Windows 11 Installation Guide

Introduction

Operating systems are the foundation of any computer and overall IT infrastructure. Therefore learning to install the OS in a secure, consistent and well established process is essential. An OS that is installed as per best practices is easy to automate, maintain, resilient to failures and secure. Applications will also run with minimal compatibility issues or problems.

What does an OS Installer do?

Major Installation Steps

• BIOS configuration to boot temporarily from install medium (USB pen drive).
• Boot the OS installer from install medium (USB pen drive).
• Detect target disk, partition and format it.
• Copy OS image to the target disk. OS image may be available locally in the install medium (USB pen drive), or downloaded from network/internet.
• Make the target disk bootable and reboot.
• The installer may create the first super user account either during the install process or on first boot.
• Optionally, the installer software may install updates to itself or the target OS during the install process.

Post Installation Steps

• Create separate "Standard User" and "Administrator" accounts. Always use "Standard User" for daily use, and Administrator account only for special requirements like new software installation, etc.
• Ensure all software updates are installed, on Windows configure Windows Updates to install software for all Microsoft Products so hardware drivers and Edge browser is always updated.

Note

It is recommended to install hardware drivers directly from Windows Update rather than relying on the manufacturer's websites. Windows Update provides the latest certified drivers that are tested and verified for compatibility with the operating system.

Practical Session 1: Installation of Windows 11

Prepare Win 11 USB Install Media

• For basic usage, use the media creation tool from Download Windows 11 (microsoft.com) web page.
• For advanced usage, e.g. installing Win11 on unsupported computers, download the ISO from Download Windows 11 (microsoft.com) and use Rufus to create the patched install media. See Installing Windows 11 on Unsupported Hardware.

BIOS configuration

• Enable virtualization: VT-x for Intel and SVM for AMD CPUs.
• BIOS UEFI mode and Secure Boot must be enabled for Win 11.
• Set the boot sequence to always boot from HDD/SSD and temporarily boot from USB in order to boot the Windows installer from USB.

Installation

• Boot from USB
• To install the Win 11 operating system, follow the steps in Annexure 1: Bare Metal Installation.
• Set Windows region to English India. This will ensure number formatting in Excel is shown in crores/lakhs rather than millions and hundred thousands.
• Delete all partitions in the target disk and click Next. Windows installer will partition the disk as required - EFI, C:\, etc.
• Do NOT split the target disk into smaller partitions. Eg. C:\ for OS, D:\ for data, etc. This is an obsolete practice that is no longer required for modern computers with Win 11 and SSDs.
• Create an Administrator user with a name admin for doing Administrator tasks like software installation, etc.
• Install Windows Updates to receive software updates, security patches, and driver updates from Microsoft servers.
• Create a Standard user for doing regular tasks.