Let me start with the fact that I was lucky enough to get my hands on an entry-level Asus R540SA laptop, which is supplied and naturally sold in our stores without any operating system. I decided to install Windows 10 Pro on it, pursuing 3 goals: to find out the installation process itself (I haven’t done this for a very long time), to check the possibility of activating Windows 10 with a key from Windows 8 (fortunately, I had one key lying unclaimed for 3 whole years), and also see how the system behaves on fairly average laptop hardware. First things first.
A little about the Asus R540SA laptop
Despite its budget price, the laptop looks quite stylish. The dark chocolate lid made of durable plastic and the light brown body look very good together. I was struck by the lightness of the laptop, only 1.9 kg, as well as the body thickness of 25.4 mm, which is very unusual for budget laptops. Therefore, it is very light and easy to transport. It would seem, what can you expect from a laptop for 6,000 hryvnia? But it is equipped with all the connectors necessary for operation. Here they are all located on the left side of the case: a 3.5 mm headphone jack, one USB 2.0, 3.0 port and also a new USB Type-C connector, which is quite rarely found on laptops in this price segment. Nearby are HDMI, VGA and LAN RJ-45 connectors, that is, you can connect to the Internet not only via a wireless interface, since the laptop is equipped with a Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n module, but also use a wired one, which I’m sure will please you many, because for some reason manufacturers have recently preferred to get rid of this connector in budget laptops.
ASUS R540SA also has a Bluetooth 4.0 module, which allows you to transfer data between devices at speeds of up to 1 Mbit/s.
Particularly noteworthy is the island-type keyboard, which allows you to quickly and easily type text without the risk of making a mistake when pressing keys, and a fairly sensitive touchpad with an increased area that supports some of the gestures. Of course, you shouldn’t expect that such a laptop will have the latest hardware installed.
The 15.6-inch ASUS R540SA has a standard resolution of 1366×768 for an inexpensive laptop and a glossy surface, although it does not reflect much in the sun, which makes it comfortable to work on.
It is worth noting that ASUS developers were able to implement, even in such an entry-level laptop, a whole range of software and hardware designed to improve sound quality. Watching movies, TV series, videos and listening to music on it is a pleasure. He will definitely get his money's worth in this regard. But with the camera for video calls, everything is sad: it is only 0.3 megapixel resolution in our time!!! For me, such a camera is no longer very pleasant and convenient.
It's even worse with performance and memory. I understand that for such a price it’s still divine, but still. The laptop is powered by a dual-core Intel Celeron processor with a maximum clock frequency of 1.6 GHz (2.16 GHz in Turbo Boost mode), 2 GB of RAM and integrated Intel HD Graphics. The processor is built on a modern 14-nm process technology, which means it does not heat up and has low power consumption. Okay, it's a mid-range processor, but in 2016, 2 GB of RAM is very little. I'm thinking about adding memory if the module is not soldered to the motherboard. It's worth mentioning that it supports DDR3L 1.35V low voltage mode instead of the 1.5V that DDR3 typically uses.
The laptop has a non-removable lithium-ion battery, which will allow you to work for up to 4 hours, according to the manufacturer. I can say from personal experience that up to 3 hours works no more.
As you can see, I have a very average laptop and still without any operating system, the installation of which I want to tell you about later.
Installing Windows 10 Pro
I already wrote above that I haven’t installed an OS on such laptops for a long time, so it was very interesting how exactly the new Windows 10 would cope with this task. I, from yours permissions, I will omit the details of preparing the ISO image of Windows 10. I have already written about this many times in my articles. I will only note that I have once again become convinced that no third-party utility other than MediaCreationTool is simply needed. It does an excellent job of installing the OS.
Since my laptop is completely naked and there is nothing on it, my first step was naturally to look into the BIOS. This has also been written and discussed many times. Let me just post a picture with possible key combinations for entering the BIOS for almost all laptops.
Having entered that same BIOS, our main and only task is in the section BOOT, which is easy to navigate using buttons up-down, right-left, find your bootable USB flash drive here, which do not forget to insert into the USB connector of your laptop. Now you need to put it in system boot priority using the same keys up down, then press the key F10 And Enter. We kindly ask you not to click or change anything else in the BIOS.
