How Much Does It Cost To Install Windows 10 On A Computer

The Windows 10 Feature Update would download in 25 minutes in a perfect world, then install within 10 to 15 minutes. This might be the case for many users, but it won't be smooth sailing for other users. While Microsoft has made significant progress in reducing the size of Windows updates, the new version of Windows 10 will be a large update. That's just the Windows update part—the installation is the most complex sequence of setup.

Windows 10 will have to decompress files, move around key operating system files and personal files, and reconfigure everything to work with your hardware. Essentially, Windows gives you a clean installation of the new operating system without disrupting your configuration or personal data. It's a delicate balancing act that can actually extend the time it takes to complete the upgrade. So, make sure your laptop's battery is working and charged up, and if you are upgrading a desktop, connect it to a UPS.

There's nothing more disastrous than an interrupted Windows update. If you are using bootable installation media to perform a clean install on a PC that has never been upgraded to Windows 10 and activated, you will need to enter a product key. You can enter a product key from Windows 10 or from a matching edition of Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1. Residents of the United States who don't own a qualifying Windows license can skip entering a product key and purchase a license online from the Windows Store after setup is complete. Beginning with version 1903, Microsoft began offering feature updates for installation separately from security and reliability updates.

The company says these updates will not be downloaded or installed automatically unless the current version is at or near the end of its support window. For more details about these changes, see "Windows 10 Home edition users are big winners as Microsoft overhauls its update process." Many would argue that downloading Windows without paying for or already owning a product key is ethically wrong. That said, Microsoft has made this process easier over various Windows iterations and lessened the limitations and nagging that happens when you don't activate. The company isn't trying to close this loophole, probably because it's more interested in driving user numbers. I've even seen well-known vendors and Microsoft partners do press presentations with watermarks on their desktop.

If your existing Windows 10 PC is running Windows 10 20H1 or later and meets the minimum hardware specifications it will be able to upgrade to Windows 11. The upgrade rollout plan is still being finalized, but for most devices already in use today, we expect it to be ready sometime in early 2022. Not all Windows 10 PCs that are eligible to upgrade will be offered to upgrade at the same time. To see if your PC is eligible to upgrade, refer to the specifications here. Once the upgrade rollout has started, you can check if it is ready for your device by going to Settings/Windows Updates. Similar to how end users are notified when updates are available in Windows 10, end users will see an indication in the notification areas of the taskbar in the bottom right, that the upgrade is available.

More information on how that is presented will be available at a later date. Additional desktop notification options may be also be added at a later date. If you're performing a clean installation of Windows 10 then, fairly early on in the process, you'll be prompted to enter a product key. Click the link that reads "I don't have a product key" and the OS will happily install and run without one. It's important to realize that during the Windows clean install process, when you enter your product key, you are not warned about the possibility that you're using the wrong key. That stage in the Windows installation process just checks to see if the product key is valid at all, not if it's valid for your specific situation.

That determination occurs during the activation process after Windows is completely installed. That's primarily dependent on the performance of your system. Windows Setup uses hardlinks to migrate data files, so the amount of data files shouldn't have a significant effect on install times. Over the past few versions, Microsoft has made some changes that speed the process up significantly for the twice-yearly feature updates (see "Windows 10 feature updates painfully slow? Relief is in sight").

If you are running any unmanaged edition of Windows 10 using default settings, these feature updates are delivered through Windows Update. In versions prior to 1903, feature updates download and install automatically. You can schedule the installation for a more convenient time or postpone it for a few days, but you cannot delay the update indefinitely. You don't want to burn your bridges while trying to upgrade to the latest Windows 10 Feature Update. It's pretty much a sure bet that Microsoft releases the new version on the day they will remove the previous version of Windows 10 from the Media Creation Tool.

That means you won't be able to download the older Windows 10 release anymore or earlier versions, such as 1511 or 1507 if you need to go back. It turns out, some systems, while compatible with a particular version of Windows 10, might not work with the latest release. Reference our comprehensive guides for backing up your system before initiating the installation. The 0xC004F061 error appears during the Windows activation process if a) you used a Windowsupgrade product key but you b) did not have a copy of Windows on the drive when you clean installed.

