Do this before you update to the Windows 10 Creators Update

Martin Brinkmann
Apr 5, 2017
Updated • Jul 5, 2017
Windows, Windows 10
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25

The official release date of the Windows 10 Creators Update is April 11th, 2017. Windows 10 users who want the update early may download it on April 5th, 2017 via the Update Assistant.

While you can go ahead and run the update right on April 5th, or some time later using Windows Update, we suggest you wait a bit before you update your machines.

Regardless of when you run the update, you may want to run preparations before you install the Creators Update on your machine.

The following guide gives you tips on how to prepare the device properly before you run the update. Feel free to add more tips in the comment section below.

Timing

You need to find the right time to update to the Windows 10 Creators Update. With that, I mean that you should not run the update if you need to use the PC anytime soon.

If you need to use it for homework, do your taxes, make payments, or even chat with someone, you better not run the update right away.

Find a time where you don't need to use the PC or device for important things. The reason for this is simple: while most updates will run through in an hour or so, things may, and will for some users, go wrong.

Maybe it takes way longer than you expected to install the update. Or, your PC refuses to boot after you have installed the Creators Update. This is a problem if you need it for important tasks, as you may spend hours or even days troubleshooting the issue you are experiencing.

Whatever it is, making sure that you don't need the device for the foreseeable future ensures that you have enough time to resolve whatever issue you are facing.

Another thing to consider is that the first release of the Windows 10 Creators Update will have bugs. Microsoft will fix those bugs eventually, but you may have to live with them if you are unlucky enough to be affected by them.

Waiting weeks or even a month or more before you install a Windows 10 feature update may be a smart move, as you avoid running into bugs in first place introduced by the update.

Clean House

ccleaner

Cleaning house may be beneficial in some situations. First, you may use it to free up disk space to make sure the new operating system, and a copy of the old, have enough room on the main hard drive of the computer system.

Also, removing software that you no longer need, and clearing temporary files may also be beneficial to the process.

I recommend you start by uninstalling software that is no longer needed. Then, once that is out of the way, run a program like CCleaner to remove temporary files from the system to free up additional space.

If you don't want to use a third-party program, try the built-in Disk Cleanup tool instead. This is more limited than CCleaner or other third-party tools, but it removes junk from a couple of high profile locations on Windows machines.

Software licenses and product keys

If things can go wrong, they probably will, at least for some users. It is a good idea to have your product keys and software licenses at hand if you require them.

While you may have the product keys at hand, for instance on an Office CD or Windows DVD, you can also look them up by running programs such as Product KeyFinder,  Produkey or License Crawler.

These keys may be required if you contact the software company, or if Windows or Office, for whatever reason, are not activated anymore after the upgrade.

Drivers

If components or peripheral devices require special drivers, you may want to make sure that you have those at hand, so that you may re-install the drivers. If Windows does not pick them up automatically, it could in worst case mean that a component does not work at all, or provides only generic or limited functionality.

You may have them on a CD or DVD, or may need to download the latest drivers from the developer website to have them at hand if needed.

Backup

Even more important than timing is that you create a backup of your important data -- better the full system partition -- so that you are prepared when disaster strikes.

Imagine the following scenario: you ran the update, but something went wrong and your PC won't boot anymore. Or maybe, you notice that data is not on the hard drive anymore that was there prior to running the update. Without a backup, you may have lost the data for good.

You may use any backup program that supports file backups or partition backups. I use Veeam Endpoint Backup Free for that.

Simple create a new backup job after you have installed the program, and either select File level backup if you want to save files or directories only, or volume level backup / entire computer, if you want to back up a partition, an entire hard drive, or all drives of the computer.

Please note that you need enough free storage space somewhere else, for instance on a removable drive, to backup the data.

Also, and that is equally important, make sure you create recovery media as well.

Windows Recovery Media

recovery drive

It is advised to always have recovery media at hand. If Windows does not boot anymore, you may use recovery media for troubleshooting assistance and repairs.

Windows 10 ships with options to create a recovery drive. You may use it to reset or troubleshoot problems, and if you back up system files to the drive as well, you will also be able to reinstall Windows.

Please note that you need a USB drive connected to the PC for that. It should have at least 8 Gigabytes of space, and all data on the drive will be deleted in the process.

To run the program, do the following:

  1. Tap on the Windows-key to open the Start menu.
  2. Type create a recovery drive, and select the option.

Follow the instructions on the screen to create the drive. You may boot from it after creation to troubleshoot and repair Windows.

Now You: Have additional tips? Feel free to share them in the comment section below.

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Do this before you update to the Windows 10 Creators Update
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Do this before you update to the Windows 10 Creators Update
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The article provides you with a list of "things to do" before you update to the Windows 10 Creators Update to be prepared for eventualities.
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Comments

  1. Dan Donx said on January 15, 2023 at 10:29 am
    Reply

    What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?

    Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.

    If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.

  2. Dexter said on January 15, 2023 at 11:14 am
    Reply

    5. Rufus
    6. Ventoy

    PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.

    1. cdr said on January 15, 2023 at 3:32 pm
      Reply

      I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.

  3. sv said on January 15, 2023 at 6:40 pm
    Reply

    bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.

    ps…. time travelling?
    written. Jan 15, 2023
    Updated • Jan 13, 2023

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on January 16, 2023 at 5:49 am
      Reply

      This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.

  4. Anonymous said on January 16, 2023 at 8:24 am
    Reply

    Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.

  5. basingstoke said on January 16, 2023 at 11:18 am
    Reply

    I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:

    1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)

    2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)

    3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””

    4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows

    5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss

    Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:

    6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now

    Have I missed any group off this list?

    1. Heinz Strunk said on September 19, 2023 at 3:57 pm
      Reply

      You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.

      Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.

  6. ilev said on August 24, 2023 at 7:34 pm
    Reply

    Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update

    1. EP said on August 24, 2023 at 9:21 pm
      Reply

      only from windows update though
      KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site

  7. Anonymous said on August 24, 2023 at 11:05 pm
    Reply

    1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.

    2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.

    3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.

    This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
    Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.

    Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.

  8. john said on August 24, 2023 at 11:17 pm
    Reply

    Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.

    1. John G. said on August 25, 2023 at 12:08 pm
      Reply

      Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.

  9. EP said on August 25, 2023 at 3:10 pm
    Reply

    motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
    https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215

  10. EP said on August 29, 2023 at 7:32 pm
    Reply

    check out the following recent articles:

    Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
    https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/

    BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/

  11. Leonard Britvolli said on August 30, 2023 at 10:33 pm
    Reply

    While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.

  12. sembrador said on September 5, 2023 at 9:32 pm
    Reply

    My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.

  13. EP said on September 6, 2023 at 11:55 am
    Reply

    motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):

    https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277

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