Windows 10 Updating: - Essential Advice To Avoid Problems

 The  Microsoft’s highly anticipated Windows 10 operating system. For the most part things went fairly smoothly as it was rolled out over Windows Update, but a few problems have raised their heads with people unable to update or activate their new OS. Here’s a complete guide on how to how to avoid problems if you haven’t already updated, how download it, install it and activate it to make sure you register your free copy

Update first to activate

Whether you want to install a fresh or just install the update and leave it at that (this can install Windows 10 but keep all your files and programs intact), it’s a very good idea to install the update first by allowing Windows Update to do its thing or by forcing the download. This takes information about your system and allows Microsoft to register it, activating your copy of Windows 10 forever – you won’t be obtaining your free copy till you’ve activated. After this, you’ll be able to reinstall to your hearts content but if you create your own install media and install a fresh straight away,  you risk not being able to activate your operating system – more information on this in a minute.

Force the installation

Microsoft has released a tool to allow you to manually force the update to be installed or to download the OS to create your own installation media

 Microsoft has released a tool to allow you to manually force the update to be installed or to download the OS to create your own installation media

Some users have found that they’re still waiting for the update to be applied and I’ve certainly experienced this on one of my personal systems. I reserved Windows 10 and made sure my previous OS was up to date and of course it’s genuine too. However, I’m still waiting for things to kick off. Thankfully there’s a way to force the update to happen and to create your own media for installing a fresh on your PCs. A tool is offered by Microsoft allowing you to do this (download it here), which forces the update to download – useful if your PC or laptop for some reason hasn’t started the process yet.
Don’t have genuine product key/your key is built into your device?
Some devices including laptops made by manufacturers such as Dell, don’t have a genuine product key sticker located on the device somewhere. So, if you wipe your device and try to install a fresh, you’ll likely come unstuck when it comes to activating. In most of these cases, the key is stored in the BIOS of the system, so when you’d use your restore media to reinstall Windows, the OS would automatically activate online without you needing to do anything.