Updating from Win7 Home Premium to Win10

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Has anyone does the update in this order?

[*]Upgrading Win7 Home Premium to Win10.
[*]Once you think things have settled down, do an in-place reinstall of Win10 to address (potential) issues with the way the update is done.

I am considering going this route on my remaining 2 computers as my previous experience with upgrading Win7 left me with many issues. Since I have been successful doing clean installs of Win10 Pro on my other 2 computers, I want to find out more about this method before I start on my Win7 systems.

For instance, would I still have the currently installed drivers in place after the in-place reinstall?

FYI: I will likely upgrade to Win10 Pro either during the upgrade or after things settle down on the computers.

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I’ve upgraded 3 Win 7 laptops to Win 10 – one within the free period and the other two with the Assistive Technologies upgrade and following up on one with a repair install.

I don’t really see the advantage of a clean install and it certainly creates more work, but you will be getting exactly the same OS that you’ve upgraded to.

It’s not so much the upgrade but the subsequent updates afterwards that can cause problems and depending upon which version of the MCT you downloaded to create your Win 10 install disk, as to whether you could be facing the same problems.

I found that Win 10 had installed its own later wireless driver and a printer driver.

The wireless driver was rubbish so I had to reinstall one from 2013.

Win 10 goes online to look for updates during its install and as you will be completely rewriting C: then it may well install its own drivers but some will have to conform to your hardware.

If you want to safeguard your current drivers, then go into C:WindowsSystem32 and back up the three drivers folders onto something like an USB stick and then you can drop them back in afterwards.

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@Sudo15,

I understand what you are saying. It is just that when I did the upgrades back at the end of July, I had many issues, though, I must say they were on the 2 systems I have now clean installed Win10 Pro on. Aside from the small issues I have posted about in other thread, the clean installs have been without issue.

When I prepped a new USB for my second computer, I thought I would get AU (1607), but was surprised with the install completed that it was still 1511! It was the first of October when I did it! But, I manually prompted the update to AU on it without any issues/problems.

I’m not too concerned about doing clean installs because, as you have pointed out, the install process does gather important software such as hardware drivers to at least allow the systems to run even if I have to go get drivers from the computer maker’s sites.

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I suppose if you’ve had good experience with the clean installs, then that will be the way to go and it will clean a lot of crap out of C:

I just don’t fancy backing up my Docs and Download folders, reinstalling them and the rest of my programs 🙂

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In my case, most all of my documents are in Dropbox or OneDrive, though I also have other backups to fall back on, if needed. :coffeetime:

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@WildcatRay

I’d suggest that your two step procedure is quite valid. But the “in-place reinstall” I would do is not a “clean install” at all. Take a gander at this article on the NeoSmart Technologies web site: “Windows 10 Repair Install (in-place upgrade)“.

Image or Clone often! Backup, backup, backup, backup......
- - - - -
Home Built: Windows 10 Home 64-bit, AMD Athlon II X3 435 CPU, 16GB RAM, ASUSTeK M4A89GTD-PRO/USB3 (AM3) motherboard, 512GB SanDisk SSD, 3 TB WD HDD, 1024MB ATI AMD RADEON HD 6450 video, ASUS VE278 (1920x1080) display, ATAPI iHAS224 Optical Drive, integrated Realtek HD Audio

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@WildcatRay

I’d suggest that your two step procedure is quite valid. But the “in-place reinstall” I would do is not a “clean install” at all. Take a gander at this article on the NeoSmart Technologies web site: “Windows 10 Repair Install (in-place upgrade)“.

That is what I was thinking. :cheers:

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Ray, I spend a lot of time cleaning up after folks who have already “tried things” before they cart their problems to me. Even though I usually take the time to create an image of their hard drive before I attempt to address their complaints, I’ve not had any bad experiences when electing to do an in-place upgrade — except once! And in the particular case I simply ran an in-place upgrade a second time! That did the trick (and was probably faster than hunting drivers just to be on the safe side).
So, although I can only speak from experience (not quoting Microsoft or anyone else), I would suggest that you try your two-step procedure.

Good luck.

Image or Clone often! Backup, backup, backup, backup......
- - - - -
Home Built: Windows 10 Home 64-bit, AMD Athlon II X3 435 CPU, 16GB RAM, ASUSTeK M4A89GTD-PRO/USB3 (AM3) motherboard, 512GB SanDisk SSD, 3 TB WD HDD, 1024MB ATI AMD RADEON HD 6450 video, ASUS VE278 (1920x1080) display, ATAPI iHAS224 Optical Drive, integrated Realtek HD Audio

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