Like any complex piece of software, Windows 10 and its installation process is vulnerable to mistakes, glitches, and hardware errors. That being the case, here are some of the most commonly-encountered problems that arise when installing or upgrading to the new version of Windows. If you’ve got Windows 10 installation problems, you’ve come to the right place.
Side note: If the latest version of Windows 10 is experiencing widespread problems, you may also want to wait before updating. The April 2018 update alone had the potential to wipe all the data from your desktop or break Chrome, and the October 2018 update had its own share of problems, leading to recalls and delays. Not an ideal outcome!
DC-3 is another purposely built vulnerable lab with the intent of gaining experience in the world of penetration testing. As with the previous DC releases, this one is designed with beginners in mind, although this time around, there is only one flag, one entry point and no clues at all. Software Download. Software Download Home; Office. Office 2010; Office for Mac 2011; Windows. Windows 10; Windows 8.1; Windows 7; Desktop App Converter; Windows 10 IoT Core; Media Feature Pack; Windows Insider Preview. Windows 10 Insider Preview; Windows 10 Insider Preview Advanced; Windows 10 Insider Preview Desktop App Converter; Windows 10.
Run the Windows Update troubleshooter
Windows 10 includes a troubleshooter that can automatically detect and try to fix problems with updates and patches. If the problem isn’t clear and you aren’t sure what to do next, try running this troubleshooter. It doesn’t always find a solution, but it’s a good place to start.
Step 1: Head to your search box and type in Troubleshoot. Select the Troubleshoot option that awaits in System Settings.
Step 2: A new troubleshooting window will open. In the first section, called Get up and running, you should see an option for Windows Update. Select it.
Step 3: A new button should now appear that says Run the troubleshooter. Select it to automatically start the troubleshooter and see how it can help.
Step 4: A new troubleshooter window will now open as Windows 10 scans for any problems. If it finds any issues — and it will look for everything from missing updates to corrupted files — then it will notify you and ask if you want to Apply this fix or Skip this fix. Since you are trying to fix your update, it’s a good idea to always choose the Apply option here.
When finished, the troubleshooter will give you a list of any problems found and fixed, at which point you can select Close to end the process. If the troubleshooter did find and fix notable issues, you should now try your update process again.
Low disk space
Windows 10 requires quite a bit of free disk space on your hard or solid state drive in order to install. The 32-bit version of the OS — used mostly on tablets and less expensive laptops at this point — needs 16GB of free space, the 64-bit version needs 20GB. If you’re installing from a file stored on your computer itself with the Microsoft upgrade tool, you’ll need an additional two to 4GB just for the installation files. Windows 10 will also start reserving 7GB of space to help make sure there’s enough for most installs.
If you have a full storage drive, or a small one to begin with, you’ll need to make some room. The quickest way to do this is to uninstall space-hogging programs. Robust 3D games and complex packages like Adobe Creative Suite take up gigabytes of space. Uninstall them and be sure to back up any save files or settings. Don’t worry, you can re-install them from the installation discs or with a download once Windows 10 is properly set up.
Should you still need more space, it’s recommended you remove files in the following order: video files, audio files, images of all kinds, then documents, and other files. Check out our guide on how to clean your hard drive for more information. An external USB hard drive is the quickest and easiest way to accomplish this — simply save any files you can’t delete to the external media, and they’ll be easy to restore once you’ve installed Windows 10. Afterward, empty the Recycle Bin to clear the deleted files, or run a program like CCleaner to clear out your browser caches, logs, and other things that take up storage space.
To check your progress, click the Start button, type This PC, and click the result. The drive labeled Windows is what Windows 10 will install to — make sure you’ve got at least 20GB free just to be safe.
ISO image issues
If you’ve used the Microsoft Media Creation tool to burn a disc or create a bootable USB drive to install Windows 10, it’s possible that the media itself is damaged or corrupt. This will result in a failed or damaged installation. Sadly, it’s extremely difficult or impossible to modify the files once they’re written to the disc or drive. You’ll need to run the tool again to install Windows 10, which may necessitate access to another laptop or installing your older version of Windows again.
If you continue to experience problems after creating multiple installation media and trying to install Windows 10 more than once, you may have a persistent hardware problem. The CD/DVD burner or the USB drive you’re using may be faulty. If possible, try using a different USB drive or an external disc burner.
Thankfully, you might be able to just install Windows 10 from an ISO image, which you can grab here, for free. Fire it up, follow the prompts, and it’ll tell you if you’ll be able to install your new operating system without the use of external media like flash drives and discs.
Error codes
Sometimes during the Windows installation process, the program will stop and display an error code. There are hundreds of possible error codes and at least as many potential problems. The best thing to do in this situation is to write down the code — you may not be able to copy it from the display screen — and search the internet for the core problem, and hopefully, a solution.
Here are some of the steps you can take if there’s no reliable information for your specific code:
- Unplug any unnecessary devices from your computer, like flash drives and dongles. Laptops should have nothing plugged in at all (except a power cord), and desktops should only have a monitor, mouse, and keyboard attached.
- For desktops, remove or disconnect any unnecessary internal hardware. If your PC includes an integrated graphics card or sound card on the motherboard, remove any standalone cards. Unplug any secondary storage drives (but not the primary OS drive), disc drives, card readers, and extra hardware such as a fan controller or USB extension connected to a PCI port.
- If you’re upgrading your PC and you’ve selected a standard upgrade that preserves your programs, remove unnecessary programs before beginning the installation process. Anti-virus programs and drivers for devices like game controllers seem to have the most trouble during the upgrade process.
