Installing Fresh Windows

Installing new Windows is an everyday job to a computer technician. Some think that it it pretty amazing to know how it is done, but the reality is that this job is very, very boring and time consuming. Through out the install there is nothing to do for you, but just watch the estimated remaining time until it completes. Most of the work you do is type in the serial key number of your Windows CD.

Most new computers bought these days don't even come with a copy of Windows CD or a recovery CD, well, just a picture of it. They simply create a partition with an image of your default system setup which you can restore very easily. The partition is usually hidden so you don't get any ideas, in a way it is much easier for an average user to reinstall Windows without any hassle at all. But if you want flexibility you should do it yourself.

Most of the real work takes place before and after the actual OS installation. Before installing you need to find out and collect everything that you want to keep or backup. You must not forget to transfer any important documents or files to your USB stick, maybe burn those files onto a CD or DVD. Of course, you only need to save everything from the partition that has Windows installed. If you have a partition that contains all your important data on it you don't have to back it up because it is not your system partition, but it is recommended to partition your hard-drive again and clear everything.

Once you have all your music, videos, your favorites or bookmarks, everything from your desktop or maybe some important game saves or updates and files that programs may have created in one of Program Files folders. You have all your latest drivers ready for installing on a separate CD. Now you are almost ready to install fresh Windows, but just before you do that, check if your windows CD is in good condition, try to copy it onto your disk if you get no errors you are good to go, if you do get errors do not use that CD because your installation may end up to be corrupted or even failed.

When you have everything ready it is time for the actual install, but if you want to install windows from a CD, you must change your boot order or select to boot from CD you can do that in your system BIOS, check what keys you need to press to access it just in the first few seconds, when the computer is performing a self-test.

Once you load the CD, the rest is pretty simple, written in white on blue. Select the infected partition where you want to install new Windows on and delete it. From unallocated space that you now have, create a new partition and format it as NTFS file system. Once done Windows will copy needed files from the CD and reboot. Keep the CD in the drive but don't let it boot. From here Windows will load without the CD but it is needed to finish the installation. This is the time to put in your CD key, select your keyboard layout, choose your username. Create a name for you computer and a Workgroup. A few more settings and you are done with the installation, a final wizard comes on from Microsoft which you can skip most of it apart from creating a username.

Finally now you should see your new fresh default Windows desktop, if you do then, you have successfully completed Windows installation, but your work is not over just yet. Get your drivers out and all the necessary programs like anti-virus, Winrar, maybe Divx.

At this point you could create a recovery disk, create a restore point, create an image of your system and keep it separate so when next time you install, everything is ready and running. You could install another Windows on to a different partition for better protection against complete system crashes you can find out more about that in our post about Multiple OS PCs.

We hope you enjoyed reading this post, we hope this information was helpful to you. Comeback soon for more great tips, tricks, solutions and fixes for your beloved PC!