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Windows 10/11 Setup Guide

Step-by-Step Guide to setup a clean install of Windows (10/11)

Following this guide will result in all of your data being wiped, so make sure to make a BACKUP of everything you need before following

Step 1 - Creating Installation Media

  1. Download Windows - Either Download the ISO Directly or Download the Media Creation Tool, and use it download and save the Windows ISO

  2. Download Rufus

  3. Connect a USB Device (Make sure any data on it is backed up, as it will be formatted). Browse to the ISO by clicking on the Select button. The Partition Scheme should be the one your drive uses on which you plan to install Windows.

    • (You can check the drives partition scheme by going into Disk Management by right-clicking on the Windows Button on the taskbar, then right-clicking on the drive you want to install Windows on, and going into Properties. You can see your Partition Style in the Volumes tab.)

  4. Set a name for the USB Drive, and click on Start. It will take a few minutes, and then your Bootable drive is ready.

Step 2 - Installing Windows

  1. Access your BIOS by pressing your BIOS Key set by your manufacturer which could be F1 F2 F10 F12 or DEL during boot.

  2. Select the USB you just created, and boot from it. You will see something similar to below

  3. Choose your Language and Other preferences and click Next. Then, click Install Now.

  4. You’ll be asked to activate Windows. Enter your product key or click I don’t have a product key if you’re reinstalling Windows.

  5. Select the operating system you want to install and click Next.

  6. Accept the license terms and click Next. Then, choose Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)

  7. See what Drive (if you have multiple) you want to Install Windows On.

    • If the Drive you want to install on is currently in Use, you need to delete all the partitions of it until it looks someting similar to Drive # Unallocated Space. Then Select this unallocated space, and cick on New. If you want to separate your drive into multiple partitions, now is the time to do so, or you can just create the partition on which you install Windows on, and leave the other Unallocated space for later. Now click Next.

  8. Windows will begin to install. It might restart a couple times, that is Normal. When its done, it will ask for a final restart, after which you will be greeted by the Windows Setup Screen (Below picture is for Windows 11)

  9. Go Through the Entire Setup, choosing the Correct Keyboard Layout, connecting to the Wi-Fi, logging into your Microsoft Account, and setting up a Pin.

    • Set whatever Privacy settings you want (I Recommend turning all of them off).

  10. You will end up on your Desktop, with everything set up and ready to go.

Step 3 - Getting Started

  1. Update Windows to the Latest.

    • Go to Settings > Windows Update , and click on Check for Updates. It will Download and Install, multiple updates, including the Graphics Driver (although it can be quite old, will fix this later) and other necessary drivers.
    • You might need to check for updates a couple times, as it doesnt always download all of them at the same time.
    • When it has finished installing the updates, Restart the computer.
    • Now Go back to Windows Updates and Pause Updates for as long as possible.

  2. If you have any drives or unallocated space that you would like to mount/create a partition of, you can go to Disk Management by right-clicking on the Windows Button on the taskbar.

    • You will see all of your drives and/or unallocated spaces of any drives listed here. Right-Click on the Unallocated Space (usually marked with black shades), and select New Simple Volume. Go through the setup, giving the Volume a Letter and Name. Click on Finish, and your drive/partition should show up in This PC.

  3. Download and Install the DirectX Web Installer.

    • This will install a number of runtime libraries from the legacy DirectX SDK for some games that use D3DX9, D3DX10, D3DX11, XAudio 2.7, XInput 1.3, XACT, and/or Managed DirectX 1.1. Note that this package does not modify the DirectX Runtime installed on your Windows OS in any way.

  4. Similarly, Go to the Visual C++ Runtimes website.

    • Select Download on the left side of the site, and select the Server Closest to You. The Download should begin.

    • Navigate to the folder where it downloaded. Extract all the contents into a folder. Run the install_all.bat files as Administration by right-clicking and selecting Run as Administrator.

  5. This will make sure you have all the necessary software required to run most of the programs and games availaible on the internet. Most games will download nay missing softwares automatically.

  6. Open Settings, Go to Bluetooth & Devices

    • Go to Mouse > Additional Mouse Settings > Pointer Options and unchecking Enhance Pointer Precision. Make sure the Pointer Speed is also set at 6/11

Step 4 - Installing Drivers

Graphics Driver.

  1. Go to either Nvidia Official Drivers website or AMD Official Drivers website and download your driver.

    or

  2. Download Display Driver Uninstaller. Use this to fully uninstall the current installed driver and install the latest availaible.