First, download and install Windows 10 from the Microsoft website. Once installed, you can go to the activation section, and then decide to buy a product key. The cost is usually $199 for Windows 10 Pro and $139 for Windows 10 Home.

Whether your PC came with a Windows 10 license or you previously took advantage of the free upgrade offer, you won't need to enter a license key during this process. Your Windows 10 license will be automatically acquired from your PC's hardware or via Microsoft's servers. Getting hold of the Windows installer is as easy as visiting support.microsoft.com. Whether you've paid for Windows 10 already or not, anyone is allowed to download a Windows 10 ISO file and burn it to a DVD or create installation media on a USB drive for free.

Once that's done, you can boot from your installation media and load Windows 10 onto your PC. During installation, Microsoft asks for an activation key. You can skip it, but eventually, Windows will start alerting you that your install isn't activated. The catch is that without a product key you can't activate Windows – but that's not as big a deal as you might expect. Microsoft offers several ways to download Windows 11 manually.

One is to use the Installation Assistant app, which you install on your PC to trigger a normal upgrade install via Windows Update. The second is to use the Windows 11 Media Creation Tool, which automates the process of creating a bootable USB install drive or downloading an install ISO file. Once you have a USB drive, you can either boot from it to perform a clean install or run the Setup app from within Windows 10 to do a normal upgrade install. You can also burn the ISO to a DVD, but installing from any USB drive, even an old USB 2.0 drive, will be much faster, so you shouldn't do that.

Finally, you can just download an ISO file directly from Microsoft's site. This free download allows you to create a bootable USB flash drive directly. After waiting 3 1/2 months for the update for 2 of my computers, I just downloaded the Media Creation Tool, saved it as an ISO file to my PC and created an USB drive for my other computer. When I started to install the update, I disconnected the Ethernet cable or disabled the WiFi so as not to be connected to the internet while installing the update. After the update was installed, then I connected the Ethernet cable or enabled the WiFi to connect to the internet to check for updates. Once that's done, you should also head to Windows Update in the new Settings app and check for updates there to ensure you have the latest drivers designed for Windows 11.

Even if you're one of the faithful few that have stuck with Windows 8, we'd recommend you consider upgrading sooner rather than later. If you want to stay supported – as well as enjoying all the latest desktop features – then Windows 10 is the place to be. Despite officially ending the free update promotion in mid-2016, Microsoft quietly keeps this option available so all Windows PC owners can run the latest version. Again, unless you have a valid digital license or product key to get a free upgrade, you will be required to pay for a new Windows 10 Home product key. The message at the bottom of the window indicates that you can't use this product key for clean installations but that isn't entirely true.

A Windows clean install is fine, but you must have had an upgrade-valid version of Windows on the computer prior to the clean install. If you already have a Windows Home and plan to upgrade to Pro, the Windows 10 Pro upgrade price is usually $100. However, it is best to look for offers when you plan to get the Pro version. Microsoft allows you to change the product key, and when you activate Windows using that, it will unlock all Pro features.

An additional rule of thumb is that you may need a retail product key if you're doing a clean install of Windows 10 on a new computer. OEM product keys should work if you're doing an upgrade or clean install of Windows 10 on the machine the Windows 7 or 8 license is tied to. Just begin the installation process and install Windows 10 like you normally would. You may be asked to enter a product key later in the process, too–if you are, just look for a similar small link to skip that screen.

If you already have a Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 a software/product key, you can upgrade to Windows 10 for free. You activate it by using the key from one of those older OSes. But note that you can only use a key on a single PC at a time, so if you use that key for a new PC build, any other PC running that key is out of luck. I use a Dell Z440 and it failed multiple times trying to go from 1703 to 1709. Google showed several people mentioned my exact same error but apparently had a different cause.

Here's where I get less "common" and what I believe finally fixed me. I have a platter D drive where I keep the lion's share of my personal files. If you right click on system folders like Desktop, Music, Documents, etc, you are able to set a custom location for them. I've re-routed 7 folders under my user profile to my spacious platter. Taking a guess I unplugged my internal D drive, logged in as a different user and ran the update.

