How To Windows 11 clean install tutorial

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Windows 11 Clean install tutorial

This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows 11, version 23H2 or newer but can be equally applied to earlier versions which may have some basic differences in the screens you see but will largely remain similar in all other regards. It is HIGHLY recommended that you FULLY read through ALL steps, and familiarize yourself with ALL notes, and the information at all linked pages, before beginning the installation or doing anything that might wipe out your current installation prematurely especially if you have not yet attached your Windows 11 installation/license to a Microsoft account that in turn is attached to you, for activation purposes later. This is not always 100% necessary, but it's a really good idea even if you plan to use a local account rather than a Microsoft account for daily operations.

Just FYI, the Windows installer screens change somewhat periodically, adding or removing some steps based on whatever Microsoft deems necessary at the time, and if you should be installing a newer or older version that does have a few different screens just use your judgement for those as primarily the most important aspect of the clean install, which is making sure to disconnect ALL drives except the source and target drives and removing all existing partitions on the target drive, remains the same basically since Windows 7 to now.



Visit the link below and familiarize yourself with the process, if you are not already, BEFORE you go ANY further!!!
(Keep in mind that for most systems if your Windows 10 or 11 installation was previously activated it SHOULD activate automatically once you connect to the internet after installation. Associating
your license with a Microsoft account attached to you is only an optional safety net for those few cases where for some reason it might not have already been, but that is rare these days. The majority will
activate automatically if they were previously activated with a valid license.)

How to associate your windows 10 license with a Microsoft account



Before you begin the installation, whether now or after you create your installation media, it is of utmost importance that you disconnect ALL system attached storage drives EXCEPT for the target drive (Drive you are installing TO) and source drive (Drive you are installing FROM, usually a USB flash drive these days). This is important because we've seen MANY instances of where either the system has decided it does not need to create a new boot, EFI or recovery partition because it sees there is already one present on another drive that may previously have had Windows installed on it, or decides to put it somewhere other than the target drive, and that results in making it impossible to boot into Windows if that partition or the drive is ever removed.

So prior to installation, power off, disconnect the SATA and power connectors from all hard or solid state drives except for the target drive where the operating system will be installed, and then you can reattach them after the installation is complete. Also, if you have external USB drives attached other than the drive you are installing Windows FROM, disconnect those as well for now.

Obviously, if your system has only one internally attached drive (And don't assume that it does, KNOW that it does or else find out if it does.) then the need to do that does not apply to you.


*Click here for information on Windows 11 system requirements and important notes.

**NOTE: In addition to the information at the link above, it is a good idea take a look at the list below as all of the following are highly recommended OR required prior to beginning the clean install process

1. Check that the software and hardware you intend to use are compatible with Windows 11 and have drivers available for it, even if your system has
already passed the compatibility check. Download and save these drivers to a suitable DVD, USB thumb drive or USB external HDD/SSD so that in
the event you need to install them later, you can do so without needing to go find them when it is no longer convenient to do so.

2. Create a backup of any important files and folders on your current installation to a secondary drive, external storage device or cloud service. Better yet
would be to additionally or alternatively create an entire system backup image using a utility like Acronis true image or Macrium reflect so you can simply
restore your previous installation to it's exact self if something goes wrong or doesn't work out later on.

3. Before you begin installation it is not only a good idea but is REQUIRED that you go into the BIOS (Unless you already know that it is set accordingly)
and ensure that your BIOS is set to fully UEFI compliant settings including enabling Secure Boot and enabling your TPM 2.0 or AMD fTPM device.
Legacy modes are not officially supported and if you wish to run any form of legacy mode with Windows 11 you will need to find that information
elsewhere as I will not be providing it. This tutorial is for a legitimate Windows 11 UEFI installation ONLY.

4. Temporarily disconnect ALL other hard drives or SSD devices including external drives other than the target drive and source drive you will be installing
FROM. This step will prevent the possibility of accidentally deleting any files or partitions from those drives when preparing the primary target drive for the
Windows installation.