    • Extract it to a folder.

    • Open run by Win + R, type msconfig and hit Enter.

    • Go to the Boot Tab and Check Safe Boot. Click on Apply and Restart your PC.

    • When back on desktop, open DDU. When the dialog box opens, scroll to the bottom and turn on Prevent downloads of drivers from "Windows Update" when "Windows" search for a driver for a device

    • On the right side of the window, Select your GPU, and then either NVIDIA or AMD

    • Click on Clean and do NOT Restart

    • When it has finished cleaning up, again open MSCONFIG (steps above) and uncheck Safe Boot. Click on Apply and restart your PC

  3. When back on desktop, open the GPU driver downloaded, and go through the installation, unchecking anything you might not neend.

    • When finished installing, open DDU (no need for Safe Mode), click on Options and turn off Prevent downloads of drivers from "Windows Update" when "Windows" search for a driver for a device.

  4. Set up the Nvidia Control panel or AMD Radeon Control Panel with the recommended settings. Given Below are the recommended NVIDIA Settings

    • Go to 3D Settings > Adjust Image Settings with Preview and Select Use Advanced 3D Image Settings
    • Go to Display > Adjust Desktop Size and Position
    • Set the Scaling mode to Full-Screen
    • Set Perform Scaling on to GPU and turn on Override the scaling Mode set the games and programs
    • Go to Display > Set up G-SYNC
    • Enable G-SYNC, if you monitor supports it

CPU Drivers

  • You can download your CPU drivers by going to either AMD's website OR Intel's.
    • Just download the driver specific for your CPU and run the driver files, and restart at the end.

More Drivers

  1. Apart from the GPU and CPU drivers, you need to download the drivers recommended by your Motherboard/System Manufacturer
  2. These Generally include drivers like Sound , Networks , and/or some applications.
  3. You can also download and update your BIOS by getting the newer versions from your manufacturers website, and installing it, though it is not recommended as it can be quite complicated. If everything is already running fine, there is no need to update BIOS, unless there are some security updates included in it

Step 5 - Windows Settings

Open Settings, and set up any and everything you want according to your preferences. A few settings I recommend switching are :

  1. Go to System

    • Go to Display and set the Display Resolution to the Highest Availaible. Also Go to Advanced Display and set the Refresh Rate to the Highest Availaible.
    • Go to Notifications and turn off notifications from any app you dont want.
    • Go to Multi-tasking and set the Alt + Tab button only shows Open Windows Only. Also, in the Snap Windows drop down menu, uncheck Show Snap layouts that the app is part of when I hover over the taskbar buttons

  2. Go to Personalisation

    • Go to Colours and set the mode to Light or Dark. You can also turn off Transparency Effects here.
    • Go to Start
      • Turn off Show Recently Added Apps
      • Turn off Show Recently opened items in Start, Jump Lists, and File Explorer
      • Go to Folders and uncheck everything except Settings and Personal Folder
    • Go to Taskbar
      • Turn off all the Taskbar Items (Leave Search button on if you want)
      • Turn off all the Taskbar Corner Items
      • Turn on/off what you want in Taskbar Corner Overflow
      • Set Taskbar Behaviours to personal preference.

  3. Go to Apps

    • Go toApps & Features
      • Set Choose where to get apps to Anywhere
      • Uninstall all the apps you dont need like OneDrive , Skype , Films , Groove Music , Tips etc. You can also use a third party tool like Bloatbox.
    • Go to Offline Maps and turn off Auto Updates of Maps
    • Go to Startup and turn off all of the apps you want want runned when you start your PC. Leave Realtek HD Audio Universal Service to ON if present.

  4. Go to Accounts

    • Go to Sign-in Options
      • Turn off Automatically save my Restartable apps and restart them when I sign back in
      • Turn off Show my account Details such as my email address on the sign-in screen
      • Turn off Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up after an update
    • Go to Windows Backup
      • Turn off Remember my apps
      • Turn off Remember my preferences

  5. Go to Time & Language

    • Go to Date & Time and turn on Set the time Automatically. Also set the correct Time Zone
    • Go to Language & Region
      • Set the Windows Display Language to your preferred language.
      • Set the Country or Region
      • Set the Regional Format to the correct one, click on the down arrow and click on Change Formats, and set it according to your preferences.
    • Go to Typing
      • Turn off Show Text Suggestions when Typing
      • Turn off Multilingual Text Suggestions
      • Go to Advanced Keyboard Settings. Check the Use the Desktop Language bar When it is availaible. Click on Language bar options. Uncheck everything and set Language bar to Hidden.
      • Setting this up removes the Language Input Indicator from the Taskbar, very annoying otherwise.

