Windows 10 TH2/Office 2016 Guides

The current version of Microsoft Windows is Windows 10 TH2 and Office 2016 or its subscription model Office 365 which gives you Microsoft Office and 1 TB OneDrive Storage.

There are Windows 10 Insider pre-release Test versions of Microsoft Windows 10 RS1 and Office 2016 Insider Preview for advanced users.

YouTube Playlist – Windows 10 TH2

Windows 10 TH2 OEM and Retail (UEFI BIOS with Note on Legacy BIOS)

YouTube Playlist – Windows Vista → Windows 10 TH2 Free Upgrade

Details on upgrading to Windows 10 TH2 for a Windows Vista OEM and Windows XP OEM license using the Unofficial Windows 10130 Insider Preview Upgrade Path.

Written Guides – Windows 10 TH2

Before Upgrading to Windows 10 make sure your system has the latest BIOS Update installed otherwise the update may fail:

Previous generations of Windows are Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 and these have a Free Upgrade path to Windows 10. The Upgrade is not available for Windows XP/Windows Vista users but there is an unofficial way to upgrade for free.

Download Windows 10 and Clean Install

Windows 10 will work best on a Clean Install.

Downloading Microsoft Office

For information about Microsoft Office see:

Other Recommended Microsoft Software

Backing up your Windows Installation

4 guides are listed under this category because some may want OEM Recovery Media which Restore to Factory Settings and others may want to make an Image of their Windows Boot Drive and Restore from it. As Windows 1o TH1, Windows 8.1, Windows 8 ,Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP Factory Settings may all be considered obsolete and Microsoft have made Windows 10 TH2 Installation Media Downloadable A Clean Install with this installation media is recommended. Once the drivers are installed a Macrium Reflect Image on an External Hard Drive should be made.

Acronis and Macrium Reflect allow the creation of a Full Backup of your Windows Boot Drive. This is a complete snapshot of your system at the moment in time the snapshot was made. Although both carry out a similar function the free edition of Macrium Reflect has a superior user-interface and is not locked to a hard drive vendor making it the most recommended utility for backing up your Windows Installation. Use of these utilities to Restore may prevent one from Restoring to Factory Settings.

Dell Backup and Recovery (previously Dell DataSafe Local Backup) comes preinstalled on every Dell system shipped with Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10 OEM. It is recommended to update this to the latest version to make OEM Recovery Media so one may a Bootable USB which Restores to Factory Settings.

Dell Backup and Recovery looks for an OEM Recovery Partition which resides on the Windows Boot Drive (Factory Installed). If Dell Backup and Recovery cannot find this (Clean Install) it will create a pseudo factory image that is a complete snapshot of your system at the moment in time the snapshot was made. This snapshot will create a pseudo Recovery Partition which can be used to make pseudo Recovery Media. Otherwise the Free version cannot make a complete snapshot of your system at the moment in time the snapshot was made.

Data Recovery

Wiping

Repartitioning

This isn't Recommended for a Factory Image – Restoring from the Factory OEM Recovery Partition will be broken.

System Drivers

Checking what Drivers Apply to my System, How to Identify Variants and Driver Installation Order

SATA Preinstallation Drivers:

Downloading System Drivers

Additional Notes for Unofficial/Advanced Driver Installation/Uninstallation

System Diagnostics

BIOS Settings

Hardware Upgrades

Power Settings

Software/Hardware Maintenance and Upgrades

Basic Software Maintenance Including Basic Security

I'm not a big believer in most other software optimisation programs/registry cleaners. If the above solutions don't fix your problem, I recommend carrying out Data Recovery and Securely Wiping with Diskpart and Clean Reinstalling Windows.

Windows Virtualisation and Troubleshooting Incompatible Programs

3 thoughts on “Windows 10 TH2/Office 2016 Guides

  1. I recently bought the Dell Inspiron 5559 on Sept 25 2016 direct from Dell. I tried to backup the hard drive using Acronis 2016 clone utility( use the Aronis 64 bit feature) but it keeps failing and I tried many 160gb hard drives with the same error message " Clone failed". What seems to be the problem? Is Dell using hard disk encryption software to prevent customers from backing up hard drives and getting them to use Dell Subscriptions services instead?

    1. Have you tried Macrium Reflect?

      I've not got a Dell Windows 10 OEM system to hand therefore I haven't tested out Windows 10 OEM Factory Settings…

      I prefer performing a clean install when I get a system and since Microsoft has now followed most my feedback; a clean installation is much easier to perform.

      If you wish to make OEM Recovery Media use Dell Backup and Recovery to make a USB (For Windows 10 OEM I believe Dell also have .isos downloadable – but not tested these).

      1. Now I have Dell tech's calling me on the phone trying to sell me Dell protection service and also a monthly subscription. I tried the Dell recommendation of creating DVD's from within Windows itself "Recovery" and that worked and so I have the DVD's at hand but, I had actually booted from the Acronis 2016 CD with a hope of getting the Acronis 2016 64 bit to clone the entire drive. but I still cannot get the system to boot from an Acronis 2016 cd and then do the entire Hard drive backup. I will try Macrium Reflect. Thank you for your quick post

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