5. If you have partitions on the target drive being used for the new Windows installation which are being used for OTHER, Non-OS purposes, then back up
any information on there to another location or drive as we will be completely removing all existing partitions from the target drive prior to installing
Windows 11 on that drive. Do not forget this step as any existing partition information on the drive will be eradicated during this process.



Ready? Then let's begin!

Create installation media

First, you will need to create bootable media, either on a USB flash drive or on optical media such as DVD. You will need a blank DVD or USB flash/thumb drive. Any files on the drive should be saved elsewhere as they will be erased
during the creation of the installation media.

Go to the following link and begin the process for the creation of the Windows 11 installation media.


*Windows 11 media creation tool

1. After clicking the link above it will take you to the starting page for creating the Windows 11 installation media. Once there, ignore the first sections, scroll down and click on "Download now" below the section titled "Create Windows 11 installation media".

2. Next, open the downloads folder or location where you downloaded the media creation executable file and click on it.

3. The tool will open and the following dialogue will be displayed. Click on Accept.

4. The next window gives you options for language and Windows edition. For most of us this will be English and Windows 11, but choose what is appropriate for your own requirements and then click Next.

5. Now you'll see options for the type of installation media you wish to create. For most you will choose USB flash drive and this needs to be 8GB or larger. If you need to use a DVD or other optical media then create
an ISO and burn it to disk later or save it to an existing drive location if you wish to use it with a virtual machine. Then click next.

If for any reason the Windows media creation tool will not work for you, and some users have indicated this was the case for them, there are a few other options for creating bootable media here:


Optional methods for creating Windows 11 installation media




At this point you will simply wait until the media creation tool is finished and it will let you know when the installation media is ready for use. Click finish.



Section II
Installing Windows 11

At this point you should have bootable installation media, either on USB flash drive or DVD optical disk.

**Before you proceed with the installation, it may be necessary to enter the BIOS and set your machine boot order to USB or DVD drive as the first bootable option it will look for, depending on what form of installation media you
created in the previous section.

(**Otherwise it will likely simply attempt to boot using the existing Windows boot partition on your current primary drive, unless this is an installation to a drive that has not previously had ANY Windows installation on it,
OR unless you have previously removed all partitions from the target drive in preparation for installation. Strictly speaking, that is not necessary as we will do that exact thing a little further into the tutorial, as part of the
installation process.)



1. Start the computer and after it completes the POST initialization process it should identify and boot from the attached USB or optical drive containing the installation media and begin the installation. Verify that the
language, time/currency and keyboard input fields are all correct. Click next.

2. Click Install now.

3. Next you should see the Windows product activation screen. If you do not have a Windows 11 product activation key, or if you have previously installed and activated Windows 11 and are just doing a clean install, then click below where it
says "I don't have a product key".

(You will activate later automatically once your system goes online or by logging into you Microsoft account and designating a previously activated product to be used with this system. If this is not a Windows product that has been previously activated or attached
to a Microsoft account as outlined in the first section notes, you need to immediately stop and do that, or if you are unsure, you should visit your Microsoft account "devices" page and verify that it is indeed attached.)


Otherwise, enter your Windows product key and then click next.

4. Now select the Windows 11 version you wish to install. For most users this will, and is recommended to be, the Home version. Educational, Enterprise, Pro and other users should select according to
the type of license identified on the label on your machine, your product packaging or the information from you online purchase. If you purchased some kind of "discount"license from a third party
"discount" retailer online, do not be terribly surprised if you find out that license has been blacklisted or is for a different version than you thought it was. It happens. A lot. After selecting, click next.

5. Check the box indicating your agree to the license terms and then click next.

6. On the next screen there will be two options. One allows you to simply upgrade your Windows 10 license to Windows 11 if there is one already installed and the other will allow you to proceed with a new installation, also known as a CLEAN install.
Unless you are only upgrading, which I do not recommend (Because you can simply use your previously activated Windows 10 license to do a CLEAN install of Windows 11) then you must click on "Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)".