You will know that the download has started when you see a page with a choice of interface language, country and operating system version. That is, the procedure is actually similar to a clean installation of Windows 10. But I had one nuance, the solution to which I want to tell you about. When selecting a disk to install the operating system, it turned out that I could not do this, since my disk partitions had the format MBR, and for installation you need GPT. Many people encounter this problem, so I think it is necessary to describe ways to solve it.
You can solve the problems of converting MBR and GPT partitions using Command line, which can be opened with a set of keys Shift+F10.You need to run the utility diskpart, then enter the command Listdisk to display a list of physical drives connected to your computer. Next, select the desired disk from the list that appears with the command selectdiskN, Where N- the number of your disk you want to convert. It must be cleared by entering the command clean. All that remains is to enter the command convertgpt and the disk is ready to install the operating system. In the same way you can convert from GPT V MBR, changing the last word when converting. I also want to note that in recent years I have stopped partitioning my hard drive into separate partitions. I once asked this question on the Microsoft forum, to which I received an explanation that new HDDs/SSDs do not require special partitioning. While HDD drives are usually divided into partitions, many manufacturers do NOT recommend partitioning SSD drives. I predict your reaction to this phrase and therefore point out that NOT recommended does not mean IMPOSSIBLE. It all depends on your personal desires and needs. Everything works fine for me without dividing into sections and there have never been any force majeure circumstances.
I was very pleased that the installation took me no more than 40 minutes. Just answer the questions and click next. There is one observation: recently, when installing Windows 10, the system asks you to enter the router PIN code instead of the WI-FI password, which can be easily found on the case of your device. I don’t know what this is connected with, but the fact remains a fact. And I highly recommend that when installing Windows 10, you must have access to the Internet. The reason for this request is very prosaic: if there is an Internet connection, then Windows 10 installs the drivers itself, providing a digital signature. Simply put, you don't have to dig through manufacturers' websites to find the drivers you need. Forget about it if you bought a new laptop, even without an installed operating system.
After a while, the desktop will open and all pre-installed programs and applications from Microsoft will be loaded into your laptop, which means you can safely use your device.
Activating Windows 10 with a Windows 8 license key
As I said above, after installation the Desktop opened, the system works fine, but it needs to be activated. This can be done in two ways: when the system asks you to enter the key during activation itself (I simply skipped this point) or through Settings-Update and Security-Activation. Since I did not have a Windows 10 activation key, I decided to try to activate the OS using the Windows 8 activation key, which had been quietly waiting in the wings for 3 years. I read that there is such a method, but I had to check it.
To my surprise, everything went smoothly and without surprises. Literally a minute later, my Windows 10 Pro was activated, which was eloquently written about in the Activations section. That is, there is also this method of activating Windows 10. I don’t know how long this loophole will exist, but it saved me a decent amount.
Long gone are the days when the Windows installation procedure was only the prerogative of specialists. Nowadays it is no longer considered a complex operation and installation can be easily carried out even by young schoolchildren. If you are new to this business, then in the five minutes it will take you to read the guide below, you will already know the answers to all questions regarding the independent Windows installation process.
The OS bit size determines the maximum size of RAM supported by the computer, that is, the calculation is simple:
- For a PC with up to 4 Gb of RAM, you should choose to install a 32-bit operating system;
- For PCs with RAM from 4 to 192 Gb, you should choose to install a 64-bit operating system.
Almost all currently produced PCs support both architectures, so you can navigate by the amount of RAM. However, if the user has an old computer, then it only supports a 32-bit system, which means installing additional RAM sticks into it is pointless. For example, to put it mildly, the outdated Samsung R60 laptop supports only 2 Gb of RAM.
As a result, it is advisable to install only 32-bit Windows.
To find out the bitness of Windows 7 already installed on your PC, you will need to perform the following steps:
- Expand context from the “Computer” shortcut;
- Click on the line labeled “Properties”;
To find out the bitness of Windows 10 already installed on your PC, you will need to complete the following steps:
- Expand the contents of the “Options” menu;
- Click “System”;
- Enter the “About the system” tab;
- All! The menu that appears will contain the information you are looking for.
