First of all, I'm coming from Windows 7. I'm one that was able to upgrade to Windows 10 for free.
Am I able to perform a clean install of Windows 10 using the same license I currently have on Windows 10? How would I obtain my current key, then? Is it s imply the Product ID listed under Control Panel>System ?
Can I download a copy of the installation media which already contains the AU update?
How would I install Windows 10 onto a M.2 drive? Is it as easy as picking the hard drive to install Windows on during setup?
You could just use "reset my pc".
Alternatively, create bootable usb stick or dvd
Windows 10
Boot from it, choose custom install, delete all partitions on drive you want to use (backup data first of course), and skip key entry as not needed as you have already upgraded.
If you clean install, activation is automatic as you've already installed Win 10.
You can freely download both current and previous Win 10 major builds.
Windows 10 ISO Download - Windows 10 blog
I've done this once before where I had to start back with Windows 7. When I was done, I'd noticed that my Music folder with the ripped content reappeared, as if Microsoft backed it up and downloaded it to my PC. Does that seem right? Will that happen again?
MS doesn't do that with your data on disk. A clean install is meant to be just that- no added extras. Backups are firmly your responsibility- and here we strongly recommend disk imaging to help you restore your PC to a previous working state as well as acting as a backup.
Note there are other ways of repairing Windows that may help- e.g. an in-place upgrade repair install which keeps all programs, data, most settings. There's a Tutorial on how to do that.
If that music was in your OneDrive music folder it will show up again once you log in with that same Microsoft ID.
I ended up doing an in place install, I think it's called. sfc /scannow finally works but I still am having troubles with my USB flash drive. It's a PNY GB, I'd never had a problem with it, but I'm going to try it on another computer later on today. Other than that, my computer is now running just fine.
Actually they do with windows 8 or newer and you are using a MS account to log in to your computer with sync turned on. If you have a large enough one drive, you can tell it to sync what ever you want and it will back it up for you. I do it at home so all my computers and laptops are identical, as well as I do it here at work in our enterprise environment. When ever I log into a users windows 10 pc I get my desktop with my wallpapers, favorites etc.MS doesn't do that with your data on disk. A clean install is meant to be just that- no added extras. Backups are firmly your responsibility- and here we strongly recommend disk imaging to help you restore your PC to a previous working state as well as acting as a backup.Note there are other ways of repairing Windows that may help- e.g. an in-place upgrade repair install which keeps all programs, data, most settings. There's a Tutorial on how to do that.
..er .. whatever you want?
"When sync is turned on, Windows 10 keeps track of your theme, apps, Internet Explorer settings, passwords, language preferences, Ease of Access, and other Windows settingsyou care about and sets (syncs) them for you on all your Windows 10 devices that you sign in to with your same Microsoft account."
- but not the bulk of your user data...which is what I had in mind...sorry that wasn't clear enough. Could you confirm?
