Dell XPS 15 9550 - Clean Reinstall Windows 10 Pro With USB Boot Question

okay thanks.  This should be the same screen like on the desktop?  I remember it allowed me to go up and down with the arrow keys where if you go down, you choose that usb flash drive.  There were other options as well.  I do remember it being in the middle of the screen though...  

I don't remember it showing preparing one time boot menu.  It just showed a screen where I could choose that usb flash drive and then I pressed enter and then did the process to clean reinstall on the dell desktop.

@quickguide01  You'll want the flash drive connected before you start the system, otherwise the F12 boot menu might not include the flash drive in its provided options.  That list isn't dynamic, i.e. it won't update for devices that you plug in after a certain point, and I don't know exactly what point that is.  If you begin tapping F12 rapidly and repeatedly as soon as you press the Power button, without waiting for the display to wake up, then I don't see why you'd have trouble accessing the one-time boot menu.  I've never had an issue using that method.  Maybe use the built-in keyboard rather than an external keyboard if you've been using an external keyboard thus far.

In terms of the flash drive potentially getting compromised by your possibly compromised system, even if your system is compromised AND has malware that attempts to infect flash drives, I seriously doubt that it would be intelligent enough to inject malware into the WIM/ESD file on your Windows 10 flash drive that contains the files that would be loaded onto your system during a clean install.  It takes time to mount and unmount those files, so it wouldn't be a fast process.  I guess it could potentially infect the flash drive to try to autorun something when the flash drive was connected to a live Windows system, but if you're worried about that, then after you're finished installing Windows, connect the flash drive to a system that has autorun/AutoPlay disabled so that nothing can run immediately, then use Diskpart's "clean" command to mark the entire device as empty and uninitialized, and then set it up again with a new partition.

Thanks for the response.  That desktop is also a dell desktop.  

I never updated bios because im concerned it could brick which is why i never did it.

So you are saying just turn off dell xps laptop, put the usb stick in it.  Then power on and press F12 repeatedly until I see the screen right?  If it doesn't show up, just enter my windows password as usual to go my main screen.  Then restart and press F12 repeatedly again and then it should go to the boot menu for the windows ten usb?

Hi.  Well I did that on the windows ten desktop though.  I shut down desktop.  Put the usb stick in and pressed the F12 and nothing showed up.  I had shut down.  Then powered it on again ... must have done that at least 6 plus times and it didn't work.  The only way it worked was just clicking restart and pressing F12 and then that boot menu popped up.  I am pretty certain I was clicking F12 as soon as possible on the desktop.  That desktop I did the clean reinstall already.

Okay I will do that with the dell xps desktop then.  But if that bootup thing doesn't show up... then just go to my regular windows screen and login with my windows password.  Then restart and press F12  repeatedly right?  

Yea my concern is if I get to my windows home screen with everything while the windows ten usb drive is stuck in it... then it might potentially infect it.  But you are saying its very unlikely right?  But still possible?

So there is nothing about my BIOS being very old that is concerned with this right?

Also whenever I power on my dell xps laptop, you see the dell xps logo and then it goes to the windows password when it ask for that.  It doesn't show things on the bottom right like F2 and F12 options on the screen like to boot etc?   This is not a concern right?  Like one of my dell computers I remember it on the startup screen when you power it on... it has F2 and F12 shown on the screen like hey.. if you want to do that... you can press it.     

@quickguide01 Since you haven't mentioned anything at all about the desktop apart from the fact that it's running Windows 10, I'm not sure what happened there.  But if it's a non-Dell desktop, then F12 isn't a universal hotkey to access a boot menu.  It's just the key that Dell uses for its laptops and desktops (but not its servers).  Other system/motherboard vendors might use it as well, but some vendors definitely use a different key.  Anyway, I don't see a point in going down a rabbit hole troubleshooting your desktop just because an experience you had there has made you hesitant about your laptop.

If you can't access the boot menu by pressing F12 when starting from full shutdown, I don't see why restarting would be any different, but you can certainly give it a try.

I don't think an old BIOS would be an issue, but if you want to update it, then download the BIOS update file for that system from the Dell Support site, put it on a flash drive formatted as FAT32, then access the F12 boot menu, where you'll see a "BIOS Update Utility" option.  If you choose that option, you'll have a firmware-hosted update interface that will be able to use the Windows BIOS updater file as long as it's on a FAT32 flash drive.

Dell systems by default do not display text showing what buttons you can press to alter the boot process.  But that doesn't mean they won't work if you press them.

@quickguide01 Yes, but press F12 until you see text that says "Preparing one-time boot menu" appear in the upper-right corner of the Dell logo screen.

@quickguide01  The text is small and on newer systems that boot quickly, it probably won't appear for long.  But it doesn't really matter.  The only thing that matters is getting to the boot menu.  So keep pressing F12 until you get to the boot menu.  If you get to a Windows logon screen, then restart and try again.  I really don't think there's more that needs to be clarified here.  A clean install of Windows from a flash drive you've already prepared is a fairly straightforward process, even when the integrity of the existing installation is questionable, and I think the information here is more than sufficient for accomplishing that task.

Hi.  So it looks like this.

Boot mode is set to :  UEFI;   Secure Boot:  OFF

Legacy Boot

USB Storage Device

UEFI  BOOT:

UEFI:  Samsung Ssd 970 Evo 

UEFI:  Sandisk, Partition 1

Other Options:

BIOS Setup

Device Conigureation

BIOS Flash Update

Diagnostics 

Change Boot Mode Settings

Do I really need to do what you said?  Will they make changes to BIOS?  Again I don't want to make this complicated.  I just wanted to make sure I click on the right drive and now you tell me I need to make changes to it.