In the future, 32-bit operating systems will almost completely go out of use and gradually 64-bit systems will completely replace the outdated architecture. Therefore, users who want to keep up with the times are recommended to choose computers that support 64-bit and install the appropriate versions of Windows.
If the computer is new or does not have files and information that the user wants to save, then it is enough to prepare external media with a bootable Windows distribution and make preparatory settings in the BIOS, and it is also recommended, as part of the preparatory activities before installing the system, to download drivers from the resources of the equipment manufacturers. It should be noted that drivers are often included in PC components. You should make sure that CDs with software are available, and if they are missing, download them from the developers’ sites.
If the PC has already been used before, then it accumulates a lot of important user information (files, photos, video content, programs, games, etc.). In order not to lose data, you need to save it on external media or in a logical partition of the hard drive on which you do not plan to install the OS.
If you need to reinstall Eight or Ten, you can use the recovery function without deleting files.
Important aside: Before the installation procedure begins, the PC owner will have to reserve time and put off all urgent matters for a few hours. The Windows installation must not be interrupted. When installing the OS on a laptop, you should fully charge the battery and preferably not disconnect from the power supply.
Basic Windows Installation Steps
Three main stages:
- Purchase or burn bootable media yourself;
- Change the settings in the BIOS and set the boot priority from external media;
- Install Windows from bootable media.
For a person who is thinking of installing Windows 7 or 10 for free without contacting specialists, i.e. yourself, you will need to burn bootable media (the procedures for creating a flash drive or disk are identical).
For this purpose, the following steps must be completed:
- Install the “UltraISO” application from the developer’s resource: www.ezbsystems.com/ultraiso/download.htm;
- From the Microsoft resource, download an image of Windows 10 or 7 of the appropriate bit level for a PC;
- Launch “UltraISO” and click “Trial period”;
- Insert external media into the PC, for example, when using a flash drive, insert it into the USB port;
- Click “File” in the “UltraISO” application;
- Click “Open”;
- Show the application the location of the downloaded image from Windows;
- Click “Open;
- Click on the line that says: “Burn a hard disk image”;
- Specify external media;
- Click on the virtual button with the word “Record”;
- Click “Yes”;
- Wait;
- Ready.
How to install Windows from a flash drive via BIOS?
After recording the bootable media, you need to set the priority in the BIOS to boot the PC from an external source. Therefore, the user is faced with the problem of how to install Windows via BIOS, which can be solved by simply reading the instructions that came with the computer. It indicates the method of entering the BIOS. Each PC manufacturer has its own way of getting into this software environment.
Most often, after starting the PC, you need to click on “DEL” or “F2”.
In the menu that appears, you should perform the following actions:
- Open the “BOOT” tab;
- Next, go to the “Boot Device Priority” subsection;
- Put removable media first;
- If there is no media in the menu that opens, click “Esc” and enter the “Hard Disk Drives” subsection;
- Place the removable drive in the first place and click “Enter”;
- Click “F10”;
- Click “Ok”;
- Ready. The PC will begin to restart and boot from the media with the recorded Windows image, which will begin the OS installation process.
Note: The BIOS interface may differ, but the essence of the settings is the same.
How to install Windows 7 from a USB flash drive?
After completing the last step from the previous instructions, the PC will restart and the installation of Windows 7 will begin from a flash drive or disk, depending on what the user has chosen.
You will need to wait for the file download process to complete and then do the following:
- In the first menu that appears, select the language;
- Click “Next”;
- Click “Install”;
- Wait;
- Click “Full installation”;
- Select the system volume and click “Next”;
- Select the same volume again and click “Format”;
- Click “Ok”;
- Select the same volume again and click “Next”;
- Wait until the automatic Windows installation finishes;
- Wait;
- Print name for PC;
- Next, if the user wants, he can set an access code, or immediately click “Next”;
- Enter time settings;
- After that, click on the link that is underlined with a red line in the screenshot below;
- Wait;
- That's all! Mission accomplished.
Installing Windows 10 is almost no different from the above procedure for the “Seven”. The PC restarts after exiting the BIOS and will begin loading files from the media.
