Force upgrade Windows

For certain computers, it may be necessary to force upgrade Windows. In general, the approach to force upgrade Windows version is:

  1. make an external backup of files–a cloud service and / or removable storage like a USB drive. We usually don’t backup the entire PC, just manually drag over folders containing needed info, as it very well may be lost in this procedure.
  2. obtain a sufficiently large USB 3 flash drive and necessary adapters (e.g. USB-C to USB 3) for your PC. USB 2 flash drives are painfully slow.
  3. Download and run the Windows Media Creation Tool. Be sure the USB 3 drive is plugged in before running, and create a bootable flash drive using the tool.
  4. After data backup, consider install option “choose what to keep” → Nothing. That erases all files to help ensure there isn’t any bit of bad configuration left over.

Generally Windows OS upgrades are a gamble that doesn’t always work, while hard reinstalls work unless there is a deeper problem like hardware failure or malware.