How to reinstall Windows 10 without disk

How to reinstall Windows 10 without disk: Now I will tell you how to reinstall Windows 10 without disk, flash drive, without entering the BIOS (UEFI) or the Boot Menu (boot menu), from the computer desktop. This approach may be useful in some situations.

Sometimes, software-related problems occur during computer operation. If the user cannot or does not want to understand the reasons, then the problem is solved in a radical way: by reinstalling Windows. Instead of the previous system, a new one is installed, the operation of the computer begins with a clean slate.

The standard process for reinstalling the system is as follows: a bootable Windows USB flash drive is created or a DVD with a system image is used, then the computer is booted from the bootable media, after which the OS is installed.

On modern computers, especially laptops, there is often no optical drive for CD / DVD discs, so it is impossible to install the operating system from a disc. You need to reinstall Windows 10 without a disc.

If there is no USB drive available, you will not be able to burn a bootable USB flash drive. We need to reinstall Windows 10 without a flash drive. How to reinstall Windows 10 without a flash drive?

To boot from a flash drive or disk, you must enter the BIOS, UEFI BIOS, or Boot Menu (boot menu) to select the disk from which you want to boot. Users may have difficulty entering the BIOS (UEFI) of the computer, on some laptops this is not so easy. How to reinstall Windows 10 without BIOS?

As a result, we need to reinstall Windows 10 without a disk and flash drive, without going into BIOS. You can do without all this, read the instructions in this article.

Ways to install Windows 10

Installing Windows on a PC is carried out in several ways: after booting from external media (USB flash drive or DVD drive) or using special software.

To install the operating system, use the following methods:

• bootable flash drive – install Windows from a USB flash drive;
• DVD disc – system installation from an optical disc;
• Media Creation Tool – install Windows 10 using the utility;
• Windows Update Assistant application – installing a new version of the OS using an update;
• New start – the function of reinstalling the OS using the system;
• Reinstalling Windows 10 using a disk image file with the “.ISO” extension.

In this guide, we will look at how to install Windows 10 directly from a running system. The new operating system will be installed on top of the previous Windows. You must download the Windows 10 iso file to your computer in advance.

Reinstall Windows 10 without disk and flash drive from the desktop

If the Windows 10 image is not available, download it from the official Microsoft website at this link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 .

Follow these steps to download the OS image:

1. Download the Media Creation Tool on your PC.
2. Run the tool, accept the terms of the license agreement.
3. In the window “What do you want to do?” activate the item “Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file)”.
4. Select Language, Edition, Windows Architecture
5. In the “Select media” window, check the “ISO file” box.
6. Follow the instructions of the program, as a result, a file with the operating system in the “.ISO” format will be on your computer.

For clarity, the image file can be moved to the desktop of the computer.

Right-click on the ISO file, select “Mount” from the context menu.

The contents of the disk image mounted in the virtual drive will open in an Explorer window. Run the “setup” file as administrator.

The Windows 10 Installer window will open on your computer, prompting you to select one of the options:

• Download updates, drivers, and additional features (recommended).
• Not now.

You can download updates, if there is no time for this, refuse to receive updates.

The program checks for updates, prepares the system.

In the “Applicable notices and license terms” window, click on the “Accept” button.

Checking for updates.

In the “Ready to install” window, the following items are activated by default:

• Install Windows 10 of the appropriate edition (in this case, Windows 10 Pro).
• Save personal files and applications.

Click on “Change Selected Save Components”.

In the “Select what you want to save” window, you need to select one of the options:

• Keep personal files and apps – Keep your files, programs, and settings.
• Keep only my personal files – Only personal data will be kept, settings and programs will be deleted.
• Save nothing – Removes all data from your computer, including personal files, applications, and settings.

For a clean install of Windows 10, select Save Nothing.

In the “Ready to Install” window, review what you have selected, and then click on the “Install” button.

The Install Windows 10 window will open. The computer will restart several times during installation.

The installation of the system takes some time, during which no action is required from the user.

At the final stage of reinstalling the OS, windows will open in which you need to select options for configuring Windows. The windows are grouped into sections: “Basics”, “Network”, “Account”, “Services”.

In the window “Let’s start with the region. This is right?” choose a country.

In the “Is this the correct keyboard layout?” select a layout.

In the window “Do you want to add a second keyboard layout?” you can add a second layout if needed.

Important elements are being installed.

There are two ways to choose a setting method in the “Select a setting method” window:

• Set up for personal use – Set up a personal account with full control over the device.
• Configure for organization – setting up access to organization resources, the organization has full control over this computer.

In most cases, you should select “Set up for personal use”.

In the “Sign in with your Microsoft account” window, enter your account information. Here you can create an account.

If this PC does not use a Microsoft account, click on Offline Account.

In the next window, “Sign in with a Microsoft account?” we will be prompted to log in again. Click on the “No” or “Yes” button.

In the “Who will use this computer?” you will need to enter a username.

In the “Create a memorable password” window, enter a password to sign in to your account. If you don’t use a Windows password, don’t enter anything.

In the “Easy work across devices with activity log” window, click the “No” button.

In the “Choose privacy settings for this device” window, turn off the suggested options to reduce the size of data sent from PC to Microsoft.

The preparation of the computer for the first launch of the operating system begins.

The Windows 10 desktop will start on the screen. The “Networks” notification will open, in which click on the “Yes” button to allow other computers and devices to discover your computer.

Windows 10 reinstalled over a previous version, no DVD, no bootable USB, no BIOS or UEFI.

Deleting the Windows.old folder

The files of the old operating system are saved on the system drive “C:” in the “Windows.old” folder. This folder takes up a lot of disk space, so you need to delete it from your computer.

To delete the “Windows.old” folder, use the built-in system application “Disk Cleanup”. There is a detailed article on my website on how to remove Windows.old from PC using the Disk Cleanup utility.

Article Conclusions

In some cases, the user needs to reinstall Windows 10 without using a flash drive or disk. The installation of the operating system will take place from the desktop without entering the UEFI, BIOS or Boot Menu (boot menu). Reinstalling Windows 10 is performed over a previous copy of the system, the files of which are saved in the “Windows.old” folder, which must be deleted from the computer to save disk space.