The good news is that the saved image includes all the drivers, utilities, and hardware support so that all your devices work as designed, as soon as you sign in for the first time. If you purchased a PC with Windows 10 preinstalled, you might have the option to revert to the original image that the manufacturer supplied. Here are the pros and cons of each method, along with some advice on when to employ each one. Done right, the result is a PC that starts from a known good state, with either the default Windows 10 configuration or a previously tested configuration that includes specific third-party software and drivers.īy my count, there are four ways to do a clean install (short of buying a new PC).
You might be repurposing an old but still serviceable PC for use by someone else in your family or your organization. You can find plenty of perfectly good reasons to do a clean install. Are you looking for Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro? Not sure? Learn more about Windows 10 versions at Microsoft.