  6. Go to Gaming

    • Click on Game Mode and turn on Game Mode
    • Click on Xbox Game Bar and turn off Open Xbox Gamebar Using this button on a controller
    • Disable/Enable Gamebar
      • By Default, Windows 11 does not have any option to disable Gamebar. All you can do is stop the controller button from opening GameBar
      • Use this to Disable GameBar.
      • Use this to Enable GameBar.

  7. The Privacy and Security is all personal preference, but I recommend turning off everything you dont need. Just make sure to not fully turn off all of them, only disable what you know you dont need.

  • You can also set up almost all of these settings by using another utility ThisIsWin11. You can also download multiple applications directly through this using Windows Package Manager (You Will Need WinGet for this, the app will guide you to install it)

  1. Cleanup your Drives

    • This can be done through either Disk Cleanup (Can be opened by searching Disk Cleanup), a built in Windows Utility, or you can use a third party program like BurnBytes

    • Both are pretty straight forward. Open whichever one you want to use, select the drive you want to clean up, and select everything you wish to delete. This generally includes stuff like Windows Update Cleanup , Temporary Files , Delivery Optimization Files.

    • Be careful in what you select, as there is an option to clear out Downloads, not to be confused with Downloaded Files , and this will remove everything from your 'Downloads' folder.

  2. Create a Restore Point

    • Now that Windows has been set up in the optimal way, you should create a system restore point, so if at any point in the future you need to revert back without doing everything from scratch again, you can use this.

    • Search for Create a Restore Point and open the app.

    • Select the Drive on which you Installed Windows and click Configure

    • Make sure System Protection is turned On and Disk Usage is set to around 10 GB. Click on Apply and close.

    • Select Create button at the bottom of the dialog box. A new Window will open, put in a name for your Restore Point. Date and Time are added Automatically, and click Create. It will take a minute, and then it will finish. Thats it.

Step 6 - Installing Apps

  • You have multiple options when downloading an application. Man common applications are availaible on the Microsoft Store.
  • You can download any and all apps you require from their respective websites. You can also use Ninite to make the process a lot simpler. Just select the apps you want, and click on Get Your Ninite at the bottom of the page. This will download a custom installer which will install/update all the apps you selected.
  • Some Recommended Apps are - Steam , Discord , qBittorrent , VLC Media Player , MSI AfterBurner , WinAero Tweaker , and ShareX

Optional Stuff

  1. Nilesoft Shell

    • In Windows 11, Microsoft Introduced a new context menu (Menu that opens when you right-click). The problem with this is that even though it looks nicer, it has moved a lot of stuff around, making the basic functionality a lot more tedious.

    • Fortunately, Shell is a context menu extender, that not only looks identical, but is a lot more powerful.

    • You can handpick the items to integrate into Windows File Explorer context menu, create custom commands to access all your favorite web pages, files, and folders, and launch any application directly from the context menu. handpick the items to integrate into Windows File Explorer context menu, create custom commands to access all your favorite web pages, files, and folders, and launch any application directly from the context menu.

    • Setting it up is pretty simple. Download the zip file (32-bit or 64-bit) > Extract > Cut and Paste it to a safe place (Like Program Filex) > Run the Shell.exe as Administrator > Register.

    • The Windows Explorer will restart, and you will have a brand new Context Menu.

    • You can edit everything here through the shell.shl file located in the directory of this application. Open it with Notepad and set it up however you like. I have created a custom shell.shl for the version 1.5, for my personal use. You dont need to use it.

    • Whenever you edit stuff in the shell.shl, make sure you restart the explorer. You wont see the changes you made otherwise.

    • You can also revert to the Windows 10 Context Menu by following this guide, but there are some highlighting issues present so it is not recommended.

  2. Registry Tweaks

    This next part includes making changes to the registry of Windows. If you are not comfortable doing this, avoiding this step is recommended.

    • Make a backup of Registry first before proceeding. Incase something breaks, you can use this file to restore the registry to the default state.

      • Open Registry Editor by typing regedit in Run Win + R
      • At the top left corner, Click File > Export. Save the backup in a safe place.

    • Some basic Registry Tweaks. Download this file. You can see what changes this will make to the registry by Right-Clicking on this file and clicking Edit

      • This disables things like Power Throttling , Network Throttling , Games Scheduling , Automatic Maintainence and Menu Show Delay