Some Useful Guides

About the only thing harder than installing an OS is deciding which OS to use. We here at BQD Technology Services use Windows and Linux. They each have their own pros and cons. Windows tends to have more professional/corporate support and development, because it is widely used across the world, which means that most programs and software is compatible with the OS. 

Whereas Linux is almost completely funded and developed by the community so there are not as many programs or software that broadly supports Linux. Although Linux is the primary OS for servers out in the world, in fact, Amazon uses Linux heavily in their business, primarily in their warehouses. Amazon actually has developed their own flavor of Linux just for their warehouses. Linux uses minimal resources and highly secure.

However, let's get into it, and I'll start with Windows.

First, either get yourself a copy of Windows 11 on disc from a reputable company or head right on over to Microsoft's Windows 11 Downloads page (here) and download the ISO file to another machine or use another machine to run Microsoft's Windows 11 Media Creation Tool which you will find here. Either way it is free to download Windows, the catch is in order to use it beyond 30-60 days, you will need a key to activate Windows so you can update and personalize your system.

 First, you will need to create bootable media, either on a USB flash drive or on optical media such as DVD. You will need a blank DVD or USB flash/thumb drive. Any files on the drive should be saved elsewhere as they will be erased during the creation of the installation media. 

 After clicking on one of the links above it will take you to the starting page for creating the Windows 11 installation media. Once there, ignore the first sections, scroll down and click on "Download now" below the section titled "Create Windows 11 installation media".  Or follow the prompts from the dropdown below the "Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO) for x64 devices" section to download the ISO. Once the ISO is done just burn that to a disc and once done you can start the installation process.

From here we will just be talking about the Media Creation tool. Next, open the downloads folder or location where you downloaded the media creation executable file and click on it.  The tool will open, and the following dialogue will be displayed. Click on Accept. The next window gives you options for language and Windows edition. For most of us this will be English and Windows 11 but choose what is appropriate for your own requirements and then click Next.  Now you'll see options for the type of installation media you wish to create. For most you will choose USB flash drive and this needs to be 8GB or larger. If you need to use a DVD or other optical media, then create an ISO and burn it to disk later or save it to an existing drive location if you wish to use it with a virtual machine. Then click next. If for any reason the Windows media creation tool will not work for you, and some users have indicated this was the case for them, there are a few other options for creating bootable media here: Optional methods for creating Windows 11 installation media. At this point you will simply wait until the media creation tool is finished and it will let you know when the installation media is ready for use. Click finish.
Section II
Installing Windows 11
At this point you should have bootable installation media, either on USB flash drive or DVD optical disk.
**Before you proceed with the installation, it may be necessary to enter the BIOS and set your machine boot order to USB or DVD drive as the first bootable option it will look for, depending on what form of installation media you created in the previous section (**Otherwise it will likely simply attempt to boot using the existing Windows boot partition on your current primary drive, unless this is an installation to a drive that has not previously had ANY Windows installation on it, OR unless you have previously removed all partitions from the target drive in preparation for installation. Strictly speaking, that is not necessary as we will do that exact thing a little further into the tutorial, as part of the installation process.)

1. Start the computer and after it completes the POST initialization process it should identify and boot from the attached USB or optical drive containing the installation media and begin the installation. 

2. Verify that the language, time/currency and keyboard input fields are all correct. 

3. Click next. 

4. Click Install now. 

5. Next you should see the Windows product activation screen. If you do not have a Windows 11 product activation key, or if you have previously installed and activated Windows 11 and are just doing a clean install, then click below where it says, "I don't have a product key".
(You will activate later automatically once your system goes online or by logging into you Microsoft account and designating a previously activated product to be used with this system. If this is not a Windows product that has been previously activated or attached to a Microsoft account as outlined in the first section notes, you need to immediately stop and do that, or if you are unsure, you should visit your Microsoft account "devices" page and verify that it is indeed attached.) Otherwise, enter your Windows product key and then click next. 

6.  Now select the Windows 11 version you wish to install. For most users this will, and is recommended to be, the Home version. Educational, Enterprise, Pro and other users should select according to the type of license identified on the label on your machine, your product packaging or the information from you online purchase. If you purchased some kind of "discount" license from a third party "discount" retailer online, do not be terribly surprised if you find out that license has been blacklisted or is for a different version than you thought it was. It happens. A lot. After selecting, click next.

