Your crash course in Windows 10, from installation to personalization

When you're trying to find that how-to, hands-on tutorial or FAQ, you don't want to have to scramble through a website's search results to get the information you need. Make your Windows 10 upgrade process and subsequent use smoother by keeping this page bookmarked; we'll be including all our Windows 10-related help here.

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Windows 10 Upgrades or New Hardware: The Fine Print — What's the 411 from your favorite hardware manufacturers about both the upgrade and availability of new hardware with Windows 10 pre-installed? We took some time to research some of the top brands that are pretty common purchases and those you regularly find in retail stores. 

Windows 10 upgrade and installation FAQ: We figured out who pays and who doesn't — If you're a Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 user and you're looking to upgrade to Windows 10, there's no shortage of opportunities to be confused about whether or not you'll be paying for the upgrade, or when you have to start paying for upgrades. We're here to alleviate the confusion.

Windows 10 Clean Install using the Media Creation Tool — One of the big questions over the last few months about the release of Windows 10 was clean installing onto a former Windows 7 or 8.1 system and retaining proper activation of the subsequent Windows 10 install. Here's how Richard Hay answered that question. This is a step-by-step guide with screengrabs.

Windows 10 - Create install media or download ISO from Microsoft — If you understand the terms USB, ISO and installation media then you can jump the reservation line and begin your Windows 10 installation right now. This is a step-by-step guide with screengrabs.

How to make sure your free copy of Windows 10 is activated — We've got a four-step checklist that walks you through the process.

How To: Fix the 80240020 Windows 10 Installation Error -- If you receive an 80240020 error, but it’s a notice that the Windows 10 download was either interrupted (unfinished) or corrupted. So here's how to fix your faulty download.

Enrolling in the Windows Insider Program post Windows 10 release — Why would you want to? Because Windows Insiders who have upgraded Windows 7 or 8.1 systems will have valid activated installations of Windows 10 with an option to enroll in the post release Insider program.

Top 5 areas to update and customize after your Windows 10 upgrade — Once your upgrade to Windows 10 is complete you will arrive in the new OS ready to go with your compatible apps, programs and all of your files waiting for you. Take these five steps to begin your own Windows 10 experience with a machine that works perfectly for you.

After the Windows 10 installation, the clean-up -- here's what to do ... Once you have settled into your new Windows 10 installation and are satisfied with how everything works, you can do a simple maintenance task that will save you a significant amount of space on your device.

AND NOW, ALL OUR HOW-TOS

How To: Require Ctrl-Alt-Del Logon for Windows 10
Why would you need to do this? Windows used to require the 3-finger salute (Ctrl-Alt-Del) to logon, you can re-enable that in Windows 10 to add an extra level of logon security.

How To: Adjust Cortana's Settings in Windows 10
Why would you need to do this? Once you've enabled Cortana, you may want to adjust how she works.

How To: Import Internet Favorites into Windows 10's Microsoft Edge from Other Browsers
Why would you need to do this? Because you'll want to test out how Microsoft's new and radically improved web browser renders all your usual websites.

How To: Configure Microsoft Edge to Open Multiple Home Pages in Windows 10
Why would you need to do this? You've got a lot of websites to look at but limited screen real estate.

How To: Quickly Open Internet Explorer Pages in Microsoft Edge on Windows 10
Why would you need to do this? There will be instances where some Web pages will not show correctly in Edge. In this case, you might actually need to dust off Internet Explorer.

How To: Add the Home Button Back to Microsoft Edge
Why would you need to do this? Adding a Home button shortcut to the Edge browsers window makes it very easy to return to your browsers default home page.

How To: Customize the Personalization Options in Windows 10 Settings 
Why would you need to do this? You want to know how to set up the Windows 10 background, colors, lock screen, themes and other options on the Start Menu.

How To: Setup Quick Action Buttons in Windows 10
Why would you need to do this? Because the Windows Action Center is where you can set up shortcut access to your favorite/most used settings on Windows 10.

How To: Secure Logon for a Windows 10 Tablet without a Keyboard
Why would you need to do this? Let's say you're using something that doesn't have a keyboard and you want to bring up the logon screen that used to pop up with Ctrl + Alt + Del.

How To: Use Windows 10's Screen Recording Utility
Why would you need to do this? For those that want to do image and video capture on-the-cheap, Microsoft includes a screen recording utility in Windows 10's new Xbox app.

How To: Turn the Desktop Background Image On and Off in Windows 10
Why would you need to do this? Maybe you want to turn off the background image altogether because it's just too distracting.

How To: Use Quick Access in Windows 10's File Explorer
Why would you need to do this? To provide easy access to your most common locations for files without having to drill down through different disk drives and folders.

How To: Change How Windows 10 File Explorer Opens
Why would you need to do this? To open up to the This PC view of your system instead of the Quick Access default.

How To: Pin Websites to the Windows 10 Start Screen
Why would you need to do this? To have quick and easy access to your most visited websites with one click from the Start Menu/Screen.

How To: Give Titles to Windows 10 Start Screen Tile Groups for Better Organization
Why would you need to do this? This helps you to quickly identify the common factor among the group of tiles.

How To: Install the Windows Insider Hub on Windows 10
Why would you need to do this? If you are a member of the Windows Insider Program after the release of Windows 10 this app is no longer installed by default. This explains how to install it on your Windows 10 system so you can get program alerts from the Windows Team at Microsoft.

How to: Create an email account in the Windows 10 Mail App
Why would you need to do this? Almost everyone has at least one and usually multiple email accounts. This is how you add those extra ones to your system

How To: Change Email Sync Frequency in the Windows 10 Mail App
Why would you need to do this? Microsoft chose to make "Based on usage" the default for your notifications. Here's how to change your sync options.

How To: Upgrade Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro
Why would you need to do this? With Windows 10 Microsoft is introducing the Windows 10 Pro Pack. The Pro Pack enables you to upgrade a Windows 10 Home system to Windows 10 Pro to take advantage of the increased features.

How To: Stop the Windows 10 Upgrade from downloading on your system
Why would you need to do this? There will be many people very excited about the prospect of upgrading to Windows 10 on the 29th of July. But if you're not one of them, you don't have to worry about Microsoft forcing the upgrade down your throat.