Shut down the computer, plugged D back in, logged in as myself… uh oh. Open Disk Management and my platter reports as a Foreign Disk. Right-click Import and breathe a sigh of relief as I see my directories are unharmed. Over the past few releases of Windows 10, the upgrade wizard can take its own sweet time to start if you choose the option to Get important updates.

If you choose it and the setup appears to be taking ridiculously long to move past this stage, close the setup wizard and restart your machine. If you don't have an old product key that you can use to activate Windows 10 then Microsoft's advice would be to pay full price for a brand-new key at the company's online store. A digital license connects your installed Windows platform to a key embedded in prebuilt systems from Acer, Dell, HP, and so on. For a long time, these manufacturers printed product keys on labels stuck on PCs or printed and inserted them into product packaging.

Microsoft's product keys typically only work once, but hackers sometimes find workarounds to use the same key on multiple PCs. It would be best to have a valid product key or a digital license to get a free upgrade. When you purchase an operating system from Microsoft or any retailer, it comes with a product key to unlock it. It's printed and included in the packaging, emailed to you, or stored in the cloud, which is usually the case for system builders. Sometimes problems during a Windows installation are temporary, so another shot is a good first step. If you're doing a clean install, just start the process over again.

Since part of a clean install involves formatting the drive, whatever issues might exist with this partial installation will be gone. The Microsoft-supported solution to this problem is to reinstall the previous version of Windows and then clean install Windows. However, another solution is to do an in-place upgrade of Windows to the same version of Windows. Yes, it seems strange, but according to several sources, you'll be able to successfully activate Windows after that process completes. Unlike Windows 10 Pro and Home which is a per device license, Windows 10 Enterprise is sold on per user basis. While Microsoft asks you to get quotes, to what we have read, it costs $7 or $15 per user, and they can access allowed five devices.

The difference between E3 and E5 is that the later includes Windows Security System with ATP. So if you are using third-party security system, you can pay $84 per year or you can for E5 which costs $168 per year. Go here to find a Microsoft Partner to get pricing and purchasing details. During the installation process, your personal files will be deleted. Thus, we strongly recommend you to back up your important data before the clean install.

To do this work, MiniTool ShadowMaker, a piece of professional PC backup software can be a good helper. After opening this tool, Windows 10 Setup will take 1-2 minutes to get things ready. Then, create installation media to install Windows 10 on another PC. Next, choose a USB drive to directly download and burn ISO to it. If you choose ISO file, you need to burn it to a DVD later, which will extra take some time.

Window installation costs $6,105 total, or between $2,950 and $9,352. Labor costs $150 to $800 per window, or about $40 per hour. A single window unit runs $300 to $1,200 for standard sizes. Compare quotes from local window installers for the best price. If you upgrade over a properly activated copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, you can run Setup from within your current Windows installation and you will not be prompted to enter a product key.

After the upgrade is complete, your new copy of Windows 10 will be activated with what Microsoft calls a "digital license." The good news is that you can still upgrade to Windows 10 on a device that has a license for Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. You'll need to download the installation files and run the Setup program from within Windows or use the Upgrade Assistant available from Microsoft's accessibility page.

For details, see "Here's how you can still get a free Windows 10 upgrade." Upgrades to Windows 11 will begin to roll out late in 2021 and continue into 2022. During this time, we will be doing some behind the scenes testing and validating for your specific PC. Windows Update will provide an indication if and when your PC is eligible. Despite Windows 11 now being available, there are still Windows users who remain true to its predecessor, and for good reason. Barely anyone has upgraded to Windows 11, due to its TPM requirements, compatibility issues, and even slowdowns.

And, if you're trying to upgrade from an older OS, getting the best supported version of Windows will make your computer a lot more secure. After all, if you're running an older version such as Windows 8, you're vulnerable to all sorts of security issues. And, now that the deadline for the free update has come and gone, you'll have to hunt for a good price to make that upgrade. If you don't want to upgrade from an existing Windows installation, you can download the official Windows 10 installation media for free from Microsoft andperform a clean install.

To do this, visitMicrosoft's Download Windows 10 page, click "Download Tool Now", and run the downloaded file. Microsoft just didn't officially allow you to download Windows without a product key, and there was no way to fully upgrade to a licensed system from within Windows. It's like a free demo, and you can use it to make all the virtual machines you like for testing purposes.