This process is called a clean install, which is ironic as there's nothing particularly clean about it: Microsoft has enshittified Windows Setup.

Microsoft has not yet removed a mandatory clean install requirement for a Windows 11-exclusive feature, which is said to ...

I've heard that people do such things (using something called Rufus?), and I have an older machine -16 GB RAM, i7-6700 3060 Ti, ASUS Z170-A motherboard-- running Windows 10 Pro-- that I want to keep ...