Sometimes, the best way to fix deep-seated

Windows issues is to burn everything to the ground

and start from scratch. Reinstalling Windows
refreshes the operating system, which gets rid of
most corruption, errors, and viruses. Microsoft has
tried to make this process easier with the Refresh
and Reset features starting with Windows 8, but
power users still might consider a good ol format
and clean install. A clean install using a stock
Windows disc or flash drive also gets rid of
programs and bloatware installed from the factory.
If you take advantage of Microsofts free offer to
upgrade Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 to Windows 10, the
default method is an in-place upgrade. This sounds
convenient since its supposed to keep all your files
and programs intact, but as an IT professional Ive
seen many issues arise from this upgrade method,
such as system slowness, errors, and other strange
behaviors. A clean install of Windows 10 requires
more effort, but eradicates all those potential
headaches as well as any lingering bloatware on
your PC.
Upgrading to Windows 10 via a clean install is
much easier since the big Version 1511 November
update, which allows you to clean install Windows
10 and activate it using a Windows 7, 8, or 8.1
product key. Before this update, you had to do an
in-place upgrade in order to get the free upgrade

offer from Microsoft, and then you could do a clean

install of Windows 10. Now you can skip the inbetween step.
Performing a clean install the right way takes some
pre-wipe prep work in order to preserve your files
and other saved data, though. Heres everything
you need to know, step-by-step.
Get a backup drive

To save your files and data, you need some type of

backup drive, which could be an external USB hard
drive, a USB flash drive if its big enough, or even a
secondary internal hard drive if your PC has one.

Further reading: If we show you how to back

up your PC for free, will you finally do it?
If youre backing up to a secondary internal drive,
be sure its physically a different drive than your
main drive. Drives can be partitioned so they
appear as different drives in Windows but are
actually the same physical drive. If you save your
data to a partitioned space, you could lose the data
when doing the clean Windows install. So if youre
unsure what you have, use an external hard drive
or flash drive.
Back up personal files and documents
First, back up the usual user folders, which is where
you likely have stored all or most of your personal
files and documents. Go to the Users directory of
Windowstypically C:\Users. Here youll see a
folder for each Windows user as well as a Public
folder. You may see multiple user folders even
though you have one Windows user; check each
folder.

Here are the usual folders you should see for each
Windows user account.
Also browse through your main hard drive (typically
the C drive) to see if youve saved any personal
files or documents in unusual places.
Prep programs for reinstall
Consider making a list of all the installed programs
you want to reinstall later on the clean Windows
installation. To refresh your memory on what
programs you have currently installed on your PC,

take a look at your Start Menu (or Start Screen in

Windows 8 and 8.1) or navigate to Control Panel >
Programs > Programs and Features.
Further reading: Your new PC needs these 15
free, excellent programs
For each program, figure out how youd reinstall it.
Is it offered free via its website? If you purchased it,
do you have a disc or can you log in to the site
where you purchased it to download again, and do
you have any required product key to activate it?
Youll want to answer these questions before
wiping out the programs during a clean install.
For commercial software youve purchased, such as
Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop, you may be
able to retrieve the product keys stored on your
computer using a tool like ProduKey or Magical Jelly
Bean Keyfinder. After reinstalling Windows, you
may be able to download a setup file or a trial of
the same version of the software and then activate
it using that retrieved product key. Some software,
such as Microsoft Office 2013 and later and some
antivirus programs, allows you to log into its
website to download the setup file and get the
product key.

Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder allows you to save the

product keys for many programs.
You can get more details on how to download and
reinstall Microsoft Office from the Office website.
For each program, check to see if you need to save
or export additional data for restoration after you
reinstall Windows. Some programs also store data
in the cloud, which typically allows you to simply
log in to restore your data after reinstalling the
software on your clean Windows build. For
instance, Chrome and Firefox each allow you to
sync your data to an online profile. The syncing
stores your bookmarks, saved passwords, and
settings online.
If you dont use your web browsers syncing option,
you may want to manually save your bookmarks

before wiping your system. Internet Explorers

bookmarks are saved in the Favorites folder of your
user directory, which we already discussed how to
back up. Also consider exporting your saved
passwords if youre not utilizing a browser sync
option. WebBrowserPassView is a quick and easy
way to round up passwords stored by all the
popular browsers.