7. Now we come to the step where we remove any previous Windows installations and all partitions on the target drive so that there can be no future conflicts regarding the Windows boot partition information.
I recommend selecting, one at a time, and deleting, ALL existing partitions on the primary target drive until no partitions remain and there is only unallocated space. Partitions from
the USB source drive should not show up here and if they do, and show as a different "drive", as in Drive 0, Drive 1, etc. do not delete those. ONLY delete partitions on the drive you intend to install Windows on and
delete ALL of them on that drive. All.

If you have not disconnected all secondary drives as as recommended at the beginning of the tutorial, then be very careful to not accidentally delete any partitions from those drives by mistake.

Once there is only unallocated space with NO partitions left on the target drive, then click on the target drive's unallocated space and click Next.

(Ignore the fact that this image shows only 32GB. That is because it was a virtual machine used to create the tutorial)

8. Windows installation will commence.

9. Once the initial installation has completed you will see a couple of screens including "Starting services". Allow them to run their course, including possibly restarting (Remove the USB drive that you are installing from at this point to ensure installation
does not begin again)

9. Select your country then click Yes.

10. Select you keyboard input type then click Yes.

11. Next you have the option of adding a second keyboard layout. I recommend clicking skip as you can add this later if needed.

12. The installer will check for updates. You may be required to supply your wireless router login information if you only use a wireless connection.

13. Now you will be asked to name your device. You can do so now, which is fine, or you can do so later, which is also fine.
If you don't want to deal with it now you can simply click skip.

14. You will now be asked to "Unlock your Microsoft experience". Or in normal people speak, login to your Microsoft account. If you do not have one, you will need to create one unless
you choose to use one of the work arounds to circumvent this requirement and begin with a local account, which I will not cover here but which you can find elsewhere if you wish. For most, you
will just want to log into the MS account because you can always change to a local account later.

Click Sign in.

15. Enter your Microsoft account email, phone or Skype identifier and click next.

16. Enter your Microsoft account password.

17. The next screen will prompt you to restore from a Microsoft backup. I HIGHLY recommend that you click on More Options and bypass this feature.

18. The next screen gives you the option to "Set up as a new PC" and I highly recommend that you DO choose THIS option.

19. Next, you will be asked to create a PIN. Create PIN.

20. Now you need to set up the PIN. Enter the four digit PIN you wish to use, then confirm it. Then click Ok.

21. Now choose your preferences for privacy settings. I recommend you unselect ALL of the check boxes. You will likely need to scroll down to see each and deselect them. But this is of course up to you.

22. The next window offers options to "Customize your experience". I recommend clicking skip. But again, doing so it totally up to your preference.

23. Use your Android phone from your PC. Ok, you can choose to do this if you want. I recommend skipping it. You can do this later if you wish. Why make things complicated now?

24. This next screen gives you the option to always have access to your recent browsing data. Ok, thanks Microsoft but I think we will skip this. You already record and store enough
of our private information as it is without giving your more permission to do so. I recommend you click Not Now, but that's up to you.

25. Free trial of Microsoft 365 (Office)? No thanks. Decline. (Up to you but it's basically just another version of "Let us watch everything you do")
Better to either use an actual Office license or use something open source like Libra office which is free and compatible with most Office file formats.

26. 100GB of cloud storage for 1.99 per month. Again, this is up to you, but I recommend you decline the offer. Jeez Microsoft, don't you EVER give up?

27. Microsoft game pass for 9.99 per month? Sigh. Skip for now. It's the same price even if you choose to do it later, so why complicate the installation process?

28. Check for updates again? Sure, why not. Let's do that.

29. Now we are basically done. Let's let the installer finish doing it's thing. We will see a couple of more progress screens along the way as expected.

And finally, we are done. You can now move on to shut down, reattach your drives if you disconnected them and begin whatever processes including cleanup, backup imaging or installing new programs that you wish to do.

Congratulations on a job well done and best of luck to you!!!

If you are looking for the Windows 10 clean install tutorial, you can find that here:


Windows 10 Clean install tutorial

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