Then open File Explorer (Windows Explorer in Windows 7) and double-click Setup to install Windows 10. USB flash drive Insert the USB flash drive you just created into a free USB slot on the PC you want to upgrade.The exact steps depend on which download option you chose: The download takes a little time but when it's complete, you can run the Windows Setup program manually to install Windows 10 on any PC running any supported Windows version (sorry, this won't work with PCs running Windows Vista or Windows XP). If you know you'll want to upgrade to Windows 10 on more than one PC, or if you just want more flexibility in the event that the instant upgrade fails, choose the second option and save the installation files to a USB drive or as an ISO file.

After the download completes, double-click the executable file to run the Media Creation Tool.ģ reasons why I prefer this $300 Android over Google's Pixel 6a With those preliminaries out of the way, go to the Download Windows 10 webpage and click the Download now button. (Several common installation errors can be traced to the Setup program being confused by these additional drives.)

Finally, disconnect any unnecessary external devices, especially USB flash drives and external hard drives.

You can reinstall those programs after the upgrade is complete.

Temporarily uninstall third-party security software and low-level system utilities that can interfere with the upgrade.

Just run the command Sdclt.exe, and then choose the Create A System Image option. Consider doing a full system backup to an external hard drive using the Windows 7 backup program, which is also available in Windows 8.x and Windows 10.

Back up your data files to an external hard drive or cloud storage (or both).

Download and install any available BIOS updates for your hardware this step is especially important for systems that were originally designed in 2017 or earlier, when hardware makers were still shaking out issues with Windows 10.

Check for any recent driver updates, especially for network and storage hardware.

This is especially important if you recently reinstalled Windows.

Confirm that your copy of Windows is activated.

How to manage your security questions for a local Windows accountīefore getting started, I recommend a few preliminary tasks that can head off potential problems:

Windows 10 updates download