@quickguide01  Yes you want the SanDisk option.  The USB Storage Device would boot from your flash drive in Legacy BIOS mode rather than UEFI mode -- which is why that option is listed under the Legacy Boot section.  But the fact that you see a Legacy Boot section at all means that you have Legacy Option ROMs enabled in your BIOS, which means you have UEFI Secure Boot disabled.  I would recommend that you disable Legacy Option ROMs and enable UEFI Secure Boot.  Keeping Legacy Option ROMs enabled can cause you to boot in Legacy BIOS mode accidentally, which can be a problem especially when dealing with Windows installation media, because if you boot the install media in BIOS mode, then Windows will install itself on your internal disk to be booted in BIOS mode as well, which isn't what you want.  In addition, having Legacy Option ROMs enabled prevents you from enabling UEFI Secure Boot, which is a nice security enhancement.  You can make those changes in your BIOS Setup.  Contrary to what you may read in some places, you do not need to disable Secure Boot or enable Legacy Option ROMs just to boot from USB as long as you've got a properly prepared USB flash drive and are booting an environment that actually supports UEFI Secure Boot.  Windows has supported that since Windows 8, including in its install media, so Windows 10 install media would definitely support it.

@quickguide01  I already told you the correct option to choose. You don’t HAVE to make the changes I suggested, but enabling Secure Boot can make it LESS complicated because it would remove a “wrong” choice, namely the USB Storage Device that you just said confused you. It would also provide a nice security benefit, which I would think might appeal to you given that you’re performing a clean install because you’re worried your system might have been compromised. So even though you don’t HAVE to make the changes I suggested, I would recommend them. But do whatever you want. It’s your system.

I didn't make those changes you suggested because I never heard of this so I didn't want to make any changes in case.  But I did choose the sandisk option.

My issue now is after this clean reinstall, I have no wifi connection.  I cannot connect to wifi... bottom right has that globe where if you click on it, you can pick wifi connection but there isn't.  

I do notice in other devices under device manager lot of programs like

3 video controller

network controller

pci device

pci memorh controller

sm bus controller

All these above have yellow exclamation point.

For network adapters I do see

wan miniport and many of them appear there.

How do I fix this issue?  Could me not making the change you suggested could cause this?

@quickguide01 Do some basic research on UEFI Secure Boot. It has existed for a decade now and makes sure that your OS bootloader is digitally signed by a trusted source and has not been maliciously altered. If it has been altered, you get an alert about that. So again, if you just did this because you were concerned about compromise, I truly don’t understand why you wouldn’t enable this. Your system even shipped with UEFI Secure Boot enabled from the factory because Microsoft required system vendors to do that starting with Windows 8.1. Enabling that option has no downsides if you will only be using Windows, but it will give you a useful security benefit. The fact that you have never heard of UEFI Secure Boot is not a good reason not to enable it.

To fix your WiFi connectivity issue, use another working system to go to the Dell Support site and download the WiFi driver for your system, then put it on a flash drive to get it to your XPS. Once you install that and get WiFi on your XPS, you can download remaining needed drivers or just download and install Dell Update, which will do that for you. And that will resolve the remaining Device Manager items.

Hi.  So you are saying my laptop for sure came like this as the default with the UEFI Secure boot on?  Thing is when I got this laptop, I did have someone help set up the laptop so maybe they changed that setting?   So is that the reason why?   Would you suggest me do another clean reinstall and change it or not?  Doing the clean reinstall only took me half an hour so it isn't that big of an issue.  Or should I change it now in the bios settings?

Will there be issues if I install bitlocker though?  I will plan to install it again.  So I didn't do that because I thought it might interfere with it.

But do you remember the page where you disable the Legacy Roms and Enable the UEFI Secure Boot?  Because I will do that later on then since you are talking about it more.  So you click on BIOS Setup to do this?  Again I'm concerned about making some type of mistake which is why I want to avoid touching anything bios.

Is there a chance that me not doing what you suggested cause me to not have wifi?  Or that is not possible?  So go on the dell site here and change it to network right?  I see only 7 drivers but none of these appear to be the wireless card I had?   Also the other issue is I don't see any wireless card connected to my laptop as I went to system information - components - adapter.  Is that a concern?

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/xps-15-9550-laptop/drivers

Hey jphugan.  I appreciate your help on all this.  Yes the multiple monitor display, I ended up just sticking with the current monitors I had so not going to buy it yet.  My plan was going to buy that docking station you recommended If I do plan to have multiple displays of the high resolution monitor.  I will be however planning to do this in few months.

My issue now is I think I caught malware/virus on my laptop two weeks ago and I wasn't sure if it is true or not.  Some people said I do not... others say I probably do.  So I finally earlier ended up doing the clean reinstall of windows.  I took a long time to decide on this and then the no wifi thing has me frustrated.  The reason is because I need to travel soon and now if I don't fix this laptop issue,  I am going to have lot of problems.  Yes I took a long time trying to decide if I should clean reinstall or not.  Then when I finally did it earlier, this happened.  

I had asked someone else this issue with the clean reinstall and when he noticed I gave him that information, he was confused because it didn't show any wifi card which I thought was weird.  And he seems perplexed.  Thus that is why I am asking here because of this issue.  I have had nothing but issues come up with my laptop in the last two weeks and then now no wifi.