On the License terms page, if you accept the license terms, select Accept.
3. On the What do you want to do? page, select Upgrade this PC now, and then select Next.
4. After downloading and installing, the tool will walk you through how to set up Windows 10 on your PC. All Windows 10 editions are available when you select Windows 10, except for Enterprise edition. For more information on Enterprise edition, go to the Volume Licensing Service Center.
   • If you don’t have a license to install Windows 10 and have not yet previously upgraded to it, you can purchase a copy here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/get-windows-10.
   • If you previously upgraded to Windows 10 on this PC and you’re reinstalling it, you don’t need to enter a product key. Your copy of Windows 10 will automatically activate later using your digital license.
5. When Windows 10 is ready to install, you’ll see a recap of what you’ve chosen, and what will be kept through the upgrade. Select Change what to keep to set whether you would like to Keep personal files and apps, or Keep personal files only, or choose to keep Nothing during the upgrade.
6. Save and close any open apps and files you may be running, and when you’re ready, select Install.
7. It might take some time to install Windows 10, and your PC will restart a few times. Make sure you don’t turn off your PC.

Follow these steps to create installation media (USB flash drive or DVD) you can use to install a new copy of Windows 10, perform a clean installation, or reinstall Windows 10.

Before you download the tool make sure you have:

• An internet connection (internet service provider fees may apply).
• Sufficient data storage available on a computer, USB or external drive for the download.
• A blank USB flash drive with at least 8GB of space or blank DVD (and DVD burner) if you want to create media. We recommend using a blank USB or blank DVD, because any content on it will be deleted.
• When burning a DVD from an ISO file, if you are told the disc image file is too large you will need to use Dual Layer (DL) DVD Media.

Check a few things on the PC where you want to install Windows 10:

• 64-bit or 32-bit processor (CPU). You’ll create either a 64-bit or 32-bit version of Windows 10. To check this on your PC, go to PC info in PC settings or System in Control Panel, and look for System type.
• System requirements. Make sure the PC meets the system requirements for Windows 10. We also recommend going to the PC manufacturer’s website for additional info about updated drivers and hardware compatibility.
• Language in Windows. You’ll need to choose the same language when you install Windows 10. To see what language you’re currently using, go to Time and language in PC settings or Region in Control Panel.
• Edition of Windows. You should also choose the same edition of Windows. To check what edition you’re currently running, go to PC info in PC settings or System in Control Panel, and look for Windows edition. Windows 10 Enterprise isn’t available in the media creation tool. For more info, go to the Volume Licensing Service Center.
• Microsoft Office products. If you just purchased a new device that includes Office 365, we recommend redeeming (installing) Office before upgrading to Windows 10. To redeem your copy of Office, please see Download and install Office 365 Home, Personal, or University on your PC. For more information, check How to upgrade to Windows 10 on new devices that include Office 365.

If you have Office 2010 or earlier and choose to perform a clean install of Windows 10, you will need to locate your Office product key. For tips on locating your product key, check Find your Office 2010 product key or Enter the product key for your Office 2007 program.

Using the tool to create installation media:

1. Select Download tool now, and select Run. You need to be an administrator to run this tool.
2. If you agree to the license terms, select Accept.
3. On the What do you want to do? page, select Create installation media for another PC, and then select Next.

Select the language, edition, and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit) for Windows 10. This table will help you decide which edition of Windows 10 you’ll choose:

Your current edition of Windows	Windows 10 edition
Windows 7 Starter Windows 7 Home Basic Windows 7 Home Premium Windows 7 Professional Windows 7 Ultimate Windows 8/8.1 Windows 8.1 with Bing Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Pro Windows 8/8.1 Professional with Media Center Windows 8/8.1 Single Language Windows 8 Single Language with Bing Windows 10 Home Windows 10 Pro	Windows 10
Windows 8/8.1 Chinese Language Edition Windows 8 Chinese Language Edition with Bing	Windows 10 Home China​

Select which media you want to use:

• USB flash drive. Attach a blank USB flash drive with at least 8GB of space. Any content on the flash drive will be deleted.
• ISO file. Save an ISO file to your PC, which you can use to create a DVD. After the file is downloaded, you can go to location where the file is saved, or select Open DVD burner, and follow the instructions to burn the file to a DVD. For more info about using an ISO file, see Additional methods for using the ISO file to install Windows 10 section below.

After the installation media is created, follow the steps below to use it.

After completing the steps to install Windows 10, please check that you have all the necessary device drivers installed. To check for updates now, select the Start button, and then go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update, and select Check for updates. You may also wish to visit your device manufacturer’s support site for any additional drivers that may be needed.

Note: Drivers for Surface devices may be found on the Download drivers and firmware for Surface page.

Before you install Windows 10, it’s a good idea to save any work and back up your PC before you start. If you used the media creation tool to download an ISO file for Windows 10, you’ll need to burn it to a DVD before following these steps.

1. Attach the USB flash drive or insert the DVD on the PC where you want to install Windows 10.
2. Restart your PC.

If your PC does not automatically boot to the USB or DVD media, you might have to open a boot menu or change the boot order in your PC’s BIOS or UEFI settings. To open a boot menu or change the boot order, you’ll typically need to press a key (such as F2, F12, Delete, or Esc) immediately after you turn on your PC. For instructions on accessing the boot menu or changing the boot order for your PC, check the documentation that came with your PC or go to the manufacturer’s website. If you do not see the USB or DVD media device listed within the boot options, you may need to reach out to the PC manufacturer for instructions for temporarily disabling Secure Boot in your BIOS settings.

If changing the boot menu or order doesn’t work, and your PC immediately boots into the OS you want to replace, it is possible the PC had not fully shut down. To ensure the PC fully shuts down, select the power button on the sign-in screen or on the Start menu and select Shut down.

On the Install Windows page, select your language, time, and keyboard preferences, and then select Next.

Select Install Windows.

If you downloaded an ISO file for Windows 10, the file is saved locally at the location you selected. If you have a third-party DVD burning program installed on your computer that you prefer to use for creating the installation DVD, that program might open by going to the location where the file is saved and double-clicking the ISO file, or right-click the ISO file, select Open with and choose your preferred DVD burning software.

If you want to use the Windows Disk Image Burner to create an installation DVD, go to the location where the ISO file is saved. Right-click the ISO file and select Properties. On the General tab, click Change and select Windows Explorer for the program you would like to use to open ISO files and select Apply. Then right-click the ISO file and select Burn disc image.

If you want to install Windows 10 directly from the ISO file without using a DVD or flash drive, you can do so by mounting the ISO file. This will perform an upgrade of your current operating system to Windows 10.