Going from Pirated to Legit windows

[vulpid]

This situation started around 3 months prior to when I recently bought my computer and had it built. At the time, I was completely new to pcs and did not know how to assemble them so I had a friend of mine build it for me. He said he could cover the price of windows for me, but what I had not known was that he had installed a pirated copy of windows.

Now 3 months Iater, I wanted to go to a genuine version of Win10 and am not sure how to go about it. Would I just use my current version of windows then get a key or something to make it genuine? Or would I have to completely wipe everything then buy windows then install?

I currently have a Pirated copy of Win7 Pro.

 

[CTurbo]

All you need is a genuine product key.

 

[rhysiam]

Buying Win10 will give you a product key. With that you can either do a fresh install and use your key to activate. Or alternatively, you can do an in-place upgrade with your current Win7 build to Win10. If the upgrade doesn't prompt you for a key during install, do the following once it's up and running...

Right click on your Win10 start menu and choose "System"
Under the "Windows Activation" section you'll see a "Change Product Key" option.
Hit that, put in your genuine Win10 key that you purchased and it should activate and you're good to go with a fully legit setup.

 

[vulpid]

Buying Win10 will give you a product key. With that you can either do a fresh install and use your key to activate. Or alternatively, you can do an in-place upgrade with your current Win7 build to Win10. If the upgrade doesn't prompt you for a key during install, do the following once it's up and running...

Right click on your Win10 start menu and choose "System"
Under the "Windows Activation" section you'll see a "Change Product Key" option.
Hit that, put in your genuine Win10 key that you purchased and it should activate and you're good to go with a fully legit setup.

I would prefer to do a fresh install as I've heard they're are malware problems with pirated versions of windows. Is this true?
To go about fresh installing would I do that from my windows, or would I wipe everything then go to the bios or something? Sorry if thats a stupid question.

 

[FALC0N]

It depends on how it was done.

 

[rhysiam]

I would prefer to do a fresh install as I've heard they're are malware problems with pirated versions of windows. Is this true?
To go about fresh installing would I do that from my windows, or would I wipe everything then go to the bios or something? Sorry if thats a stupid question.

There are heaps of Win10 install guides available. Here's one that looks okay to me at a quick glance: http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/software/operating-systems/1401617/how-to-clean-install-windows-10-and-create-boot-media

RE pirated versions, yes, some come with all sorts. There's no way to know for sure. In any case, if you're prepared to do a fresh install it's a good idea, it's always the cleaner way to go.

Have you got an SSD already? If not, and if you have a bit of room in the budget, this would be the perfect opportunity to grab yourself an SSD. Just buy your Windows key and create the installation media (USB or DVD, instructions in the various guides including the one above). Then shutdown the computer, connect up your SSD and temporarily disconnect the HDD, boot up, install Windows on the SSD. Once it's all up and running happily, you can connect your HDD again (with power off), then boot up and clean it up or completely reformat it if there's nothing you want on it. You've then got your superfast SSD for the OS and key programs and the HDD to store non performance critical games/music/documents/videos, etc. Anything that won't fit on the SSD.

An SSD makes a massive difference to the responsiveness of the computer. It will boot and open programs waaay faster. Absolutely worth doing if you can afford it and don't have one already. We can make some suggestions if that's helpful?

The other advantage to that approach is that you install Win10 without touching your current build. So if something goes wrong with the install and you get stuck, you can always disconnect the SSD and reconnect the HDD again and boot back into your current copy of Windows to try and read up or figure out how to sort out whatever went wrong.
Not essential by any means, but for sure worthwhile if you can.

 

[Math Geek]

when doing the upgrade to win 10, there is an option to wipe the hard drive and delete everything. this is the fresh install you want. as already said, once upgraded put in a win 10 key you purchased and you're good to go.

i do agree with the fresh install, never know what is included with pirated versions. better safe than sorry.

 

[FALC0N]

How do you know it's a pirated version?