How to reinstall Windows 10 after Linux

[silverpuma]

Hi all, I need some help.  I have the hp stream 14" laptop with the very small 32 GB emmc hard drive and as a lot of fellow stream owner seem to have found when Microsoft dropped these large updates we were left with virtually no HD space.

So I installed Linux Mint as my new OS and everything is working fine. ......But....

But I need a certain program that needs windows 10 OS and will not run on Linux.  How can (if I can) reinstall windows 10 to replace Linux.  Really I just want the laptop back to factory settings, but I don't have a windows license disk etc as windows came already installed when I bought the laptop new. 

Any help will be appreciated........thanks

[erico · Accepted solution]

The Windows activation license is coded into the BIOS. As long as you did not clear the HP factory codes it will still be there.  Install Windows and it will activate as soon as you go online.

You can perform a clean install of Windows 10. Make sure it is the very same version that the unit came with. 

Here is a source for the ISO

https://wccftech.com/download-windows-10-1803-iso/

A tutorial on making a USB Windows 10 installer is at the following link.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-usb-bootable-media-uefi-support 

A fellow HP Expert  @Huffer experimented and came up with a nice method of clean installing most recent Windows 10 version 1803.  It involves compacting the OS after installation to gain "hard disk" capacity. 

There is a tutorial on how to use the compact utility at the following web page.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-reduce-windows-10-footprint-your-pc

[silverpuma]

Thank you so much for the very concise and helpful post.....

[erico]

You're very welcome!

               🙂

[theglitchh]

Okay windows does gets activated , but how can i get the specific drivers and apps which comes preinstall with the windows !!