After this you will need to take the following steps:
- Specify “Language”;
- Click “Next”;
- Click “Install”;
- Read carefully all the requirements of the license document, check the box and click “Next”;
- After that, click on the column indicated by the red arrow in the figure below;
- Select the system volume and click “Format”;
- Click “Next”;
- Wait;
- After the automatic installation is completed, disconnect the flash drive from the USB port of the computer and click on the virtual button in the menu that appears that says “Reboot now”;
- If the PC is within Wi-Fi coverage, you can connect to the network, or click “Skip ...”;
- Click the virtual button labeled “Use standard settings”;
- If you have a Wi-Fi connection, wait until the procedure for receiving updates is completed;
- Click “This computer is mine”;
- If you are registered with Microsoft, enter authorization parameters or skip this step;
- After this, if desired, the user can set an access code to the system;
- Ready!
Installing Windows on a GPT disk
To install Windows 7 on a GPT disk or a more modern modification of the OS, you will need to prepare bootable media, for example, from a flash drive with a capacity of at least 8Gb. Next, use the “UltraISO” program or a similar program to write the Windows image onto the media.
If an old BIOS modification is installed on the PC, then the task will not be completed. Also, the user can immediately abandon the idea if only 32-bit architecture is supported.
If the PC is equipped with UEFI and supports a 64-bit system, then you can continue studying this paragraph of the instructions.
To check the BIOS version, you just need to enter it and check the functionality of the mouse. In the old version it does not work, but in UEFI the mouse arrow will be active.
Steps:
If the PC owner plans to use a disc not purchased in a store, but burn it himself, then he only needs to use images downloaded from the Microsoft resource. There they are provided free of charge (if you wish, you can buy the key later, or use a free activator).
By analogy with the installation procedure from a flash drive, you will need to set the priority of starting the PC from the disk in the BIOS.
After exiting the BIOS and saving the entered adjustments, the PC will reboot and you will need to click “Space”. Next, wait until the files are downloaded.
Then perform the following sequential steps:
- Specify “Language”;
- Click “Install”;
- Specify the Windows 7 modification and click “Next”;
- Read carefully all the requirements of the license document, check the box and click “Next”;
- Click “Full installation”;
- Select the system volume;
- Further;
- Click “Format”;
- Confirm action;
- Wait;
- Enter a name for the PC;
- If you have a key, enter it and click “Next”, and if the user has not yet purchased it or does not want to spend money on the OS, then uncheck the automatic activation box and click “Skip”;
- Select recommended settings;
- Enter time settings;
- Then select the network type;
- Ready.
Installing Windows 7 from a flash drive via BIOS to an SSD
For people who are not too lazy to read the instructions presented above, it will no longer be difficult to install Windows 7 on an SSD, since the procedure is almost the same.
Steps:
- Enter BIOS;
- Open the “Advanced” tab;
- Next, through the “SATA Conf” section, enter the “Sata Mode Selection” subsection;
- Specify "AHCI";
- Next, set the priority of starting the PC from a bootable USB flash drive with the Windows 7 image;
- Exit BIOS while saving the adjustments made;
- The PC will restart and the standard “Seven” installation process will begin.
Installing Windows 10 on a laptop with an SSD drive is also not difficult; it should be noted that the installation, when using a solid-state drive in a laptop, is much faster than on any PC with a regular hard drive. You will also need a flash drive with a size of at least 8 Gb and an image of “Ten” downloaded from a Microsoft resource.
Steps:
- Download and install the “MediaCreationTool” application from “microsoft.com”;
- Click “Accept”;
- Leave a mark as shown in the photo below and click “Next”;
- Specify the language, OS modification and its bit size;
- Check the box for flash memory;
- Further;
- Specify your flash drive;
- Further;
- Wait;
- Now the bootable USB flash drive is ready;
- Enter BIOS;
- Open the “SETTINGS” tab;
- Then open the “Advanced” subsection;
- Enter the “Built-in peripheral devices” tab;
- For SATA slot “AHCI mode”;
- Next, exit the BIOS, saving the changes, and boot from the flash drive created at the beginning of this instruction;
- Specify language;
- Click “Install”;
- Read the license and check the box and click “Next”;
- Click on the “Custom” item;
- Create a partition on the disk and click “Next”;
- Then the standard “Tens” installation process will begin, which has already been described in detail above in this manual.
