This is the second video in my mini-series about factory resetting and reinstalling a windows10 PC.
I usually do this about once a year to give my tech life a clean reset
and make my PC feel brand new again. If you missed the first episode in this series,
this episode builds upon that so I'll link it up HERE but also down below in the description,
hit the little arrow next to the title on mobile to see all the links for references.
With all that said, let's go ahead and pick it up where we left off in the last video.
Today we're actually going through the process of resetting the PC and reinstalling Windows
10. You've already prepped the PC in the last episode so I'm going to assume that you already
followed that one and are ready for step 2! If you're starting here, I strongly advise
watching the first episode first, because I did give some really good pro tips in terms
of backing up and prepping drivers and apps. Power off your PC and plug in your new Windows
10 Installation Media Flashdrive. Your intention is to boot up off this flashdrive
which will prompt the installation. 1 Power on your PC. Your PC may try to
automatically just boot into your current Windows 10 install. If that's the case, you can change
which drive (your internal SSD or harddrive vs the new flashdrive) it tries to boot off of
first before trying the other ones. You may need to change the boot order in your BIOS or
UEFI settings, which is kinda like where all your PC tower's settings lie, so press F2 or F10
when prompted to do so and change those settings and hit save. Usually this is found
when you see your motherboards Logo (like mine is Republic of Gamers). When you open your UEFI,
find a menu for "boot" and change Boot Option #1 to your new flashdrive. You can then disable
or override any other ones that try to take priority for booting.
Save and boot. Every manufacturer has a different looking BIOS or
UEFI menu, so yours may not look like this. 2 The flashdrive will toss you into the regular
Windows 10 install process. It'll first ask for your language and keyboard format, hit Next and
Install Now. You can then enter your product key, or skip this and add it later. I skipped it. Then
you choose your Windows 10 version. I have Windows 10 Pro so thats what I chose. You'll
need to accept the Microsoft terms then choose either Upgrade or Custom install. I did custom.
3 This pops you into a menu that shows all your disk partitions. This might show multiple
partitions even if you only have one drive actually installed in your computer. Mine
shows two because I was lazy and I didn't remove my Games drive, which was that Firecuda m.2 NVME
drive you saw installed in the last video. The Crucial NVME is the one I'm installing Windows on.
4 If you didn't follow those directions in the last video where I said unplug all your
data drives except for the one for Windows, and you have more than one drive installed,
make ABSOLUTELY sure you're formatting drives that have nothing important on
them. and MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE you choose the correct drive to install Win10 on.
5 In here, I basically just deleted ALL of the partitions that I didn't need anymore,
which was all of them because there was nothing on them except for my old Windows 10 install.
I then formatted the main drive that will be the new Windows 10 drive.
6 This will then start installing Windows 10 and getting your files ready. This part
may take some time so sit back and wait! BUT, the nice part is... you left the ethernet unplugged,
so it's not going to connect and search for anything to download yet, so it shouldn't take too
outrageously long. You're also installing windows 10 from a local flashdrive, so there's no
big files that need to be downloaded in order to install Windows 10. Don't worry about updates...
we can do that later. While you're waiting, subscribe to this channel for more educational
tech content just like this! 7
So this is an important menu and one of the reasons why I always recommend doing a fresh
install. I always do a custom fresh install, not a recovery or restore and keep files.
Fresh install also lets you choose to disable cortana and all of these privacy invasive settings
before you even connect for the first time. TAKE YOUR TIME on this menu and disable everything.
Don't just skip through real quick because you could be leaving on privacy invasive settings.
8 Since the computer has no connection to the internet it'll also ask you to plug in
internet or set up a Microsoft account. Since you aren't connected, if you try to set up a Microsoft
account, it'll throw up an error. The alternative is to create a local account. Unless you want
to use a Microsoft account, you can skip this setting and just create a local login that has
absolutely no link to a Microsoft account, if you have one. Logging in to your computer using
a Microsoft account gives you less privacy, so I always recommend a local account unless for some
reason you need everything to be connected to your microsoft account - like if you use paid Microsoft
services and apps, you have a network profile, work requires it, or you want profile info
stored in the cloud. These are all justifiable reasons, just not something I need, so I do a
local account. Microsoft may try to force you into creating or using your microsoft account, but if
you aren't connected to the internet, you can skip that option and just create a local one. This is
another case where taking your time and not just clicking next, next, next will serve you better.
9 Once you've created your account to login, set up a lock screen, and Windows
10 will tell you it's getting everything ready. 10 And that's it! You should see the system boot
into Windows 10 and allow you to log in to your new local account. If you've chosen to connect to
the internet for a Microsoft account, it'll ask you to log into that Microsoft account.
Then you should see your desktop and you're ready for the last video in this series.
11 See how quick and painless it is? It's way faster when you aren't connected to the internet
and gets you back into the desktop without any issues.
Do you have any tips for reinstalling Windows10? Leave 'em in the comments below! Thanks again to
my smores for subscribing and watching. I'm Shannon Morse and I'll see ya soon. Bye yall!