Topic: Upgrading from Win 7 to Win 10

[weatheroz]

Looking at updating my weather computer to Windows 10 from Win 7.

I'm sure there's going to be some 'gotchas' with Win 10, so wanted to find out all of the upgrading issues people have had with doing such an upgrade.

Any software/drivers issues to hunt down ?

Thanks.

[galfert]

I recommend getting a new hard drive. Then you pull out your existing hard drive. Insert new hard drive. Install a fresh copy of Windows 10. Install via the Microsoft Media Creation tool. This tool will create a bootable USB with the Windows 10 installer (do this first with old hard drive still installed if you don't have access to other computer). Then you can test drive Windows 10 on your existing computer. You can then deal with any driver issues as they come up. You can then test all your applications. Then finally when everything is good you connect your old hard drive via a USB hard drive adapter if your computer can't directly support 2 hard drives at the same time. Then once old drive is connected, you then copy your data. This is the best method to upgrade. It will result in a clean system with no gremlins.

If it is a Windows 7 computer you likely do not have a solid state hard drive (SSD). I highly recommend taking the opportunity to upgrade to an SSD type hard drive.

Using this method has many advantages. Your old hard drive becomes an instant backup of sorts. I still recommend you backup your data to a second location just in case. You retain your old hard drive intact incase something goes wrong with Windows 10 setup or any aspect of the migration. This method allows you to work at this in stages. You can work a few hours on the new hard drive, then stop and go back to the old hard drive and let that run for days and then get back to the Windows 10 installation the next day or days later. You'll work better and less stressed knowing you can easily go back to Windows 7 within five minutes it takes for a hard drive swap. You'll end up with a faster computer (especially if upgrading to SSD). You'll have peice of mind that a newer hard drive should last longer than the already aged old drive that has how much life left?

[weatheroz]

I was looking at doing the free win7 to win10 upgrade that is still working (just did it to another computer I have here).

My weather computer did get upgraded to a SSD drive already.

You suggestion of starting clean makes a whole lot of sense, but likely not to allow me to do the free upgrade though.


Thanks for both replying and moving my post to a more suitable location on the forum too!

[galfert]

Free upgrade to Windows 10 procedure:
- Clone the existing drive to the new drive. There are several drive cloning utilities you can use. In no particular order here are some to consider.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
http://www.clonezilla.org/
https://www.easeus.com/backup-software/tb-free.html

- Boot up with cloned drive
- perform Windows 10 free upgrade
- Make sure free upgrade gets licensed and registered. Do not waste time fixing drivers or other errors. All you need is to get connected to the Internet.
- Use Windows Media Creation Tool method to create USB boot media and do a clean install erasing all existing partitions.
- Windows 10 should automatically register as licensed because licensing is in the cloud and the system would have been fingerprinted automatically from the upgrade. No product key is required.

[ConligWX]

Make sure you get the full upgrade to Windows 10 (Build 2004) and not an older build else you have a world of hurt in upgrading windows 10 over and over again until you have the latest version. 

The spring and autumn updates of the past, can be upto 4GB in size which are just about like a new install.  your old windows gets left behind. I just finished a 2004 build update on a PC yesterday.  took 3 hours to update! and left a windows.old folder of 30gb to remove via disk clean util.

I also suggest you use a Windows10 debloater script like this one: https://github.com/Sycnex/Windows10Debloater

it will allow you to remove all the crap Windows 10 comes with for good.  Windows 10 starts installing and updating games, apps etc from the windows store (by default) without any real control  the windows 10 Debloater help remove this stuff, especially if you running this win10 just for a weather station.

[weatheroz]

Thanks to you both for the suggestions.

My biggest concerns is win10 drivers for things like my Boltek card, that probably hasn't been updated it many years, and possibly an issue under win10, where it works fine under win7.

[Jai Soone]

Give the Windows compatibility tool a spin.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_other-windows_install/windows-7-81-10-compatibility-testing-for-windows/310e06a4-b181-45ec-ae6d-ee93a1632932

[ConligWX]

Thanks to you both for the suggestions.

My biggest concerns is win10 drivers for things like my Boltek card, that probably hasn't been updated it many years, and possibly an issue under win10, where it works fine under win7.

https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=27264.0