New computers, came with old Windows 10 (1511 to 1607)

[essential]

Our office bought 4 new computers with Windows 10 Pro, and they came with version 1511 installed (old).

After installing updates on the first I realized that the update to 1607 was major and now there is a Windows.old folder.

Since these are new and not in use yet, I downloaded a copy of the "Win10_1607_English_x64.iso" which is the official Windows 10 Anniversary Update (x64) ISO (checksum verified).

Would I be better off just clean installing the Anniversary Update edition on each machine instead or do the 1607 update via Windows Update?

I always assumed a clean install is better than a major update that could leave remnants, but maybe that's wrong with newer operating systems.

If I should clean install, I assume I just need to turn each machine on, connect to the Internet, make sure Windows is active, then shut down, install the Win10_1607_English_x64.iso, select "i don't have a product key" then when I get back into Windows, it should activate again no problem correct?

Thanks.

 

[deustroop]

Either approach will work. One factor may be whether the update to 1607 has caused system error/warnings discernible in Event Viewer/administrative . If so you may want to avoid the update and go with the install.(Some of the errors are simple to correct, others less so).
If there are no such things then you could just stay with the update to 1607 and delete the win.old, aware of course that the .old serves as a fallback which MS makes available if the update is unsatisfactory.

One thing I am unclear about is whether the iso is the entire install including 1607 or just the update itself intended to top up a 1511 install ?

 

[essential]

Thanks for the reply deustroop, it is the entire install, not just the update, I've used it in the past. I'll check the Event Viewer to see if there are any issues.

I just figured if a clean install is preferred, now is the best time to do it, because if the update causes any future issues, once these are deployed it would cause a day or 2 or downtime to re-do everything once someone is setup for daily use.

Thanks.

 

[vailr]

If the machines in question are from name brand makers (such as Dell, Lenovo, HP, etc.) then the product key should reside inside the bios firmware. Those should auto-activate with a fresh install of a newer build of Windows 10.
However, it might be a good idea to first retrieve the existing product keys and write them down (or print them out), prior to completely wiping the existing build 1511 installations.
Machines built using off the shelf motherboards from Newegg or other online vendors would obviously not include a Windows product key within the bios firmware.

 

[essential]

Yes, they are Lenovo and I've backed up everything just in case, at least with this first one. The Windows Event log was clean, but I still might do a fresh install just to try it out. It didn't come with much bloatware but I guess it can't hurt either.