As of now, Windows 10 operating system is becoming more and more popular than ever before. It has millions of users around the world and still counting. We can say it’s a ‘rockstar’ OS since its release and a successor of a well-known Windows 8.1 OS.
But still, there are a lot of PC owners that are not yet sure if their PC is up for windows 10. Some are still unsure if it’s a stable OS since there are plentiful of complaints about the bugs and errors during installations as well as missing drivers. As long as your PC meet the minimum requirements and all your other software are up to date, then there’s no reason to be unsure. In fact, Microsoft has been assisting and fixing many issues that most users complained about.
In this post, I will tackle a topic on how to prepare your PC to successfully install the Windows 10 OS. If you’re having an issue with the installations or have no idea how to do it, then we recommend to continue reading the post and learn new ways and know what’s best for your PC. We highly advise that you should have a little knowledge about PCs to make it more easy to understand or perform some steps.
Before we jump into our tutorial, if you found this page because you were trying to find a solution to a different problem, then visit our Windows 10 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed some of the most common Windows 10 problems and errors. Try to find issues that are similar with yours and use the solutions and troubleshooting methods we suggested. If they don’t work for your or if you need further assistance, fill up our PC issues questionnaire and hit submit to contact us.
Upgrading your PC to Windows 10
Now, if you’re ready to bump up your computer’s operating system to run Windows 10, follow these steps…
Step 1: Make sure that your old OS version is activated
Now, if you’re PC is currently running the old versions of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, make sure that it is genuinely activated and has newest update. This is to avoid any issues along the way and might cause a major trouble. There are already users who experienced it and it’s not an easy problem to fix it or go back. Here’s how to check if your PC was activated:
For Windows 7
- Click Start menu on the taskbar
- Right-click Computer
- Click Properties
- A window will pop-up. Under Windows Activation, you can see an information ‘Windows is activated’ and ‘Product ID: XXXXXXX…’. If no product key, then you can click the link ‘Activate Windows‘ and enter your Product key to activate it.
- You can take note of the product ID for later when upgrading to Windows 10.
B) For Windows 8 and 8.1
- Click Start menu on the taskbar
- Click System
- A window will pop-up. Under Windows Activation, you can see an information ‘Windows is activated’ and ‘Product ID: XXXXXXX…’. If no product key, then you can click the link ‘Activate Windows‘ and enter your Product key to activate it.
Step 2: Check your PC’s specs to meet the requirements
When upgrading to newest Windows OS available, make sure that your PC did meet the minimum requirements for the upgrade. In some cases, users that runs Windows 8/8.1 OS on their PC are said to be good to go. However, we are basically depending on the specifications of your hardware, since the Windows 10 OS is quite heavy for older PC. However, it doesn’t mean that PC running Windows 7 can’t take up the challenge to be upgraded because the user might only be using the older OS but the hardware has higher specs. Now, here’s the minimum requirement to meet for Windows 10:
- Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
- RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2GB (64-bit)
- Free hard disk space: 16 GB
- Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver
- A Microsoft account and Internet access
Any PC that is lower to minimum requirements can frequently experience an issue or the performance is very poor.
Step 3: Create an Emergency Backup
Now, since there were reports that some owners encounter problem during installation process, so basically this is very important to do. Avoiding future issues is the best practice before you click ‘Upgrade’ button because you might lose important files and it’s really hard to get it back or unable to recover it. You can save the backup on DVD or USB/External hard drive that has huge capacity and proceed. Here’s how to make a backup for both Windows 8/8.1 and 7:
- Windows 8/8.1
- Click Start menu in the taskbar
- Click Control Panel
- Click File History
- Click System Image Backup
- Follow the instructions given to continue the process. We recommend to use USB or External hard drive for faster processing.
- Once the storage device was inserted, click Next.
- Click Confirm to continue.
- Now the process will start and it will take several minutes depending on the size of the copy. It may take up 10 to 20 minutes. So wait until it’s finished.
- Once done. Make sure to set aside the storage device properly.
To restore the backup in the future, just restart your PC and use your Windows media installation and connect the storage device as well.
- On Windows Setup, click Next
- Click Repair your computer
- Click Troubleshoot
- Click Advanced options
- Click System Image Recovery
- Click Next
- Click Finish
Step 4: Disable irrelevant security softwares and Firewall
It’s best to disable any antivirus or spyware softwares on your PC before upgrading because some of this software could interrupt the process or stop it. The much better option is to uninstall this softwares and reinstall it back afterwards and since we are upgrading it is safe without them. Here’s how to disable the Windows defender and Firewall:
- Click Start menu on the taskbar
- Type Windows Defender on the search box
- Click Windows Defender to open
- Click Settings or Options, either which is available.
- Click Real time Protection
- Uncheck Turn on Real Time Protection
And here’s how to disable the Windows Firewall:
- Click Start menu on the taskbar
- Type Windows Firewall
- Click Windows Firewall to open
- Put circle bullets on ‘Turn off Windows Firewall’
For the antivirus software that you installed, commonly it’s icon is located on the taskbar. Just expand it by click the up arrow and double-click the antivirus icon. Navigate to it’s settings and turn it disable it, much better uninstall it.
Step 5: Free up some space for Upgrade
If your PC has low storage available, then you have to free up some space. Since the upgrade needed to have a minimum of 5GB, you can start by moving your some files to a separate location or to External hard drive, uninstall the unnecessary or rarely used programs as well. We recommend to run a disk cleanup because there are other hidden files might not be deleted as well as some old updates files, memory dumps, recycle bin, system error dumps … To do this, follow the steps below:
- Click Start menu on the taskbar
- Type Disk cleanup
- Then select which drive to perform cleanup (we recommend the drive C:) then click OK
- A dialog box will appear containing checkboxes. Then check all the files you wanted to delete.
- Click OK to confirm
Step 6: Remove other peripherals
During the upgrade, it’s better to remove everything connected and leave only the keyboard, mouse and ethernet. This is to avoid a long process since it will automatically update all drivers of all connected peripherals, sometimes it causes an issue if updates not found. You can put them back after it’s finished.
The process will be easy as long as all requirements are met before the upgrade begins. That’s why we’re making these procedures as easy as possible to help you gain more confidence along the way.
Connect with us
We are always willing to help our readers fix the problems with their computer and so if you are currently experiencing an issue or two, do not hesitate to contact us and tell us about your experience. The solutions we provide will be based on the information you feed us. Make sure you include all necessary details and please fill up each field in our computer issues questionnaire accurately so we can give you more accurate solutions.