- If your Windows install or upgrade doesn’t complete, or if you have issues with startup, you might want to disable hibernation, which you can do by typing “powercfg /h off” into a Command Prompt window.
- Alternately, simply install the operating system “cleanly,” preserving your personal files but not the programs. To do so, select “Custom: Install Windows” instead of “Upgrade” during the setup process. You can re-install your programs later.
Microsoft also offers a list of potential Windows 10 installation error codes, and what they mean.
Incompatible hardware
Windows 10 runs on a variety of hardware, including Atom-based tablets and other low-power systems, but it does have minimum requirements. If your computer has a processor with a speed of less than 1GHz — or RAM totaling less than 1GB for the 32-bit version or 2GB for the 64-bit version — the setup wizard will not allow you to complete the installation. Desktop users can often upgrade their RAM or processor, but laptop users who don’t meet the minimum requirements are probably out of luck.
For a look at how much RAM you really need, check out our guide to all things memory.
Editors' Recommendations
In this blog post, I will show you how to install Oracle VirtualBox 6.0.4 on Windows 10. Oracle VirtualBox is a virtualization software that allows you to run multiple Operating system on your host operating system without having the need to dual boot your computer. VirtualBox supports both 32 bit and 64 bit version of the various operating systems currently available.
Prerequisites
These days most of the processors, both from Intel and AMD comes with CPU based Virtualization technology. The advantage is that, CPUs with Virtualization Technology have new instructions to control virtualization. With them, controlling software (called VMM, Virtual Machine Monitor) can be simpler, thus improving performance compared to software-based solutions. When the CPU has support to Virtualization Technology, the virtualization is said to be hardware-based or hardware-assisted.
Both VMware Workstation and Oracle VirtualBox take advantage of Virtualization technology to improve performance. But with VirtualBox, to use CPU based Virtualization technology, Virtualization technology has to be enabled through BIOS for Intel based processors. Please refer to some of my post to know more about Virtualization.
- To find out if you computer supports Virtualization technology please refer to my post here.
- Please refer to my post which will show you how to enable Virtualization technology in Windows.
- On a related note, Microsoft provides its own version of Hypervisor or Virtualization application called Hyper-V. Please refer to my post to know more about it.
Supported Operating System on VirtualBox
Please visit the official page to find out the list of supported Operating Systems that can be Installed in VirtualBox.
Lets start:
Step 1 – Download VirtualBox
You can download VirtualBox from the official Oracle VirtualBox website. VirtualBox can be installed in Linux based operating systems such as Ubuntu, centOS etc., MacOS and Windows. Download Windows version from here as I will be using Windows 10 to install VirtualBox.
The file size of VirtualBox installer for Windows is around 209 MB.
Step 2 – Start the Installation process
The file downloaded will have the file name format like VirtualBox-VersionNumber-BuildNumber-Win.exe. Something like this: VirtualBox-6.0.4-128413-Win.exe. Double click on the installer to launch the setup Wizard. Click on Next to continue.
Step 3 – Custom setup dialog box
You will see custom setup dialog box. There is not much to choose from. You can accept the default and click next.
If you wish to change the installation directory, you van change it by clicking on the browse button and selecting the new directory and clicking OK. Normally I leave it as the default as the whole installation process does not take much space on your hard drive.
VirtualBox Installation – Custom setup dialog box screenshot
Step 4 – Custom setup dialog box – Feature to install
In this dialog box you can choose which features to install. As you can see, there is not much to choose. You can accept the default and click next. Normally I uncheck Create a shortcut in the quick launch bar.
VirtualBox Installation – Custom Setup – Select feature to Install Dialog box screenshot
Step 5 – Network Interface setup
This dialog box warns you about setting up a Network Interface. what this means that VirtualBox will install network interfaces that will interact with the installed virtual machines and the host operating system which in our case is windows. This will temporarily disconnect you from the internet but that OK, nothing to worry.
VirtualBox Installation – Network Interface warning dialog box screenshot
Step 6 – Ready to Install
You will see ready to install dialog box. Click Install to continue.
Step 7 – Installation begins
After clicking install, you will mostly probably see User access control confirmation dialog box from Windows OS. This is a security feature in Windows that wants to confirm if the application should be allowed to proceed with the installation process. Click Yes to continue and you will see that the installation process will begin. Wait for the installation to complete.
VirtualBox Installation progress
If you see Windows User Account Control Warning, click yes to accept and continue.
VirtualBox Installation – Windows User Account Control warning screenshot
Step 8 – Installation Completes
After the installation completes, you will see installation completion dialog box. Click finish. If you leave Start Oracle VM VirtualBox after installation checked, VirtualBox will launch automatically. If you uncheck it, you will have to launch Virtualbox manually. Its not big deal anyways. Click finish to exit installation.
VirtualBox Installation completion dialog box screenshot
Step 9 – Launch VirtualBox application
Your newly installed VirtualBox is ready to go. You can search for VirtualBox in windows search in taskbar. You will see the VirtaulBox Icon on top. Click that to open VirtualBox.
Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager
Step 10 – Install VirtualBox Extension pack
After the installation of VirtualBox is complete, please install VirtualBox Extension pack which will enable support for USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 devices, VirtualBox RDP, disk encryption, NVMe and PXE boot for Intel cards.
VirtualBox Extension pack can be downloaded from here. Process is simple, simply download and execute it to start the installation process.