So how are most of you installing win10 these days, disk or USB ?

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Subzerok11

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They are selling Win10 Home - Full Version (32 & 64-bit) / on a USB Flash Drive, is this the prefers way now these days ? Installing from CD seems a little 2010 am I wrong here ?

By the way is installing from USB painless ? also it will have a bare HDD, so basically build PC put together insert USB thumb drive then turn on PC for the first time then quickly press whatever key to get into the bios and then set boot from USB ? What about when the PC needs to reboot during install will it automatically know to keep reading from the UBS stick ? Sorry if that last part sounds like a dumb.
 
Could you please comment on my other concerns please take 30 secs to read the rest of the post.
 
It's completely painless and significantly faster than a CD. You have it right. Put it in, then either use the mobo hotkey bootmenu or goto bios, boot off it, let the OS setup the partitions then install. When it reboots after the initial installation pull out the thumb drive right away so it boots off of the new installation unless you have your boot drive set in the bios as number 1.

Just as a precaution I always make sure there aren't any other drives attached so windows doesn't put important boot files on them. Win 7 was notorious for doing this, I don't know if they ever corrected it in recent versions since I've just been following this method since.
 
What is a cd ? I've been using flash media since... flash media was supported for installs.

I haven't had a machine with a disc drive in realistically.... 8+ years
 
Subzerok11 said:
They are selling Win10 Home - Full Version (32 & 64-bit) / on a USB Flash Drive, is this the prefers way now these days ? Installing from CD seems a little 2010 am I wrong here ?

By the way is installing from USB painless ? also it will have a bare HDD, so basically build PC put together insert USB thumb drive then turn on PC for the first time then quickly press whatever key to get into the bios and then set boot from USB ? What about when the PC needs to reboot during install will it automatically know to keep reading from the UBS stick ? Sorry if that last part sounds like a dumb.
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I've been installing from USB since Windows 7 era. It is painless to install. You just select to boot from the USB drive instead of the DVD drive, it's the exact same procedure as DVD. USB installation is much faster too.

The only time USB booting becomes difficult is when you create the boot media. I highly recommend that a novice use the official Microsoft tools to make USB drives. Windows 7/8.1 link here and Windows 10 link here. If you are an expert you can also use Rufus tool to create the media but you can mess it up if you don't select the right options. That's why I prefer the Microsoft utilities because there is nothing to mess up.

At one point, if you wanted to install as EFI mode the USB utility had to be configured a certain way. At that time I always used DVD to install because the DVD did not have to be configured for EFI. But with the Windows 10 utility you don't have to worry about it. Just download the ISO onto the USB drive and you're ready to go!
 
Wife still has me burning CD's once in a while. I'd like to remove it it would be less clutter, I may still do that though and get a cheap ext USB burner for those times.
 
Subzerok11 said:
Wife still has me burning CD's once in a while. I'd like to remove it it would be less clutter, I may still do that though and get a cheap ext USB burner for those times.
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I do have a dusty cd and blue ray usb burner just in case. I've only used it a handful of times.
 
bigdogchris said:
I've been installing from USB since Windows 7 era. It is painless to install. You just select to boot from the USB drive instead of the DVD drive, it's the exact same procedure as DVD. USB installation is much faster too.

The only time USB booting becomes difficult is when you create the boot media. I highly recommend that a novice use the official Microsoft tools to make USB drives. Windows 7/8.1 link here and Windows 10 link here. If you are an expert you can also use Rufus tool to create the media but you can mess it up if you don't select the right options. That's why I prefer the Microsoft utilities because there is nothing to mess up.

At one point, if you wanted to install as EFI mode the USB utility had to be configured a certain way. At that time I always used DVD to install because the DVD did not have to be configured for EFI. But with the Windows 10 utility you don't have to worry about it. Just download the ISO onto the USB drive and you're ready to go!
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Well this would be a new build with skylake or kabylake and no I'm a expert and I'm not making any USB bootable files I want to buy ready to go. I've built a few PC's and always installed from CD no problems. Creating files and whatnot is not my strong suit.