7. Check the box indicating your agree to the license terms and then click next. 

8. On the next screen there will be two options. One allows you to simply upgrade your Windows 10 license to Windows 11 if there is one already installed and the other will allow you to proceed with a new installation, also known as a CLEAN install. Unless you are only upgrading, which I do not recommend (Because you can simply use your previously activated Windows 10 license to do a CLEAN install of Windows 11) then you must click on "Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)".  Now we come to the step where we remove any previous Windows installations and all partitions on the target drive so that there can be no future conflicts regarding the Windows boot partition information. I recommend selecting, one at a time, and deleting, ALL existing partitions on the primary target drive until no partitions remain and there is only unallocated space. Partitions from the USB source drive should not show up here and if they do, and show as a different "drive", as in Drive 0, Drive 1, etc. do not delete those. ONLY delete partitions on the drive you intend to install Windows on and delete ALL of them on that drive. All.
9. If you have not disconnected all secondary drives a recommended at the beginning of the tutorial, then be very careful to not accidentally delete any partitions from those drives by mistake. Once there is only unallocated space with NO partitions left on the target drive, then click on the target drive's unallocated space and click Next. 

10. Windows installation will commence.  Once the initial installation has completed you will see a couple of screens including "Starting services". Allow them to run their course, including possibly restarting (Remove the USB drive that you are installing from at this point to ensure installation does not begin again)

11. Select your country then click Yes. 

12. Select you keyboard input type then click Yes.

13. Next you have the option of adding a second keyboard layout. I recommend clicking skip as you can add this later if needed. 

14. The installer will check for updates. You may be required to supply your wireless router login information if you only use a wireless connection. 

15. Now you will be asked to name your device. You can do so now, which is fine, or you can do so later, which is also fine. If you don't want to deal with it now, you can simply click skip. 

16. You will now be asked to "Unlock your Microsoft experience". Or in normal people speak, login to your Microsoft account. If you do not have one, you will need to create one unless **you choose to use one of the work arounds to circumvent this requirement and begin with a local account, which I will not cover here but which you can find elsewhere if you wish.** (The workaround has since been taken out.) 

17. For most, you will just want to log into the MS account because you can always change to a local account later.
18. Click Sign in.
19. Enter your Microsoft account email, phone or Skype identifier and click next.

20. Enter your Microsoft account password. 

21. The next screen will prompt you to restore from a Microsoft backup. I HIGHLY recommend that you click on More Options and bypass this feature.  The next screen gives you the option to "Set up as a new PC" and I highly recommend that you DO choose THIS option. 

22. Next, you will be asked to create a PIN. Create PIN.  Now you need to set up the PIN. Enter the four digit PIN you wish to use, then confirm it. Then click Ok.

23. Now choose your preferences for privacy settings. I recommend you unselect ALL of the check boxes. You will likely need to scroll down to see each and deselect them. But this is of course up to you.

24. The next window offers options to "Customize your experience". I recommend clicking skip. But again, doing so it totally up to your preference.  

25. Use your Android phone from your PC. Ok, you can choose to do this if you want. I recommend skipping it. You can do this later if you wish. Why make things complicated now? 

26. The next screen gives you the option to always have access to your recent browsing data. Ok, thanks Microsoft but I think we will skip this. You already record and store enough of our private information as it is without giving your more permission to do so. I recommend you click Not Now, but that's up to you.

27. Free trial of Microsoft 365 (Office)? No thanks. Decline. (Up to you but it's basically just another version of "Let us watch everything you do") Better to either use an actual Office license or use something open source like Libra office which is free and compatible with most Office file formats. 

28. 100GB of cloud storage for 1.99 per month. Again, this is up to you, but I recommend you decline the offer. Jeez Microsoft, don't you EVER give up? 

29. Microsoft game pass for 9.99 per month? Sigh. Skip for now. It's the same price even if you choose to do it later, so why complicate the installation process? 

30. Check for updates again? Sure, why not. Let's do that.

31. Now we are basically done. Let's let the installer finish doing it's thing. We will see a couple of more progress screens along the way as expected.  And finally, we are done. You can now move on to shut down, reattach your drives if you disconnected them and begin whatever processes including cleanup, backup imaging or installing new programs that you wish to do. 

Boy that was a process, wasn't it?