You must run the Windows 10 setup program from your currently installed and activated copy of Windows. Note that you cannot boot from the newly created USB drive or DVD to perform an upgrade to Windows 10. Then open File Explorer (Windows Explorer in Windows 7) and double-click Setup to install Windows 10.

USB flash drive: Insert the USB flash drive you just created into a free USB slot on the PC you want to upgrade.

After the download completes, double-click the executable file to run the Media Creation Tool. With those preliminaries out of the way, go to the Download Windows 10 webpage and click the Download now button.

(Several common installation errors can be traced to the Setup program being confused by these additional drives.) Finally, disconnect any unnecessary external devices, especially USB flash drives and external hard drives.You can reinstall those programs after the upgrade is complete. Temporarily uninstall third-party security software and low-level system utilities that can interfere with the upgrade.Just run the command Sdclt.exe, and then choose the Create A System Image option. Consider doing a full system backup to an external hard drive using the Windows 7 backup program, which is also available in Windows 8.x and Windows 10. Back up your data files to an external hard drive or cloud storage (or both).Download and install any available BIOS updates for your hardware this step is especially important for systems that were originally designed in 2017 or earlier, when hardware makers were still shaking out issues with Windows 10.Check for any recent driver updates, especially for network and storage hardware.This is especially important if you recently reinstalled the original version of Windows in preparation for the upgrade. Confirm that your copy of Windows is activated.If you have a PC running a 'genuine' copy of Windows 7/8/8.1 (Windows 7 Home, Pro, or Ultimate edition, or Windows 8.x Home or Business, properly licensed and activated), you can follow the same steps I did to install Windows 10 as an upgrade.īefore getting started, I recommend a few preliminary tasks that can head off potential problems: Want your own digital license to the latest Windows 10 version? Follow these instructions.

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