Easy OS migration?

[jc0606]

Hi how can i easily migrate my os without wiping out my whole pc, im ok with not regaining page icons and such like that, but i want to keep apps alla steam and other games. Does anyone have a good way of doing this, im on windows 11 but i am willing to go back to windows 10

[jc0606]

also i dont want to clone my drive, just migrate my os as i am keeping my old drive, should i just reinstall windows?

 

[Anghammarad]

Migrate from to where? 

 

 

[C2dan88]

17 minutes ago, jc0606 said:

also i dont want to clone my drive, just migrate my os as i am keeping my old drive,

There is no such method of moving only the os and leaving behind installed apps/games on a drive

 

You will have to reinstall windows to your new drive. Apps you have on your old drive will need to reinstalled*

*Some apps may get away with creating a new shortcut to the exe. But you wont have os integration such as a start menu items, right click context menu, file association etc.

 

Your games should not need be reinstalled. With steam you can add your old drive as a steam library for it recognize the games on that drive. Other game clients may allow to do this too.

 

Once windows is installed on your new drive you can go ahead and delete windows files from your old drive if you no longer want to keep windows on that drive.

[jc0606]

5 minutes ago, C2dan88 said:

There is no such method of moving only the os and leaving behind installed apps/games on a drive

 

You will have to reinstall windows to your new drive. Apps you have on your old drive will need to reinstalled*

*Some apps may get away with creating a new shortcut to the exe. But you wont have os integration such as a start menu items, right click context menu, file association etc.

 

Your games should not need be reinstalled. With steam you can add your old drive as a steam library for it recognize the games on that drive. Other game clients may allow to do this too.

 

Once windows is installed on your new drive you can go ahead and delete windows files from your old drive if you no longer want to keep windows on that drive.

So i wont have to reinstall steam libaries or my microsoft store games and such, im ok with lossing the rest of my stuff

[jc0606]

5 minutes ago, Anghammarad said:

Migrate from to where? 

 

 

from my hardrive to my new nvme

 

[C2dan88]

Just now, jc0606 said:

microsoft store games

Steam yes.

Microsoft store no.

[Anghammarad]

Just now, jc0606 said:

from my hardrive to my new nvme

 

then only cloning will help. Just copying over will not do... 

 

Or do a fresh install and lose your stuff. 

 

You could do a fresh install, install steam and other launchers like blizzard/epic etc, point their install folders to the old harddrive, after a few minutes your libraries will be back "online" without downloading everything. The launchers just do a danity check for completion of the installs... 

 

 

[jc0606]

5 minutes ago, C2dan88 said:

Steam yes.

Microsoft store no.

not msfs, nooooo, but thanks for the help

[jc0606]

4 minutes ago, Anghammarad said:

then only cloning will help. Just copying over will not do... 

 

Or do a fresh install and lose your stuff. 

 

You could do a fresh install, install steam and other launchers like blizzard/epic etc, point their install folders to the old harddrive, after a few minutes your libraries will be back "online" without downloading everything. The launchers just do a danity check for completion of the installs... 

 

 

how would i point them back? is there a steam option?

[C2dan88]

1 minute ago, jc0606 said:

is there a steam option?

Yes, You add your old drive as a steam library

Steam > Settings > Downloads > Steam library > Add > point to your steam installation folder on your old drive

[jc0606]

1 minute ago, C2dan88 said:

Yes, You add your old drive as a steam library

Steam > Settings > Downloads > Steam library > Add > point to your steam installation folder on your old drive

thank you guys i will do that now, super helpful lads