How to use the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool – TechRadar

Microsoft has an extremely useful Windows 10 tool you may never have heard of. However, if you want to upgrade a PC or do a completely clean install, its the best thing you can use.

Its called the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and its sole purpose is to prepare installations of the latest version either to upgrade your current PC or build a USB flash drive to perform a clean install of Windows 10.

The Media Creation Tool is free and extremely easy to use. Heres all you need to know.

The Windows 10 Media Creation Tool is a perfect way to make sure you have the latest version installed on your PC.

Its really easy to use and all you need is to set aside some time to allow it to download the necessary files from Microsoft.

On your Windows 10 PC, first download the Media Creation tool. The beauty of using it is that you only need this single download, nothing else is required as it will download the correct image for you.

You can get the Media Creation Tool directly from Microsoft, and its not a large download so wont take long to be finished. You dont have to install it, either, as itll run as a standalone application, which means you can transfer it between machines easily.

Once downloaded you can use the Media Creation Tool to create a bootable flash drive to use on another PC or for a completely clean install. Alternatively, you can use it to upgrade your current PC to the latest version of Windows 10.

Open up the Media Creation Tool on your PC. Select the option to Create installation media for another PC and accept the license terms. The next stage involves choosing a language, edition, and architecture for Windows 10.

The edition will need to match whatever you have a license for, and in most cases, the architecture will be fine as x64. You only need to choose both or x86 if you know youre going to use it on a 32-bit machine.

Hit the Next button, choose the USB Flash Drive option, then select your flash drive from the list. Hit Next one more time, then Finish and the tool will begin the process of downloading Windows 10 and creating the USB installation drive.

Windows Update should deliver the latest versions of Windows 10 to your PC, but its not always the quickest at doing so. If you want to have the latest and greatest, the Media Creation Tool is one of the best ways to get it.

Open up the Media Creation Tool on your PC. Select the option to Upgrade this PC now and click Next. The Media Creation Tool will now begin downloading Windows 10 to your PC.

When the download is complete and the tool is ready to install Windows 10, youll have the chance to decide what you want to keep. Click Change what you want to keep and youll be given options to keep everything, keep only your files, or to keep nothing at all and do a fresh install.

When youre happy with your choice, click Install and the Windows 10 installation process will begin.

Whatever the reason you need to do a complete installation of Windows 10, the Media Creation Tool is one of the easiest ways to do it. Windows Update can sometimes lag behind in rolling out newer versions, but the Media Creation Tool is a quick way around that.

Its also perfect for building a USB flash drive to install Windows 10 on another machine, and as it works in the background you can go about your normal day while it does its thing.

See the rest here:
How to use the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool - TechRadar