WebBrowserPassView can list and save all the

passwords stored by most web browsers.
If you have Windows 8, 8.1, or 10, consider signing
into a Microsoft account if you havent already.
Microsoft accounts let you sync your Windows apps

(moderns apps, not traditional applications) and

their settings, your Windows theme, your Internet
Explorer settings, your saved passwords, and other
miscellaneous Windows settings across multiple
computers. Signing into Windows after the clean
install with that same Microsoft account should
restore these settings, making restoration a
breeze.
If you use a desktop email client program such as
Microsoft Outlook or Mozillas Thunderbird, take a
look at the server settings of your email accounts.
If theyre set up as IMAP, your messages are likely
stored on the email server. If theyre setup as
POP3, however, the emails are downloaded to your
computer and may not be stored on the server. In
other words, youll want to save or export the
emails for accounts using POP3. For either method,
make note of the incoming and outgoing server
addresses and settings. If youve forgotten the
email server passwords, you can use a utility like
Mail PassView to recover them.

Mail PassView can quickly reveal your saved

passwords for email client applications like
Outlook.
If you have games and would like to save your
settings or games, either search online about how
to back up and restore individual games, or use a
utility like GameSave Manager to perform backups
on multiple games.
Back up your drivers
After a clean install of Windows, the drivers for
your hardware must be reinstalled. In Windows 8
and 10, most drivers are reinstalled automatically
by Windows. In Windows 7, youll likely have a
couple drivers you must manually reinstall before
all hardware is working correctly.
Though PC manufacturers typically allow you to
download hardware drivers from their websites,
sometimes its hard to identify exactly which ones
you need. So consider backing up your current

drivers before performing a clean install or upgrade

especially if its Windows 7using a utility like
DriverBackup!. You can then restore the drivers, if
needed, after the clean install, or just utilize the list
of saved drivers to identify which drivers you need
and download the most up-to-date drivers from the
manufacturer's website.

DriverBackup! can back up/restore all drivers, or

those for OEM or third-party hardware only.
Download Windows and obtain a product key
Before you can do a clean install of Windows you
need to create the installation mediaa disc or
flash drive you can boot from to run the setupif
you dont already have it.
You can download Windows 7, 8.1, and 10 directly
from Microsoft and and follow the directions to
create the disc or flash drive. Currently, Microsoft
doesnt appear to offer a download for the first
version of Windows 8. If you have a Windows 8 key,
remember it wont activate 8.1, so upgrading to
Windows 10 might be the easiest option if you
dont have a Windows 8 disc.

Michael King
A product key sticker on a Windows 7 PC.
Make sure you have a valid product key for the
particular Windows version and edition youre
clean installing in order to activate Windows
afterwards. For Windows 7 computers, look for the
Windows product key on a label physically
somewhere on the computer. If you cant find the
sticker, the product key recovery tools discussed
earlier can also retrieve the Windows product key
stored on your computer.
Starting with Windows 8, product key stickers
arent placed on the computers. For Windows 8 and

8.1, the Windows key is typically stored in the BIOS

of the computer, which means Windows should
automatically detect and use the stored key even
during clean installs. I still suggest retrieving the
stored key using a tool, as welljust in case. For
Windows 10, the product key or digital entitlement
is stored on Microsoft servers and should be
automatically downloaded if the computer was
running Windows 10 prior to your clean install.
As mentioned before, if youre doing the free
upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7, 8, or 8.1,
you can now clean install Windows 10 and activate
using your old Windows product key.

Even though the installation media for Windows 8

is free, youll still need a valid product key to install
it.
Thats it! Youre done with the hard part. Now that
all the prep work is done, slapping your installation
media into your PC and setting up a fresh Windows
installation should be an easy-peasy step-by-step
process. If your computer doesnt boot into the
installation media when you restart it, you may
need to dive into its BIOS settings and change its
boot order, or press a key during the boot process

to access a boot menu and choose a boot device

other than your primary hard drive.
One final note: If youre prompted for a product key
for any reason when clean installing any Windows
version, I suggest inputting it then, not skipping to
do later. If theres an issue with the keymaybe
you chose the wrong Windows edition or an OEM
key isnt workingyou want to know before you
blow away your current Windows installation.
How to Format a Computer with Windows 7
Warning - Formatting hard drive information does
not permanently erase the data. Even after a
computer has been formatted, deleted files can be
easily recovered. If you want to permanently wipe
your hard drive by completely overwritting hard
drive data, check out WipeDrive.
To format your hard disk during Windows 7
installation, you'll need to start, or boot, your
computer using the Windows 7 installation disc or
USB flash drive.
1.Turn on your computer so that Windows starts
normally, insert the Windows 7 installation disc
or USB flash drive, and then shut down your
computer.
2.Restart your computer.

