Clean install with Win10 Fall Update

[Kif]

Next week is the supposed release of the Win10 fall update (Threshold 2). It's my understanding this includes an improved method for clean installs. My SP3 has acted quirky for while so I'm thinking a clean install might fix it up. Is there any resources on how to go about this processes? I'm a bit confused about how the licensing would work since my machine doesn't include an actual icense key.

 

[GreyFox7]

This may help
New Windows 10 Insider build today expected to roll out to everyone next week

 

[leeshor]

People, I imagine mostly those in the computer business, had been asking to be able to enter a serial number of a previous valid version of Windows during the install rather than having to install the previous, (actually a clean install in order to upgrade) the previous version first. I actually have had to do that once to a system that was totally fubared on 7 Pro. Clean install then upgrade to 10. This is a big deal for me.

If Windows 10 was already activated those changes don't apply as they aren't needed.

 

[Kif]

This may help
New Windows 10 Insider build today expected to roll out to everyone next week

Funny enough I asked the author of that very article before I came here and he didn't know either. I think a firmware key is built into the machine but it would be nice to confirm.

 

[GreyFox7]

Funny enough I asked the author of that very article before I came here and he didn't know either. I think a firmware key is built into the machine but it would be nice to confirm.

My understanding is during setup they do a machine detection which arrives at a unique machine identifier then that gets stored in a big database in the cloud linked to your W10 key/authorization. Then if you did a subsequent clean install it takes the generated machine ID and checks the database to determine activation. Now they are adding one more piece that lets you enter a previous OS key but you're right Surfaces had the Original W8/8.1 key embedded.

IDK if it's smart enough to handle retrieving it but it's only a potential issue *if* you never had W10 installed on that machine *and* you attempt a Clean Install from bootable media instead of launching setup from within Windows 8.1. We would like to think that's a handled scenario but I expect there are fewer of them than there are Windows 8.1 Tablet Mode users and we know what they did for them.

 

[amincom]

If you just activated any build of win 10, your machine id will be stored on ms server for it's life

 

[Kif]

To prep for a clean install I've put together what I think are the required steps. Can someone please validate them.

1. Back everything up.
2. Tomorrow when Win 10 Fall update is released create Win 10 USB media from:
Installing Windows 10 using the media creation tool - Windows Help
3. Install drivers using SurfacePro3_Win10_151026_1.msi from Download Surface Pro 3 from Official Microsoft Download Center
4. Install applications and restore files

 

[Kif]

I didn't even need the drivers. After installing Win10 (Threshold 2) all I needed was the Oct firmware update and everything showed up. My SP3 is running better than ever and I think I recouped HDD space.

 

[GreyFox7]

I got a blue screen during setup on one with something about unloading a driver so I injected the SP4 drivers into the boot.wim image... all good.

Add and Remove Drivers Offline

 

[ScottyS]

I didn't even need the drivers. After installing Win10 (Threshold 2) all I needed was the Oct firmware update and everything showed up. My SP3 is running better than ever and I think I recouped HDD space.

I did it as an upgrade and it looks like Win10 Th2 is about 10GB less space than before upgrade.