One of my computer repair customers brought in an HP Elitebook Notebook 8440P. In two thousand sixteen he successfully upgraded Windows 7 to Windows 10. However, recently he ran into some computer problems and tried to restore his computer.
When I received his laptop Windows 7 restore had removed his user data. However, he still wanted to have Windows 10 working on his HP Elitebook notebook 8440P. As long as you have successfully upgraded or installed Windows 10 and activated the license, then you can install Windows 10 again without entering in the product key.
You need to make sure that you know what architecture hardware you have. Remember you can only install x86 32 bit operating system on x86 32 bit hardware. Also, you can only install x64 64 bit operating system on x64 64 bit hardware.
Also, you need to know what operating system was previously loaded. For example you cannot load Windows 10 home premium on a computer that had Windows 10 professional installed. During the upgrade process from Windows 7 or 8.1 you could only upgrade like to like.
For example you could have upgraded Windows 7 professional to Windows 10 professional for free. In order to change the type of operating system you would have to purchase another license. Now that you know what architecture your hardware is and the operating system you are going to load, you can use Microsoft’s free media creation tool to either burn a DVD or USB flash drive with Windows 10 installation.
Also, you can use Microsoft’s media creation tool to download an installation ISO. With this ISO you can use a free program like Rufus to create a bootable USB Windows 10 installation flash drive. Once you have your installation media, then you can proceed to installing Windows 10 on an HP Elitebook Notebook 8440p.
In order to boot off DVD or USB flash drive you can press the “Esc” key on your keyboard. A special boot menu will open up where you can press F9 to pick which device to boot from. This allows you to boot off of your DVD or USB drive without changing the boot order in the Basic Input Output System.
Most times you will not be asked to enter in your Certificate of Authenticity sticker product key. If you do you will be prompted to enter it in when asked. I recommend you entet it in now instead of entering this product key after Windows 10 installs.
I had to reinstall Windows 10 on this HP Elitebook Notebook 8440P because when I tried to activate Windows 10, I kept getting an error claiming that Microsoft servers could not be accessed. You might be prompted to select the version of Windows 10 to install. Make sure you pick the correct version, for example choose Windows 10 professional if that is what your license key allows.
You cannot install Windows 10 home premium with a Windows 10 professional license. You will then need to accept Microsoft’s license agreement. If you are upgrading your current operating system, choose the upgrade option.
If you are performing a clean install of Windows 10 then choose the “Custom: Install Windows only” option. You can click “Next” at the “Where do you want to install Windows?” prompt. Windows 10 will now download install files to the hard drive and begin the installation.
Continue with the installation and follow all the prompts. You will be asked if your computer is personal or a work computer. Also, you will be asked to configure signing into windows with a Microsoft account.
I recommend that you create an offline account instead. If you choose to login with a Microsoft account, then you will need internet access to login. If you forgot your password or lack internet access, you will not be able to login to your Windows 10 computer.
You can choose to make Cortana your personal assistant or not. Also, you will be asked to configure Windows 10 privacy settings. You can change these later, but you might want to set them to your liking now.
Eventually Windows 10 will finish installing and you will see the Windows desktop. Congratulations, you have just successfully installed Windows 10 on your HP Elitebook Notebook 8440P.