This what I'm thinking of buying it's a flashdrive with win10 full on it already, what do you think go for it ? any cons ? Also

Microsoft Windows 10 Home - Full Version (32 & 64-bit) / USB Flash Drive - Newegg.com


They also have a OEM version of win 10 home for 30$ cheaper but it only comes on a disk, no USB version. What do you prefer full or OEM and why ? the full does not with unnecessary bloatware does it ?
 
USB all the way. Took about 15 minutes to install from that and get it updated on the sig rig last week.
 
I have optical media around, Windows 7 SP1 discs, Vista (just in case a client needs it), even XP and 2K discs as well, but no Windows 8/8.1/10 optical media, just not going to waste the blanks on those. :)

I do make extensive use of optical media myself, always have, more than likely always will. It's just cheaper and more reliable for my purposes. Yes I'm limited to the size of a given blank and even witih Blu-ray which I just started using for storage purposes I don't fill the discs but cap the storage at about 21-22GB total - most optical media has issues towards the very limits of the media itself so this provides a "buffer zone" of sorts where I'm confident the media will not be an issue. DVD5 media is still used as well in not so insignificant numbers. I might have a problem now and again with a disc or two but my use of PAR technology along with checksums and double verify after a burn has proven successful for me over the past 15-20 years and I haven't lost a single bit of data yet (knock on fake wood).

But I do find that USB sticks are of course vastly more efficient for OS installation(s). Recently Fry's had some 8GB USB 2.0 on sale for $.99 each and I just grabbed a handful of 'em so to speak so now I have like a dozen of 'em around for various purposes, some Linux distros, a rescue CD/DVD I put together myself on one, Parted Magic on another, and so on.

USB 2.0 sticks are supported pretty much on anything but USB 3.0 sticks might not be completely supported, and on hardware that has USB 3.0 ports they might not function with USB 2.0 hardware plugged in during the installation unless you've made some configuration edits to the USB stick itself. Intel has a tool to make it easier for such devices with such hardware, pretty useful tool actually (there are two versions so make sure you know which chipset you're dealing with):

Download USB 3.0 Driver: Intel® USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver for Intel® 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family

Download USB 3.0 Driver: Intel® USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver for Intel® 8/9/100 Series and C220/C610 Chipset Family

Not sure about other manufacturers but I've had great success using that tool for Intel-based hardware.
 
I have no idea how fast the usb drive is that Microsoft includes with it's software. It could be slow and it could be usb 2.0, who knows, I'm sure someone here does. Considering the price of fast drives relative to what they are charging for the package I'm guessing it's subpar. But, either way it's faster than a CD and simple for you, so you'll be good to go.
 
Tiberian said:
I have optical media around, Windows 7 SP1 discs, Vista (just in case a client needs it), even XP and 2K discs as well, but no Windows 8/8.1/10 optical media, just not going to waste the blanks on those. :)

I do make extensive use of optical media myself, always have, more than likely always will. It's just cheaper and more reliable for my purposes. Yes I'm limited to the size of a given blank and even witih Blu-ray which I just started using for storage purposes I don't fill the discs but cap the storage at about 21-22GB total - most optical media has issues towards the very limits of the media itself so this provides a "buffer zone" of sorts where I'm confident the media will not be an issue. DVD5 media is still used as well in not so insignificant numbers. I might have a problem now and again with a disc or two but my use of PAR technology along with checksums and double verify after a burn has proven successful for me over the past 15-20 years and I haven't lost a single bit of data yet (knock on fake wood).

But I do find that USB sticks are of course vastly more efficient for OS installation(s). Recently Fry's had some 8GB USB 2.0 on sale for $.99 each and I just grabbed a handful of 'em so to speak so now I have like a dozen of 'em around for various purposes, some Linux distros, a rescue CD/DVD I put together myself on one, Parted Magic on another, and so on.

