If I upgrade to windows 10, will I use any file at all?

[DannyDem]

So the major reason why I don't to upgrade my SO is because I don't have much time set everything up again which includes installing all the programs, put all my files on the HDD and so on. So If I do this "windows 10" update will I lose anything at all?

 

*I meant will I lose any file at all in the title

[Oshino Shinobu]

Nope, everything will stay as it is for the most part. Some older programs may not run correctly on Windows 10, but you won't have to reinstall any that are compatible. 

[AlTech]

So the major reason why I don't to upgrade my SO is because I don't have much time set everything up again which includes installing all the programs, put all my files on the HDD and so on. So If I do this "windows 10" update will I lose anything at all?

Nothing. You will lose nothing. (Unless you specifically ask to lose everything)!

EDIT: One thing to note is that once you upgrade you'll have a folder where the old windows installation was. So you may want to delete that old folder (It's called "Windows.Old").

[Elapo]

Nothing. You will lose nothing. (Unless you specifically ask to lose everything)!

EDIT: One thing to note is that once you upgrade you'll have a folder where the old windows installation was. So you may want to delete that old folder (It's called "Windows.Old").

 

You might want to wait with deleting that folder. If you run into trouble, it's the only way to revert the upgrade. Just delete it after a month, windows won't let you roll back then anyway.

[Nocial]

I selected the "Remove Everything" option but it only removed all the programs from the "Programs List" but not the files and folders which the program installed.

I say go for it, drivers aren't much of a issue unless you're using some kind of old laptop or use very niche hardware.

[Guest Kloaked]

Nope, everything will stay as it is for the most part. Some older programs may not run correctly on Windows 10, but you won't have to reinstall any that are compatible. 

 

Pretty much this. I upgraded from 7 to 10 and nothing came out broken for me.

[ItsMTC]

I've installed a number of windows 10 OS upgrades in a computer repair shop for clients, it is a safe bet that upgrading to windows 10 will not erase your programs or files. If your programs are known incompatibilities, windows will let you know what it removed so you can get them back, but files I'm almost 100% sure are all transferred over. 

 

If you want to protect your stuff in the event something terrible does happen while you are upgrading your computer, you can always backup your drive as a precautionary measure and restore it if it doesn't work out for you. I had a client whose explorer.exe consistently crashed until we reverted their upgrade back to windows 7, so worst case you would just restore your drive back to what it was before.

[StormEye]

I have just recently upgraded my main rig from Windows 8.1 pro to Windows 10 Pro (upgraded other misc devices and VM long ago).

 

I was hesitant on upgrading my main rig, pretty much the same reason as TC, because I did not want to set aside lots of time backing up and verifying the backup.

 

Anyway, I did an upgrade (non-clean) and found that a few misc software automatically got disabled / uninstalled. Nothing major, and was running fine.

 

When I was cleaning up those misc software that got disabled, but still registered as installed apps, I noticed that some refused to uninstall properly. It was not a big deal, if you can bear with random non-functioning software still lingering in registered apps since everything else was running fine.

 

Though, I did get annoyed about those things, and could not accept that something is not running right in my system, so I ended up taking time aside to backup things properly and clean installed Windows 10 Pro again.

 

Even with completely clean install, Windows 10 Pro seemed to detect and install default drivers for most of my stuff without any problem. So, I actually did not have to go and dig compatible drivers for a lot of my devices.

 

Anyway, that is my experience with Windows 10 upgrade.