Sometimes, troubleshooting a Windows PC needs drastic solutions. One of such solutions is a clean installation of Windows. In some cases, it may even be the only way to go. If you’ve already exhausted all software troubleshooting steps in your PC but nothing appears to fix your issue, you should consider reinstalling Windows.
There can be several reasons why you’ll want to reinstall Windows in your Dell Inspiron machine. Below are some of them:
- PC is experiencing slow performance issue
- machine starts to succumb to normal wear and tear
- device is unable to boot Windows
- you changed significant hardware components like the motherboard or the hard drive
- your machine is infected by malicious software
Regardless of the reason, Below are the steps that you can take in order to do a clean Windows install in your Dell Inspiron machine.
Before we proceed to the main topic though, we would like to remind you that we accept requests for assistance regarding their Windows computers. If you have a problem that you can’t seem to find a solution to, send us your issue by following the link at the bottom of this page. Just remember, windows problems can sometimes be difficult to diagnose so kindly make sure that you give us very detailed description of the problem. You want to mention relevant history that may have led to the issue. The more information that you can provide, the higher the chance of us diagnosing the issue more efficiently. We also expect that you mention whatever troubleshooting step/s that you may have done before contacting us in order to prevent repeating them in our article. Again, the more details you can give us, the faster it is for us to pinpoint the cause and its corresponding solution.
How to reinstall Windows 10 in your Dell Inspiron PC
Unless you have one of the latest Dell machines, you most probably simply upgraded older operating system version with windows 10. While this is fine for majority of users, upgrading can be detrimental to the system in the long run because unnecessary bugs, files, and rubbish will be carried along. As much as possible, you want to do a clean install in order to minimize bugs from developing. If you are not familiar with how to perform a clean operating system install, here’s how:
- Create a backup of your irreplaceable files. This should be the very first step in this guide. You don’t want to lose important data. To give you an idea on how to start, kindly follow this previously published article.
- Prepare the installation media. The next thing that you want to do is to ensure that you have a bootable media to proceed with the installation. The most convenient media that you can use of course is a USB flash drive. Based in our own experience, it’s good if you can use an 8GB flash drive. It should give more than enough storage space for the installation package. For more details on how to prepare the installation media or drive, follow this link.
- In your computer, click on the Start button.
- Click on Settings.
- Click on Update & Security.
- Click on Recovery.
- Click on Get started when you are in Reset this PC page.
- Follow the prompts on screen. If you are installing Windows to a new drive, it will be indicated as a blank drive so make sure to choose the large unallocated space. During installation, your Dell Inspiron laptop may reboot on its own. This is normal. If you are using a DVD or flash drive, make sure to keep an eye on the screen from time to time as the machine may ask you to remove drives.
Another simple way to begin Windows reinstall right away is by inserting the bootable installation media in your PC and restarting it. As long as your PC has been set to boot from your flash drive ahead of time, the installation wizard that pops up should walk you through on what you need to do. Again, make sure to back your files up before doing a reinstall this way.
Make sure to activate Windows after the reinstall
Once you’ve finished the installation, don’t forget to activate Windows by doing the following steps:
- Go back to Home screen.
- Right-click on the Start button.
- Click on System.
- Check if Windows activation section indicates that your OS version has been activated. Normally, Windows will be activated automatically once you connect to the internet (assuming of course that you have a previously activated Windows version). Activation may take a few minutes so be patient and wait for the confirmation in the Windows activation section.
We are here to help
If you are having a problem with your Windows computer, don’t hesitate to let us know about it. We understand how frustrating computer problems can be so, more so if you can’t find the right solutions at all. Our blog exists to help PC users and Windows community deal with their problems effectively. To engage with us, just fill out the questionnaire in this link and wait for our articles to be published. In order to help as many people as possible, we only provide our solutions via posts so please don’t expect that we will respond to your emails or private messages. By making all posts public, we can share our solutions to other users in a more efficient manner. We cannot guarantee a quick response so if your issue is time sensitive, please find another way to resolve your problem.