Clean Install Windows 11 Surface Laptop 4

Question

I recently bought a used surface laptop 4 and have been trying to do a clean install of Windows 11 but have a number of issues.

1. It is requiring a work or school Microsoft account, I only have a personal account. I guess it is trying to install Windows 11 Pro, can I force it to use home? I tried creating an ei.cfg file but the installation ignores it.
2. I tried using a work account that I have for a non profit I volunteer for which the installation accepted but then the installation hangs on the "please wait while we set up your devices".
3. I can install windows 10 but the upgrade to windows 11 got all the way to thend (hours later) and failed, saying please try again.

Any thoughts on how to get windows 11 running on it?

Thanks

Answer 1

Hello Josh

Thank you so much for posting in Microsoft Community.

I do appreciate you raising this concern to us, and I understand that you are having issues with doing a clean installation of your Surface Laptop 4. You got me here; we'll definitely sort this out together.

Basically, there is actually a different way in doing a clean installation to your Surface Laptop 4 which actually wipes out everything from the Surface and reinstall a new operating system whether it is a Windows 10 or Windows 11 depending on your choice. However, in doing so we need to have the following:

• USB Flash Drive (Not less than 16 GB or not more than 32 GB)
• A working computer that runs in Windows and can connect to an Internet connection.

Here is the step-by-step process of the clean installation:

HOW TO DOWNLOAD, CREATE AND USE A USB RECOVERY DRIVE -

1. Visit the page to Download the recovery image for your Surface
2. Sign in with your Microsoft Account
3. From the list of Surface devices available, select the device that you need a recovery image for
   Please note that while you will only be presented with devices that are currently registered on your account, you will also be presented with the option to get an image for a different type of device. If you try to use this option, you will be prompted to enter the serial number for your Surface device.
4. Download the recovery image using the button on the page
5. When the download bar pops up at the bottom of your screen, save the file in a location you will be able to find it.

 Format USB Drive:

• Note: Formatting a recovery drive will erase anything that is already stored on your USB drive. Make sure to transfer any important data from your USB drive to another storage device before using it to create a Surface
  USB recovery drive.

1. Insert your USB drive into the USB port of your PC.
2. From the desktop, open File Explorer
3. Tap and hold or right-click on the USB drive and choose Format
4. Select FAT32 as the file system and enter a Volume label to name the USB drive, such as RECOVERY, and then tap or click Start
5. Tap or click OK to erase the contents of the USB drive
6. Tap or click OK when the format is complete

Create a recovery drive:

1. On your Surface or PC, open recovery image that you downloaded by double-clicking it or right click then select Extract and then Extract all.
2. Select the USB drive you formatted earlier for the location and click Extract.

Use a USB recovery drive to reset your Surface:

1. Shutdown the Surface
2. Insert the USB recovery drive into the USB port
3. Press and hold the volume-down (-) rocker
4. Press and release the power button
5. When the Surface logo appears, release the volume-down (-) rocker
6. Surface will start the recovery software on the USB recovery drive
7. When prompted, choose your language options and keyboard layout
8. Select Troubleshoot
9. Select Recover from a Drive. Choose Remove Everything and Fully Clean the Drive. Recovering this PC.
10. If prompted, select Repartition the drives
11. If prompted for BitLocker Key, tap Skip this Drive and continue with the reimaging process.

Please let me know if this works for you. Hopefully it helps!

Kind regards,

Rolando S.

Answer 2

Thanks for the reply, I will follow those steps but I am concerned that I will still run into the issue where I can't proceed during the installation without a Microsoft work or school account. Are you saying your are familiar with that issue and these steps will resolve it?

Josh

Answer 3

Hello Josh,

Sorry for the late response. This kind of clean installation will wipe out everything from the Surface. All throughout the process, it won't ask you any work or school account to proceed. Just follow all the steps that I provided to you, and you're Surface will be good to go.

Please let me know if that helps you. I will appreciate your response.

Best wishes,

Rolando S.

Answer 4

Rolando, I ended up resolving the issue but took a different route. The download failed after about 6 hours (it was halfway through). It's a pretty big download on a very slow server so folks should be aware that it could take days. I did a clean install of w10 and applied all of the w10 updates and then waited for the w11 update to be available which takes a day. Upgrading to w11 through the windows update option in settings worked fine. I appreciate your efforts, if Microsoft is listening, the requirement for a work or school account was pretty frustrating and served no purpose.

Answer 5

Hello Josh,

We are happy to hear that the problem you had with Surface has been resolved. We’re glad we were able to help you!

To help other customers searching for help on related issues, please feel free to mark the response you found most helpful by clicking “Yes” on the bottom of that post. This will ensure the helpful responses are most visible when searching (and you can vote more than once if the solution was spread over multiple posts).

Thanks again for choosing Microsoft!

Sincerely,

Rolando S.