About to do that clean install to break the curse of the fibrillating cursor opening anything down lower left of my desktop 3X a second.
Bought this computer with Win 10 Home installed, no disc.
Previously did a save-my-files notsoclean install.
Now for the Clean Install.
Question: Should I trust the reinstall of the Windows already in the machine?
Or should I be trying to obtain a new disc or download?
Oohh….Question 2: will MS just cheerfully hand one over? (I found from EaseUs a little ap that claims to have found my installation key.)
You won't need a key. Since you already have Windows 10 on the computer, a digital license is stored on the Microsoft servers and will be retrieved and applied when you reinstall Windows 10.
Click on the Download tool now button and save the Media Creation tool to your Desktop.
Expand Using the tool to create installation media and follow the directions to create a USB flash drive (8GB or larger).
Disconnect any drive except the one you will be installing Windows 10 to.
Boot the flash drive.
During install when you get to the window where it shows you your drive, delete all the partitions so it is a unallocated disk with no partitions then click Next. The installer will create the partitions it needs and format them.
Install should only take 30 minutes or so.
If you want to use a Local account instead of a Microsoft Account, don't have the computer connected to the internet during the install. You can connect it after the install completes. I recommend using a Microsoft Account but the choice is yours.
Once it finishes, power down, reconnect any disconnected drives, power up, connect to the internet then do an immediate Windows Update. Once there click the Check for updates button. That will get you up to the latest service level which is currently 18382.387.