USB 2.0 sticks are supported pretty much on anything but USB 3.0 sticks might not be completely supported, and on hardware that has USB 3.0 ports they might not function with USB 2.0 hardware plugged in during the installation unless you've made some configuration edits to the USB stick itself. Intel has a tool to make it easier for such devices with such hardware, pretty useful tool actually (there are two versions so make sure you know which chipset you're dealing with):

Download USB 3.0 Driver: Intel® USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver for Intel® 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family

Download USB 3.0 Driver: Intel® USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver for Intel® 8/9/100 Series and C220/C610 Chipset Family

Not sure about other manufacturers but I've had great success using that tool for Intel-based hardware.
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I'm pretty sure my USB 3.0 will work without any motherboard driver installed, I'm buying all new skylake setup those all USB's are native Intel. My current P8P87 mobo have junk 3rd party controller/driver for my front USB 3.0 slots so yes in that case without install drivers first for USB 3.0 it wouldn't work, I'd have to use the USB native Intel ports on the back of the case which would be inconvenient.
 
rive22 said:
I have no idea how fast the usb drive is that Microsoft's includes with it's software. It could be a slow and it could be usb 2.0, who knows, I'm sure someone here does. Either way it's faster than a CD and simple for you, so you'll be good to go.
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Very good question, they are probably USB 2.0 though MS would have to spend extra for 3.0. I wish it would come on Muskin's 3.0 sticks highend fast sticks. But even if they are USB 2.0 it should still be faster than CD.
 
Subzerok11 said:
I'm pretty sure my USB 3.0 will work without any motherboard driver installed, I'm buying all new skylake setup those all USB's are native Intel. My current P8P87 mobo have junk 3rd party controller/driver for my front USB 3.0 slots so yes in that case without install drivers first for USB 3.0 it wouldn't work, I'd have to use the USB native Intel ports on the back of the case which would be inconvenient.
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While that is true to some degrees, the specific point I was making was that USB 2.0 devices plugged into USB 3.0 ports sometimes will not work at all until an actual driver supporting the port's USB 2.0 compatibility is loaded which is sorta-kinda what the Intel tool I linked to actually does. It integrates the proper USB 3.0 driver into the Windows installation files (which is why it'll ask for an ISO to work with) so that when you boot from a USB 2.0 stick (if that's all you happen to have) plugged into a USB 3.0 port (again, if that's all you have because some newer mobos only have USB 3.0 ports and controllers) the drivers will get loaded.

I had that issue myself recently: a machine with a single USB 3.0 port and all I had was a USB 2.0 stick to work with and it took a while to figure out what the hell I was missing but I finally did get it resolved using that Intel tool to "fix" the installer files.
 
Installing from USB? Slow.

Everyone knows the cool kids are installing Windows from their Samsung 950 PRO install SSD to their Samsung 950 PRO boot SSD.
 
I recently worked on a service bureau machine (photo lab) with 64GB of RAM in it and was playing around with some VMs. With Windows 7 Pro x64 as the host OS I created a 32GB RAMdisk, set up a 24GB virtual hard drive that existed solely in RAM alone, copied the Ubuntu 16.04 installation ISO to the RAMdisk, then installed Ubuntu from that ISO to the virtual hard drive as a guest OS. I disabled the network access so it wouldn't waste time trying to get updates (which can slow things down considerably) and the install - from start to finish - took about 45 seconds and about 8 seconds of that was me typing in the username/password info and selecting the time zone/etc so I suppose I was the choke point. :)

It booted clean after the install in about 4 seconds which is typical considering there was no network stack to load or DNS crap to get leased for.

Someday all machines will be that fast if not even faster I suppose but it was pretty damned cool to see it happen. The machine was running a Xeon 8 core / 16 thread CPU, btw. Can't beat read/write speeds in excess of 22GB/s that's for damned sure, not even with the fastest NVMe SSDs available today.
 
If you are going to use a USB 3.0 thumbdrive on a USB 3.0 port, be sure to consider one with good fast read speeds. Don't worry about the write speed if you are using it mostly for a install drive.
 
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