3.Press any key when prompted, and then follow

the instructions that appear.
4.On the Install Windows page, enter your
language and other preferences, and then
click Next.
5.If the Install Windows page doesn't appear,
and you're not asked to press any key, you
might need to change some system settings.
To learn how to do this, see Start your
computer from a Windows 7 installation disc or
USB flash drive.
On the Please read the license terms page, if
you accept the license terms, click I accept the
license terms, and then click Next.
On the Which type of installation do you
want? page, click Custom.
On the Where do you want to install
Windows? page, click Drive options (advanced).
Click the partition that you want to format and
click Format.
If you have more than one partition on this hard
drive and want to get rid them to make one big
drive again, then select a partition and click on the
Delete option for each partition. Once you have
deleted all of the partitions, select

the Unallocated Space partition and

click Format.
Pick the formatting option that you want.
When you've finished formatting, click Next.
Follow the instructions to finish installing Windows
7, which include naming your computer and setting
up an initial user account.
If you do not want to reinstall Windows 7, you can
cancel the installation at this point and keep your
newly formatted drives.
How to Format a Computer with Windows
Vista
Warning - Formatting hard drive information does
not permanently erase the data. Even after a
computer has been formatted, deleted files can be
easily recovered. If you want to permanently wipe
your hard drive by completely overwritting hard
drive data, check out WipeDrive.
To format your hard disk during Windows Vista
installation, you'll need to start, or boot, your
computer using the Windows Vista installation disc
or USB flash drive.

1.Turn on your computer so that Windows starts

normally, insert the Windows Vista installation
disc, and then shut down your computer.
2.Restart your computer.
3.Press any key when prompted, and then follow
the instructions that appear.
4.On the Install Windows page, follow any
instructions that are displayed, and then
click Install now.
5.If the Install Windows page doesn't appear,
and you're not asked to press any key, you
might need to change some system settings.
To learn how to do this, see Start Windows from
a CD or DVD.
On the Get important updates for installation page,
we recommend getting the latest updates to help
ensure a successful installation and to help protect
your computer against security threats. You will
need an Internet connection to get installation
updates.
On the Type your product key for
activation page, do one of the following:
1.If you are reinstalling Windows Vista, you
should enter your product key now.

2.If you are not reinstalling Windows Vista, you

can skip this step.
On the Please read the license terms page, if you
accept the license terms, click I accept the license
terms.
On the Which type of installation do you
want? page, click Custom.
On the Where do you want to install
Windows? page, click Drive options
(advanced).
Click the partition that you want to format and
click Format
If you have more than one partition on this hard
drive and want to get rid them to make one big
drive again, then select a partition and click on the
Delete option for each partition. Once you have
deleted all of the partitions, select
the Unallocated Space partition and
click Format
Pick the formatting option that you want.
When you've finished formatting, click Next.
Follow the instructions to finish installing Windows
Vista, which include naming your computer and
setting up an initial user account.

If you do not want to reinstall Windows Vista, you

can cancel the installation at this point and keep
your newly formatted drives.
How to Format a Computer with Windows XP
Warning - Formatting hard drive information
does not permanently erase the data. Even
after a computer has been formatted, deleted
files can be easily recovered. If you want to
permanently wipe your hard drive by
completely overwritting hard drive data, check
out WipeDrive.
1.The first step in learning how to format a
computer with Windows XP or 2000, is to insert
Windows CD and restart your computer.
2.Your computer should automatically boot from
the CD to the Windows Setup Menu.
3.At the Welcome to Setup page, press ENTER.
4.Press F8 to accept the Windows XP Licensing
Agreement.
5.If an existing Windows XP installation is
detected, you are prompted to repair it. To
bypass the repair, press ESC.
6.Use the ARROW keys to select the partition or
the unpartitioned space where you want to

create a new partition. Press D to delete an

existing partition, or press C to create a new
partition.
7.Type the size in megabytes (MB) that you want
to use for the new partition, and then press
ENTER, or just press ENTER to create the
partition with the maximum size.
8.Select the format option that you want to use
for the partition (Recommended: NTFS), and
then press ENTER.
9.After the Windows Setup program formats the
partition, follow the instructions that appear on
the screen to continue installing Windows.
How to Format with Windows 95, 98, or ME
Warning - Formatting hard drive information does
not permanently erase the data. Even after a
computer has been formatted, deleted files can be
easily recovered. If you want to permanently wipe
your hard drive by completely overwritting hard
drive data, check out WipeDrive.
To reinstall Windows, you need a Startup
Diskette and a Windows Installation CD.
Download the Startup Diskette Creator

