Set Up Your Software

From BIOS to boot, follow our guide to installing your operating system, device drivers, and a selection of essential apps, one simple step at a time.

You’ve made it. You’ve got a brand new rig, and you’re ready to start winning and enjoying the sights in those 1080p games. But how do you get there? How do you install an operating system on your new machine? You haven’t installed an optical disc drive in your chassis, and you don’t seem to have one laying around either, so where do you go from here? No need to worry – we’ve got your back. The last time we used one of those DVD readers was way back in 2016, and even then that was only to see whether the coverdisc of our friends over on PC PowerPlay would read properly. Spoiler: It did, then they trashed our DVD drive. Typical, right?

But enough waffle. You’re here to install your OS of choice. For us, that’s Windows 10. You could game on Linux, if you want, but because this is APC, not Game Releases Two Years Later PC, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), we’re stuck with Microsoft.

1 BOOTABLE MEDIA STICK

First thing you need to do is grab an 8GB USB stick, preferably 3.0, if you’ve got one. But, as this is mostly a one-time deal, it doesn’t hugely matter. Then, on another system, with Windows already installed, you need to go to http://bit.ly/Win10MediaKit and hit the “Download tool now” button. This gives you an EXE file that you can then use to download and create a bootable USB stick. On MacOS or any Linux distro, you’re given an ISO instead of this, so you have to use a third-party program, such as Etcher, to mount the ISO on the USB stick.

2 FIRST-TIME BOOT & BIOS

Now you’ve got a bootable OS USB stick, you need to plug it into your new machine, add a keyboard and mouse, connect a screen to the GPU’s rear I/O, and power the machine on. Hammer the Delete key as soon as you hit the power button, and keep hitting it until you enter the BIOS.

To install Windows, we need to tell the BIOS to boot from the USB stick. Although the location of the boot order varies from mobo to mobo, the procedure is very much the same. In our build, head to the BIOS menu on the top, go down to “Boot Option Priorities,” click “Boot Option #1,” and select the disk that’s labeled “UEFI: Your USB Drive, Partition 1.” Hit F10, and select “Save Configuration and Exit.” The machine reboots into the USB stick.

You enter Windows Setup at this point. Choose your language, time, and keyboard layout, then hit “Next.” Windows then asks for a Windows Activation key – you can either enter this here, or do it later by hitting the “I don’t have a product key” button at the bottom. Next, you need to choose the version of Windows you want to install; for us, that’s “Windows 10 Home x64.” Accept the license agreement and hit “Next.” Then, when prompted, hit “Custom Install,” and choose your SSD as your primary drive. There are no names here, but each disk does specify its total size, enabling you to select the appropriate drive. Hit “Next.” If it throws up an error, or there’s a partition already there, delete the partition, and try again. Windows now installs. Once the system restarts, quickly pull out the USB stick, and let Windows finish the install. Now you can select the privacy options right for you, and either log in using your Microsoft profile, or create a localized account.

“How do you install an operating system on your new machine? You haven’t installed an optical disc drive in your chassis, and you don’t seem to have one laying around either. ”