Common reasons for this error include both a disabled disk controller in the BIOS and a lack of hardware support for booting from this disk.
In the BIOS, you should set the disk operating mode to “IDE” in the Integrated Peripherals section under the item - SATA Mode.
If the computer has UEFI, you will need to enable EFI boot. After that, start the PC from external media and install Windows. But sometimes, even after this, the error continues to prevent installation, then it is recommended to activate AHCI for SATA drives.
Programs for quickly setting up Windows after installation
Even advanced users who have the skills to manually configure Windows after installation do not hesitate to use applications that facilitate and significantly speed up the setup procedure. Below is a list of proven utilities that, in addition to their excellent functionality, also have the important advantage of being freely distributed:
- Ultimate Windows Tweaker;
- Tweak Me!
- XdN Tweaker;
- GIGATweaker;
- TweakNow PowerPack.
No matter how hard they try in Russia to promote various alternative operating systems for computers such as Linux or MacOS, none of them has yet become more popular than Windows. Today, the most modern version of the OS from Microsoft is Windows 10. It has a convenient user interface, excellent functionality and extensive capabilities. In my opinion, this version has every chance of surpassing the legendary “seven” in popularity.
Despite the very, very friendly interface even for an untrained person, users still have questions. One of the most common questions is how to install Windows 10 on a clean computer from scratch. So let's take a closer look at it!
Preparing to install Windows 10
Before you do anything, you need to thoroughly prepare! The first thing you will need is an installation disk or bootable USB flash drive with a Windows 10 image! The easiest way to do it is with a proprietary utility from Microsoft.
Despite the fact that outdated DVDs are often used to install Windows 10 on a computer, it is much easier and faster to use an installation flash drive. The only condition is that the capacity of the USB drive must be at least 4 Gigabytes.
It is also worth taking care of the drivers for the main components of the PC - motherboard, video adapter, sound card, WiFi adapter, etc. You can separately download software for each device on its manufacturer’s website, or use the automatic driver installation tool. For example, DriversPack Solution.
After the installation flash drive is ready, plug it into the USB port. Now you need to force your computer or laptop to boot from it. To do this, when turning on, you need to press the “Del” key. On laptops, the “F2” button is most often used for this.
In the BIOS you need to go to the advanced settings “Advanced Settings” and find the “First Boot Device” item. Here you need to select “USB-HDD” from the list - this is a flash drive.
Note: On laptops, as a rule, the BIOS has a separate “Boot” section dedicated to booting the device:
Everything is the same here - we find the first boot device “1st Boot Priority” and set the installation media there from which we will install Windows on the PC.
Installing an operating system on a computer
The preparation is complete, now we proceed directly to the installation. If you did everything correctly, then after the next reboot the language selection will appear:
You will now be required to enter your product key. Without it, further actions will not be possible.
If you don’t have a license key, you can always use free installation keys for dozens, which can be found here -. They allow you to easily install Windows 10 on a computer or laptop, but then you still have to look for a licensed one somewhere or use alternative options.
The next step is the license agreement that no one ever reads:
The next stage is very important. If you are trying to install Windows 10 on a completely new HDD or SSD, you must first partition it.
Click the “Create” button and below we get the following menu:
Here you need to specify the size of the system disk to be created. After you click the “Apply” button, the following window will pop up:
We agree by clicking on “Yes” and we see this picture:
The installer created a 500 megabyte system partition, reserved by the system and the main installation partition for the operating system.
Note: If you have a large hard drive, then it is better to make several partitions rather than one, but huge one.
If the hard drive HDD or SSD is already partitioned, then the partition selected for installing Windows 10 must simply be formatted by clicking on the appropriate button.
During this process, the computer will restart at least once.
On average, installing Windows 10 on a computer or laptop takes from 20 minutes to an hour, depending on the characteristics of the device.
When the “Increase speed” window appears, it is best to select the “Use standard settings” option.
Again we wait for the installer to perform a series of operations.