Note: We recommend using the Startup Diskette

available on this page. Other Windows Startup
Diskettes may not work with the following steps.
1.Insert the Startup Diskette into the floppy drive
and restart your computer.
2.Select option #1 - Start the computer with CDROM support.
3.After a minute or so, you will see "A:>_".
4.Type "fdisk" and press Enter.
5.If asked to enable large disk support, select Y
for Yes. (Note: Some versions of Windows 95
may not be compatible with large disk support.
Select N here if it does not support the FAT32
file system.)
6.Select Option #1 - Create DOS partition or
Logical DOS Drive.
7.Select Option #1 - Create Primary DOS
Partition.
8.The drive integrity will be verified.
9.Unless you are planning to make multiple
partitions, select Y when asked if you want to
use the maximum available size for the
partition and to make the partition active.
10.

The drive integrity will be verified again.

11. When completed press the Esc key to exit

fdisk.
12. Without removing the floppy disk, press the
reset button on the computer or press the keys
Ctrl then Alt then Delete and release them
together. This will restart the computer.
13. Again, select the option to Start the
computer with CD-ROM support.
When you see A:>, directly above it is a
message about your CD-ROM drive. It will tell
you the letter assigned to your CD-ROM drive,
take note of it.
14. At the A:>, type "format C:" and press
Enter.
15. Press the Y key then the enter key when
asked if you want to proceed with the format.
16. The format will probably take some time,
so be patient.
17. You will be asked to choose a Volume Label,
which is a name for your hard drive. It has no
effect on the operation of your computer, you
may choose any name you like.
Reinstalling older versions of Windows

How to Reinstall Windows XP

1.To reinstall Windows XP or 2000, imply insert
Windows CD and restart your computer.
2.If your hard drive has not been formatted,
Windows XP will walk you through the
formatting process described above
3.Your computer will automatically boot from the
CD and begin the installation process
How to Reinstall Windows 95, 98, or ME
1.After formatting your hard drive as described
above, insert the Startup Diskette into the
floppy drive and restart your computer.
2.Select option #1 - Start the computer with CDROM support.
3.After a minute or so, you will see "A:>_".
4.Place the Windows Install CD into the CD-ROM
drive.
5.Type "E:" (where E is the letter assigned to the
CD-ROM drive) and press Enter key.
6.Type "dir" and press Enter. You will see
something like the following:

7.Volume in drive E is 020409_1121 Directory of

E: WIN98_SE <DIR> 04-09-02 11:21a 0 file(s)0
bytes 1 dir(s)0 bytes free
8.WIN98_SE is a directory, as indicated by the
"<DIR>" after it.
9.Type "cd WIN98_SE", replacing WIN98_SE with
the result from above, then press the Enter key.
10.

Type "dir" and press the Enter key.

11. If you see: SETUP <DIR> somewhere in the

output, then type "cd SETUP" and press the
Enter key. Otherwise, skip this step.
12. Type "SETUP" and press the Enter key to
begin the Windows setup program.
13. Simply follow the prompts to install
Windows.
14. Remove the Windows Startup Diskette
when prompted.
WipeDrive: Wipe All Data Before Formatting
Deleted files can be recovered even after a
computer has been formatted!
A recent study of 129 old hard drives (many of
them formatted) revealed more than 5,000

credit card numbers, medical correspondences,

love letters, pornography, bank account
information, and other confidential data. To protect
yourself from identity theft, erase ALL data before
formatting a hard drive.
Do you need to know:
How to format a computer before selling or
donating a system.
How to format a computer to erase personal data
before returning it to an employer.
How to format a computer with an operating
system damaged by viruses or spyware.
How to format a computer in compliance with
government regulations (including HIPAA).
Learn how to format a computer to US Department
of Defense specifications. WipeDrive is one of only
five DoD approved products that knows how to
format a computer using the DoD 5220.22-M
standard for disk sanitation. This standard
involves far more than an ordinary drive format
and includes multiple overwrites with random
characters.
How to Format a Computer Securely With
WipeDrive

WipeDrive is an easy-to-use disk sanitizing tool that

boots from a CD or floppy disk.
Learning how to format a computer is as easy as
inserting the WipeDrive disk and restarting your
system.
WipeDrive will automatically load with prompts
indicating how to format computer hard drive data
to Department of Defense specifications.