How to upgrade Windows 10 with USB, DVD or local media

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Most Windows 10 devices are upgraded to newer versions of the operating system using Windows Update or Enterprise-grade update management solutions.

While that works out fine in many cases, some administrators may prefer (or need) to upgrade using other methods. Common scenarios where this may be preferred are local installations without Internet connection, upgrading multiple PCs, or running into errors when trying to upgrade using Windows Update.

Microsoft provides options to create Windows 10 installation media. You may write the data to an USB Flash Drive or DVD, or run the setup directly from the ISO image that gets created during the process.

The following guide walks you through the steps of installing or upgrading Windows 10 using these methods.

Step 1: Create the installation media or ISO image

You may use Microsoft's Media Creation Tool to create Windows 10 installation media.

1. Visit the official Microsoft website and download the Media Creation Tool to your system. Click on the "Download tool now" button to start the process.

2. Run the program once it is on the local system. Note that you can only run it on Windows systems.

3. Accept the Software License Terms on the first screen to proceed.

4. Select "create installation media" on the next screen. While you can use it to "upgrade the PC now" as well, it is better, usually, to use installation media as it gives you more control and options should something go wrong.

5. Keep the detected language, edition and architecture settings, or change them if you need installation media for a different setup.

6. Select which media you want: USB flash drive or ISO file.

* USB Flash Drive: needs to have at least 8 Gigabytes of space. Note that all data on the drive will be deleted in the process.

* ISO: no requirements but you need a blank DVD if you want to burn it to DVD (may need dual-layer DVD).

7. The tool downloads the latest available Windows 10 installation from Microsoft.

a. If you select the USB option, data is saved to the USB drive and it is prepared so that you may boot from it.

b. If you select ISO, you get the option to burn it to a DVD if a DVD writer is available. Otherwise, the ISO is just saved to the local system.

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