I have a question about the setup of my new PC.

AccrusC

Member
I am extremely excited because my new PC is due to be delivered today between 2/3pm.

I opted to not have an operating system installed because we have lots of windows keys available at work and this saved a lot of money...

My question is, in terms of the initial setup, what does this mean? Is there literally no operating system installed whatsoever? Or is it just going to be windows but un-activated? Is there any extra steps that I may need to take in the initial start up?

Any input would be great - I personally haven't setup a PC before.
 

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
There will be a very limited installation of Windows. You should not, however, just activate this: it would be better to do a clean installation from a USB stick. You want to do the "create Windows 10 installation media" process on this page.
 

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Yeah there are a number of steps the first one should be removing the "test image" of Windows that will be installed then doing a complete fresh install

Then you need the drivers for your components, it's not a difficult process but it's very time consuming. I'm sure there are plenty of guides out there to follow to make sure it's done properly. If it's done improperly then performance can suffer
 

AccrusC

Member
thank you, probably a silly question but the guide mentions a USB, i don't have one but have an external hard-drive that I can format. I'm assuming this will be fine
 

Rakk

The Awesome
Moderator
Yeah there are a number of steps the first one should be removing the "test image" of Windows that will be installed then doing a complete fresh install
Well if you use create the installation media as shown in the link that @sck451 linked you can format everything during the installation process so no need to do this beforehand

Then you need the drivers for your components, it's not a difficult process but it's very time consuming. I'm sure there are plenty of guides out there to follow to make sure it's done properly. If it's done improperly then performance can suffer
Windows now does a very very good job of getting all the drivers you'll ever need (with a couple of exceptions for specific stuff), as long as the windows update thing is done with reboots until it finds nothing new, it should all be sorted
 

Rakk

The Awesome
Moderator
thank you, probably a silly question but the guide mentions a USB, i don't have one but have an external hard-drive that I can format. I'm assuming this will be fine
Should be fine I'd have thought, though yes save anything from it first as said external hard drive would be wiped by the installation media
 
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