[SOLVED] How to do a partial install of Win 10?

[box o rocks]

I want to sell some PCs with Win 10 installed only up to the point where the user enters the setup portion. But there's no option to gracefully back out of the install at that point. So I simply shut down the PC at that point with the power button. However, when I go to test it by booting back up, most of the time Win goes into a troubleshooting mode. I guess, because I shut down like I did.

I know a partial install can be done, because some rebuilt PCs I've bought have W10 installed to that exact same screen when you first turn them on. The screen where the user sets it up for his liking. Can anyone help me with that?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Reset with remove everything option - I think it does exactly, what you want.

 

[USAFRet]

What you're looking for is the OOBE. "Out Of Box Experience"

Start here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/customize/
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/wcd/wcd-oobe
https://www.groovypost.com/howto/setup-configure-new-windows-10-pc-clean-installation/

 

[britechguy]

Just remember if you're doing this that you will likely need to do several things first to wipe the data from the drive such that recovery tools can't get at it.

My usual procedure is:

1. Create a new local account with admin privileges. Log in to same.

2. Remove all other accounts from the machine.

3. Run the drive wiper of your choosing that has a "clean free space" option. Most of these don't literally clean, as in zero fill, that free space but do enough random bit twiddling in multiple passes that most recovery software (except, possibly, NSA-grade stuff) cannot reconstruct any files out of what's there.

Then I generally pass the machine along with that local admin account and its password to its next owner. It seems you do have the option of then actually doing what you propose, getting a fresh install of Win10 on up to the point where the initial user account is created. But you still need to have done a drive wipe first.

 

[box o rocks]

Thank you all for your helpful answers. I will start the process in a few days and report back if needed.
@ USAFRet
I've got some reading to do now! Thanks.

@ Britechguy
Good to know. I always do a 1-pass wipe, so I should be good there. I never set up a MS account. Always go w/offline account. So, do I need to do steps 1 and 2?

 

[box o rocks]

Reset with remove everything option - I think it does exactly, what you want.

How do I wipe the free space afterword?

 

[britechguy]

It doesn't matter whether the account is MS-Account linked or local. When files are created then later moved (by the OS) and/or deleted the actual data is not purged. What happens is all the "vacated blocks" on the drive are simply marked as free for use again. This is why recovery software can "undelete" files. It scans the drive looking for blocks that are the header block for a file, even if it's marked as free for reuse, and then attempts to follow the block chain that existed for that file to see if it can go through to the last block and build the copy of the deleted file out of that. Those are all still there when you delete an account, any account, and thus the data could be reconstructed by recovery software if a wiper is not run on the now free space on the system.

You don't wipe the free space afterward. You will do this before you ever start with the technique @USAFRet has suggested for setting up the machine such that it will be ready for its new owner to create an account. It's a precursor step.

 

[box o rocks]

It doesn't matter whether the account is MS-Account linked or local. When files are created then later moved (by the OS) and/or deleted the actual data is not purged. What happens is all the "vacated blocks" on the drive are simply marked as free for use again. This is why recovery software can "undelete" files. It scans the drive looking for blocks that are the header block for a file, even if it's marked as free for reuse, and then attempts to follow the block chain that existed for that file to see if it can go through to the last block and build the copy of the deleted file out of that. Those are all still there when you delete an account, any account, and thus the data could be reconstructed by recovery software if a wiper is not run on the now free space on the system.

You don't wipe the free space afterward. You will do this before you ever start with the technique @USAFRet has suggested for setting up the machine such that it will be ready for its new owner to create an account. It's a precursor step.

OK. But I'm confused. If I never set up a MS account when I install to a freshly wiped drive, what local account would I be endangering?

 

[britechguy]

Define "Freshly wiped." Many people think that doing a Quick Format on a drive wipes it, but it doesn't. Many even believe that using diskpart and saying "clean" completely wipes it, but it doesn't. All of these things only mark the entire drive as "free space" that's available for use (or reuse - which is where the concern lies) and do nothing to actually purge the underlying data.

You can test this out for yourself using the system disk from any one of these machines after you've either reformatted it (quick, not complete) or used diskpart to clean a drive, and reinstall Windows 10. Then get Test Disk and run it on the unallocated space on that drive. You may need to use PhotoRec instead of Test Disk. See what one, the other, or both can reconstruct from that so-called "empty" disk.

If there is no data of concern that even could have been on the machine then you need not do any drive wiping (and by that I mean dedicated drive wiping with wiper software) at all. I do this any time I have a machine I want to donate but where I do not want to remove all of the software that's already on it. Even if I were installing Windows 10 from scratch. I would still follow the steps I outlined earlier so that I could run a drive wiper on the existing system disk's free space before reusing that disk.