A Step By Step Guide on Installing Windows 11 - 2026 Edition

 

A Step By Step Guide on Installing Windows 11

 

Installing Windows 11 can feel confusing if you're not sure what you're doing. This guide walks you through it step by step, with some smart choices to make along the way and a few common misconceptions

Step 1: Download Windows 11 media creation tool from Microsoft official web page: https://www.microsoft.com/de-de/software-download/windows11
 

Common misconception: Windows is NOT a paid software. It does have a pricing model, but you can download and install it for free, and it keeps working without a paid license key (you just lose some personalisation options until you activate it).

 

Step 2:  Run that downloaded file
Uncheck the 'recommended options' box if you want to choose the language and edition yourself, or if you want to create a USB drive rather than just download a file

Step 3: Select USB Flash Drive.

 

Step 4: Download the required Network Drivers for the Internet Connection

In many cases, these drivers will be included with Windows but if they aren't, our ethernet port and wifi will not work.

The setup is similar to most brands.
  

1. Go to the website of the motherboard brand of your PC/Laptop. Look up your motherboard or system model in the brand page.

2. Download the LAN and Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) and save them into a separate folder on the same USB drive, then safely eject it.
     

Step 5: Getting ready for installation

1. Power on and repeatedly press the boot-menu hot key to start from the USB drive

💡Smart tip:

Hotkeys: DEL, TAB, F1, F2, F4, F12

If that doesn't work, restart and repeatedly press one of these keys to enter the BIOS (The BIOS is the basic settings menu built into your computer, separate from Windows. It's where you tell the PC to start from your USB drive instead of its normal drive):

F2, F10, F12, DEL  and change the boot order to put the flashdrive first.

2. Then select the preferred options:

3.  Then select, I don’t have a product key if you do not currently have a product key

4. Then select the image you want to install:
💡Smart tip: Image refers to the edition of Windows, you want to install

5. Accept the license agreement

6. Delete any partition that might be present on your boot drive.

💡Smart tip: A partition is a section your drive is divided into. Deleting the old ones wipes the drive clean so Windows installs fresh. Only do this if you've backed up anything you want to keep, it erases everything.

7. Now select the unallocated space and click next

💡Smart tip: Ninite

After setting up a new PC, it takes a lot of time to install basic software like a Video Player, Internet Browser, File packager & Document reader. These are the commonly used software by everyone and installing them one by one is a tiring process. Over the last few years, companies have identified a solution for this problem. The solution is a website in which the latest versions of the most commonly used software are available and you can click and select all the required software and download them as a bunch. This saves a bunch of time

Eg. of one such software:

🧱Ninite:

To quickly install all the required software in one click:

1. Google Chrome
2. Foxit Reader for pdf
3. VLC
4. CCCP
5. 7-Zip
6. WinRAR

One of the benefits of Ninite is, it always installs the latest versions of the selected software

Alternatives for Ninite:
Chocolatey, WinGet.

Step 6: OOBE

OOBE stands for Out Of Box Experience. This is just the series of setup screens you see the first time a new PC starts, where you pick your language, region, and account.

  

💡Smart tip:
Always opt out of all those telemetric data for data-privacy

Step 7: At the welcome back screen, click on more options and select, setup as new PC

 💡Smart tip: Skip for customizing your experience. These are just Microsoft's way to make you use their software

 💡Smart tip: When someone else is setting up your PC, do not hesitate to tell them to not accept giving permissions to allow Microsoft to access our browsing data.

 

 

 💡Smart tip: This is again a promotion from Microsoft. There are multiple free office options if you do not prefer Microsoft Office. Also it is easy to start a subscription if you want to.

Step 8:  Run the drivers we put in our USB.
  

💡Smart tip: Sometimes you may run into permission errors if there are other users in this PC. So always run them as administrator

Step 9: Run the Ninite exe
  

Step 10: For CPU and chipset driver,

Go to AMD’s official website and select Device type and model, download, unzip and run.

 

💡Smart tip:

Because this file isn't signed by a recognised publisher, Windows shows a warning. That's normal for driver files straight from the manufacturer.

Since AMD is a trusted source, click on More Info and select run anyway.

💡Smart tip: DO NOT choose this option for files downloaded from malicious websites

Step 11: Driver updates for GPU:

To check whether all the GPU Drivers have been installed properly:

Open Device Manager to check whether any yellow exclamation points are present. The yellow exclamation mark means that they need to be updated. 

💡Smart tip:
DO NOT download drivers from sketchy websites. Most manufacturers these days offer dedicated apps for downloading official drivers. You can find them mostly in the Microsoft store

Many companies offer dedicated apps for driver downloads
  

And that's it!
Now Windows is fully functioning and is ready for use. Good Luck!

Additional tips:

Tip 1: Managing Startup apps is a great way to save time and battery.

Settings -> Apps - > Startup apps

Now toggle off unwanted apps
  

 

Tip 2: Antivirus

Windows Defender is a solid option these days. For normal everyday use it's more than enough, and extra antivirus software often just slows the system down

Tip 3: Installing windows without internet connection:

During the installation, you will be asked to connect to the internet. But if you are in a situation where you do not have an internet connection, these options will come handy.
  

When we are prompted to connect to Wi-Fi, Hit Shift + F10 and type oobe\bypassnro and press enter. This command tells Windows to skip the 'you must connect to the internet' screen, so you can finish setup without Wi-Fi.
  

Tip 4: Installing Windows without creating a Microsoft account:

When we are prompted to connect to Wi-Fi, Hit Shift + F10 and type: ms-cxh:localonly. This lets you set up Windows with a simple local account on the PC itself, instead of signing in with a Microsoft account online.
  

Tip 5: Privacy settings
 

Turn off all options that are not mandatory.