Click on the line “This computer belongs to me” and on the “Next” button. Then you need to skip the step of entering your Microsoft account information.
Pay attention - are there any lines with an exclamation point? These are unidentified components or devices for which Windows 10 does not have a standard driver. If everything is clean, then in principle the system can be used. Although I would still advise that as soon as the installation of Windows 10 is completed, be sure to run the DriverPack Solution utility and automatically update all drivers to the latest versions.
The fact is that standard universal drivers are used for the computer to turn on, start and work more or less normally. They are not always suitable for user tasks and therefore such an update is extremely necessary.
Secondly, be sure to go to the “Dozens” settings and open the “Update and Security” section, where you start the process of searching for and installing system updates.
Installing Windows 10 on your computer is not at all difficult. You just need to follow a few simple steps, and Windows 10 will be placed on your computer completely free of charge, and ready to use. Follow the step by step guide.
Step 4: Select the language, time and currency format, and keyboard layout; click on the "Next" button.
Step 5: Click on the "Install" button
Step 6 : “I accept the terms of the license agreement” check the box and click the “Next” button.
Step 7: Now you have two options:
Option A: Updating the existing operating system. Select this option if you want to keep all existing files, applications, and settings. These files and information will be transferred from the old OS to the new one.
Option B: Install clean Windows 10 by selecting the operating system partition. This is a good option for users who are unable to update.
Step 8: If you selected the "Update" option, proceed to step 9 below. If "Custom: Windows installation only", select the partition where you want to place the OS. You can also click on "New" to create a new partition for installation.
Step 9: Wait until the process is finished.
Step 10: Upon completion of these fairly lengthy processes, you will be prompted to enter your product key. If there is a key, enter it; if not, click “Do it later” at the bottom. When updating, you will not need to re-enter the key.
Step 11: Next “Create an account for this computer”, you will be asked to either log in, create a Microsoft account or create a local account if there is no Internet connection.
Step 12: The final stage is setting up standard applications. Preparing for launch will not take much time.
I hope our guide helped you learn how to install Windows 10 on your computer.
Well, here's the final version. Windows 10 in Russian. On this page you can download Windows 10 and install it on your computer, we even made a video instruction on how to do this.At the moment, Windows 10 April 2018 Update - Redstone 4 - 1803 has been released.How much faster did 10 work with the latest build? Read below. Global overview 10 .To download Windows 10 follow a few simple steps:
- Look at the system requirements below and make sure your computer meets all the requirements for installing Windows 10.
Start the installation disc from AutoRun, or go to the disc and double-click setup.exe from the installation media, and then follow the instructions.
The installation will be shown in full in the video below.
Very important:
- If you want to stop using Windows 10 and go back to a previous version of Windows, you need to reinstall the previous version from the recovery disc or installation disc that came with your PC or laptop, usually a DVD disc. If you don't have recovery media, you can create recovery media from the recovery partition on your computer using software provided by your PC manufacturer. You will need to do this before updating. Check the support section of your computer manufacturer's website for more information.
- After installing Windows 10Insider Preview, you won't be able to use the recovery partition on your computer to go back to a previous version of Windows such as 7 or 8.
- Peculiarities
System requirements for installing Windows 10
Basically, if your computer can work with Windows 8.1 or 7 installed, then everything is fine. If you're not sure, Windows 10 will check your system to see if your computer can be used for installation.Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or higher (Problems found when installed on Core 2 Duo processors, now fixed)
RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB or more (64-bit)
Free hard disk space: 16 GB (With this amount of space, you will not be able to install anything else on the “C” drive)
Video card supporting DirectX 9.0c, cards withDirectX versions below are not supported!
Download link:
- Download the MediaCreationTool utility for downloading and installing Windows 10 - microsoft.com/ru-ru/software-download/windows10
- You can update to 10 for free after 07/29/2016 using this utility.
- Download the original image of Windows 10 Pro-Home 64-32 - October 2018 Update - 1809
- Download the original image of Windows 10 Pro-Home 64 - April 2018 Update - 1803
- Download the original image of Windows 10 Pro-Home 32 - April 2018 Update - 1803
- Download original image
