How To Install Windows 10

How To Install Windows 10…

I’ve had this little icon in my system tray for months now promising to notify me when I can install Windows 10. When it fist appeared I followed the quick instructions advising me to “click here” and get on the list. Days, weeks and then months went by and no change. It seems there’s a really long queue or maybe there was an error somewhere. In any case, I wanted to get Windows 10 installed. I was going to have to manually install it. I learned two things, trying to find the actual install file took me forever! But, actually installing it? It was the easiest install I’ve ever done. I’m writing this to save you some time if you want to get this installed yourself.

This isn’t a full tutorial. This is just here to get you to the tool you’ll need to download so that you can actually Windows 10.

First thing you need to do is go to this page and download the Media Creation Tool. Before you download the tool you need to decide on either the 32bit or the 64bit exe file. Chances are if you have a newer PC you’re going to need the 64 bit tool. But, if you don’t know, you can quickly check what version of the system you’re running now.

To find out if your computer is running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows in Windows 7 or Windows Vista, do the following: Open System by clicking the Start button , right-clicking Computer, and then clicking Properties. Under System, you can view the system type.

The link to the actual documentation from MS. Click Here.

Just getting to this point took me about a half-hour because most links and tutorial sites for some reason link to pages that want you to download this file GWXWebWindows.exe and all this file does is basically either install or open up the same app that’s been sitting in my system tray promising me the Windows 10 install that never came.

So I once I finally found the MediaCreationToolx64.exe file on the Media Creation Tool page all I pretty much had to do was double click and just answer the questions. It’s so easy and there’s only a couple of questions you need to answer.

When you open the exe file (below is what you’ll see). What this allowing you to do is either install Windows 10 right now on your PC but choosing the “Upgrade this PC now” and simply answering a few simple questions and this install does the rest. Literally it does most of the work. I sat there for about an hour or so while it just did it’s thing. The second option asks a few more questions but basically it allows you download the actual installation file or files so that they can be saved to an external drive and then be used to install Windows 10 on other PC’s. It’s all real simple. All you need to do is choose a couple of options.

After choosing the “upgrade this PC now” option the only thing you really need to be careful about is choosing whether you’re going to want a “Clean Install” or just an “Upgrade.” Basically, a clean install is going to delete everything on the drive you are installing windows on. Then it will install your new windows version. This means, any programs you’ve installed that are not part of the Windows 10 operating system will have to be reinstalled. Things like Photoshop and other programs you may have installed in the past will be gone. It also means any photos you have on the drive or videos will be deleted. So if you go this route, make sure to copy all that stuff to another drive or external drive before you proceed.

If you chose the upgrade option, it will basically, upgrade you to the new version of Windows but it doesn’t delete your files and programs. So, for example, when I did this last week, I upgraded and it took about an hour or so. When it was done, I opened up my browser and pretty much went on with my internet life. Photoshop, Sony Vegas Pro, my photos and videos were all intact.

Under the photo I will provide some links to more specific information.