Clean Install

[J450N]

I’ve been in touch with nVidia regarding the inability to launch their Control Panel. They’ve asked me to try several fixes which haven’t worked. They’ve now asked me to do a clean install of Windows 10 which I was thinking of doing anyway. I have a self build & upgraded my current Windows from 7 to 10 a few year ago. Can someone tell me which is the easiest way to do a clean install please & would I need an ‘activation’ key? Thanks

[Bastet]

Would this be the control panel which is installed with their drivers or the newer version from the Microsoft App Store? I believe nVidia no longer supply this with their newer drivers.
https://www.microsoft.com/p/nvidia-c...ot:overviewtab

To answer your question: You would download the media creation tool & choose to create media on USB or DVD. Then with the USB/DVD inserted reboot the PC & as soon as you see the manufacturer’s log rapidly click the key which corresponds to the temporary boot menu - this can be F7 or F8 or F12 or esc.
If your pc is showing it is connected to a Microsoft account & has a digital license under activation then you’ll not need your key, when you reach the point where you’re asked to enter a key skip this. When you log in to your MS account then it should activate Windows.

[J450N]

Would this be the control panel which is installed with their drivers or the newer version from the Microsoft App Store? I believe nVidia no longer supply this with their newer drivers.
https://www.microsoft.com/p/nvidia-c...eek:verviewtab

To answer your question: You would download the media creation tool & choose to create media on USB or DVD. Then with the USB/DVD inserted reboot the PC & as soon as you see the manufacturer’s log rapidly click the key which corresponds to the temporary boot menu - this can be F7 or F8 or F12 or esc.
If your pc is showing it is connected to a Microsoft account & has a digital license under activation then you’ll not need your key, when you reach the point where you’re asked to enter a key skip this. When you log in to your MS account then it should activate Windows.

It’s the version from the MS store. I press Get but nothing happens however the icon is in the taskbar but won’t open. The option to open when right clicking on the desktop is not there.

Thanks for the Windows advice…much appreciated.

[Bastet]

Thanks for the update.
You could try an in-place repair of Windows which will repair the OS but keep files & programs. When you download the media creation tool choose to upgrade now.
You can also try uninstalling the nVidia control panel using Revo Uninstaller & running the scan for leftovers which will fully remove the app. Apps are under their own tab.

https://www.revouninstaller.com/products/revo-uninstaller-free/

[J450N]

Thanks…I’ll try that tomorrow. Much appreciated

[Bruce]

@J450N - any luck?

[J450N]

@J450N - any luck?

I’ve been away for the weekend so not had the chance yet. Might be another couple of days as well…I’ll post when I’ve ‘hopefully’ done it

[J450N]

I’ve done the clean install. Just need to start connecting to wifi then install drivers tonight. One question…all my old desktop icons / shortcuts are in a folder. How do I restore my previous desktop? Any other tips after the Windows install would be appreciated. Cheers

[Bruce]

your old Desktop contents lives in c:\users<old profile name>\desktop
but you’ll need to have kept that folder somewhere - old drive, backups, c:\windows.old folder.
all depends on how you clean installed and what you did to save your data beforehand.

[Bruce]

@J450N - do you still need help?

[Bruce]

abandoned thread