Reinstalling Windows on a gifted used computer

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Reinstalling Windows on a gifted used computer

Anonymous

A friend gave me her old laptop, which has Windows 10 on it, but I'm finding it's performance lacking as she had lots of stuff on it and I can't figure out what is the issue.

I want to upgrade to Windows 11 with a completely clean install, erasing all data and apps. Can I do that directly or do I need to first reinstall Windows 10, then upgrade to 11?

Also, what about the digital license, is it attached to the machine or her Microsoft account?

Thanks for your help.

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Answer 1

Hello Jeffrey, this is Emily.

Your computer is most likely on an OEM license. In this case, you don't need to worry about license. A clean install will not ask for product key and will pick up from the OEM license already registered to the motherboard. If you want to be sure, you can type cmd in the search on the taskbar and hit enter to launch command prompt, then run this command:

slmgr /dlv

A pop up window will let you know if it is OEM license.

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As for the clean install. You can always run the PC health check app first to make sure the computer meets the Windows 11 requirement. https://aka.ms/GetPCHealthCheckApp Then you can determine if you should clean install Windows 10 or 11. If the computer is not working properly and for some reason you cannot run the PC health check app, then you can always clean install Windows 10, then run the app, and decide if you want to upgrade after that.

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Here is clean install instruction for Windows 10.

To perform a clean installation of Windows 10 using the Windows Media Creation Tool:

The following steps should be done on a working Windows computer:

Download the Windows Media Creation Tool from Microsoft's official website. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-downlo...

Run the tool and select "Create installation media for another PC."

Choose your language, edition, and architecture (32 or 64-bit) and select "Next."

Choose "USB flash drive" as the media to use for the installation and select "Next."

Connect a USB flash drive with at least 8 GB of free space to your computer.

Select the USB flash drive you want to use, and then select "Next."

The tool will then download the required files and create the installation media.

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Now these steps will be done on your problematic computer:

Go to the computer's BIOS boot menu to have it boot from the USB drive.

Follow the on-screen instructions to install Windows 10, making sure to choose "Custom install" and select the option to delete all existing partitions.

Once the installation is complete, you'll have a clean installation of Windows 10 on your computer.

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If you need to do Windows 11 clean install, the steps are the same, but you use this link instead:

https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/win...

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Reinstalling Windows on a gifted used computer

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