

If you are not comfortable sharing your data with Microsoft, avoid connecting your computer to the internet before the installation is complete. If you want to install Windows 10 on a virtual machine, you need to mount the Windows 10 ISO setup file before starting the virtual machine.ĭuring our tests, we discovered that, in some cases, the Windows 10 installation process might not offer you the option to create a local (non-Microsoft) offline account. VMware Workstation Player, Hyper-V, and VirtualBox are the free products on this list. If you want to run Windows 10 in a virtual machine, the best virtualization applications that can run Windows 10 are VirtualBox, VMware Workstation (Player and Pro), and Hyper-V. We also recommend a third-party tool that you can use to download any edition of Windows 10: Download ISO files with Windows 10 and Office (all versions).

If you need the ISO setup image file for Windows 10, read Windows 10 Media Creation Tool: Create a setup USB stick or ISO.

We recommend using a working internet connection and a Microsoft account. However, you cannot fully use Windows 10 until you activate it and provide the product key. What you should know and have prepared before installing Windows 10īefore you start, you should have the Windows 10 product key, even though you can install it without one.

