

Ever walk around with a disc in your pocket? It looks a bit odd.įor us, performance and reliability are the key reasons why we’ve opted to use USB-based installers in lieu of discs, especially with USB 3.0 being much more common. Discs can be easily scratched, while well-built USB flash drives can generally handle a bit of abuse. To start, USB media is more durable than disc-based media. Admittedly, the time and effort of creating the drive might make it best-suited for system builders, but for people like us, who juggle test machines, USB is a no-brainer. Method 5 – Windows 10 Media Creation ToolĮven if the target desktop or notebook has an optical drive, there are a couple of reasons to consider first creating a USB-based installer.Method 4 – Microsoft Windows 7 USB/DVD Tool.However, there are times when a flash drive has some quirk that prevents it from working with a particular solution, so for that reason, this article takes a look at five different methods. Grab the media creation tool from Microsoft: microsoft.Creating a bootable Windows USB drive used to be a chore, but today, one solution can pretty-well suit most people. How to use 'Refresh Windows' to do a clean install of Windows 10 Anniversary Updateįor those who want to keep their files, apps, and games follow the steps below to get the Anniversary Update today. If, however, you do want to do a clean install and wipe everything read our guide on how to use the Refresh Windows tool to do just that: That means this is not a clean install and you keep your files. If you are running Windows 10 and you run the media installation tool, it assumes you want to upgrade your OS, which is exactly what we want. Although you could create an ISO from the media creation tool and you could wipe your PC and install Windows 10 ("clean install"), that is not the default behavior. However, this is just a misunderstanding.

After all, why would you want to wipe your computer for an OS update? We hear the response a lot from users who would prefer just to use Windows Update. Myth – But I don't want to wipe my drive and re-install my apps!
