Reinstalling Windows on a Prebuilt PC

Post date: 2022-01-19 14:11:16

I just bought a new prebuilt gaming PC after a lifetime of assembling my own. Thanks GPU shortage! It's an HP Omen 30L that comes preinstalled with Windows 11. When it arrives, it seems like the easiest way to remove all the preinstalled bloatware to just reinstall Windows from scratch, but I could use some guidance on the best way to do this and what post-install steps are needed.

My current plan is to create a bootable USB drive and reformat and repartition the main SSD during the Windows installation. Since this a brand new computer, I don't think I need to worry about backing up anything on the drive.

Here are a few points of confusion:

How will Windows activate? Will the computer come with a license key on a printed card or whatever, or is the activation tied to the motherboard or stored in firmware or something?

Are there any gotchas or random tips concerning Windows 11? Anything I should look out for during the install process that will bite me later?

What's the best way to get the necessary drivers? For machines I've built, I usually download and install the latest drivers from the various component's manufacturers. I can grab video drivers from Nvidia, but I where should I get the drivers for the chipset, network interface, audio, USB, bluetooth, etc? Is Windows smart enough to grab them automatically these days, or should I get them from HP's website?

Should I worry about updating BIOS or firmware either before or after reinstalling Windows? In the past I've done this after installing drivers. I would hope that HP would have done this before sending the hardware out, but I'm not sure.

Thanks!

Please click Here to read the full story.