Upgrading to Windows 10

[DatBrummie]

Hello,

 

I bought myself a windows 10 licence a little while ago and I keep finding excuses to put it off because I always get extremely paranoid about things going wrong. So I just had a few questions before i push myself to get off windows 7.

First of all, this windows 7 install is probably over 5 years old and is definitely reaching it's limits. Would just upgrading to Windows 10 make it fresh and snappy? Or would I have to upgrade, then reinstall?

Second, when upgrading. How much actually remains? Would I still have my Steam install and all of my games, across 3 drives?

 

When I ran the program on the USB stick to actually install it, it told me that I had chosen to upgrade to windows 10 pro, despite not giving me the option to choose between pro and home, and my key being for windows 10 home, would I still be okay or do I need to change this somehow before hand?

 

Do you think I might run in to any problems or should it go through without a hitch?

 

Thanks

[Dedayog]

Best way to do it fresh install on a formatted drive and reinstalling Steam and Office, and whatever else.  

 

Honestly, 5 years is a long time for an OS to build up file issues and slow itself down.  I'm an annual reinstaller of the OS myself.

 

Think of it like maintenance on a car.  Periodic.  

 

The file for Home/Pro is the same, the key determines what features are usable.  Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's how it is.

[DatBrummie]

4 minutes ago, jstudrawa said:

Best way to do it fresh install on a formatted drive and reinstalling Steam and Office, and whatever else.  

 

Honestly, 5 years is a long time for an OS to build up file issues and slow itself down.  I'm an annual reinstaller of the OS myself.

 

Think of it like maintenance on a car.  Periodic.  

 

The file for Home/Pro is the same, the key determines what features are usable.  Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's how it is.

 

I used to reinstall pretty regularly too but then I fell out of it and now I'm nervous about taking the plunge because I'm worried I'll forget to back things up and they'll be gone forever. I guess it's my own fault because every year I didn't reinstall, was another year of memories to potentially lose when I do reinstall. 

 

I was considering putting all of the pictures and documents (should I be backing anything else up? Files wise) on to my D drive, and installing Windows 10 on to the C drive fresh. But I was going to go through the update to do it, as I was hoping that just updating would be enough. Once you update isn't there a way to reinstall it within Windows 10 itself?

 

Do you not think just updating would be enough to improve the PC? Not that it has any major issues, other than the mouse randomly stopped working earlier. 

 

Also another quick question, if I download chrome and log in to my Google account, it should restore everything just how it was, assuming I have it set to right? 

[Speed Weed]

3 minutes ago, DatBrummie said:

 

I used to reinstall pretty regularly too but then I fell out of it and now I'm nervous about taking the plunge because I'm worried I'll forget to back things up and they'll be gone forever. I guess it's my own fault because every year I didn't reinstall, was another year of memories to potentially lose when I do reinstall. 

 

I was considering putting all of the pictures and documents (should I be backing anything else up? Files wise) on to my D drive, and installing Windows 10 on to the C drive fresh. But I was going to go through the update to do it, as I was hoping that just updating would be enough. Once you update isn't there a way to reinstall it within Windows 10 itself?

 

Do you not think just updating would be enough to improve the PC? Not that it has any major issues, other than the mouse randomly stopped working earlier. 

 

Also another quick question, if I download chrome and log in to my Google account, it should restore everything just how it was, assuming I have it set to right? 

Windows Installation setup should give you a list of Windows 10 to choose because there are more than two Windows 10 series. You can't use Windows 10 Home key on Windows 10 Pro. 

[DatBrummie]

2 minutes ago, DaPhuc said:

Windows Installation setup should give you a list of Windows 10 to choose because there are more than two Windows 10 series. You can't use Windows 10 Home key on Windows 10 Pro. 

 

It didn't give me an option, I ran the .exe and it did it's updating and stuff, then it asked me if I wanted to keep everything when I upgraded or do it fresh, I clicked keep. Then it said that I had chosen to keep everything, and upgrade to Pro, but I didn't choose that. I wondered if it was getting that from the fact that I have Windows 7 Ultimate or what. 

[GoodBytes]

7 minutes ago, DatBrummie said:

 

It didn't give me an option, I ran the .exe and it did it's updating and stuff, then it asked me if I wanted to keep everything when I upgraded or do it fresh, I clicked keep. Then it said that I had chosen to keep everything, and upgrade to Pro, but I didn't choose that. I wondered if it was getting that from the fact that I have Windows 7 Ultimate or what. 

That is because you did an upgrade.

A clean install involves booting from USB flash drive with Windows setup files (Microsoft's very own Media Creation Tool does this, and get you started with the latest version of Windows 10) or Windows disk/usb flash drive that comes with the purchased license.

 

You cannot downgrade an edition of Windows to another.

Here is the Upgrade paths chart:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/upgrade/windows-10-upgrade-paths

 

• Windows 7 Home can be upgraded to Windows 10 Home or Pro
• Windows 7 Pro can be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro only
• Windows 7 Ultimate can be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro only

If you want to downgrade an edition, for example: Windows 7 Pro down to Windows 10 Home, you'll need to clean install.

[DatBrummie]

5 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

That is because you did an upgrade.

A clean install involves booting from USB flash drive with Windows setup files (Microsoft's very own Media Creation Tool does this, and get you started with the latest version of Windows 10) or Windows disk/usb flash drive that comes with the purchased license.

 

You cannot downgrade an edition of Windows to another.

Here is the Upgrade paths chart:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/upgrade/windows-10-upgrade-paths

 

• Windows 7 Home can be upgraded to Windows 10 Home or Pro
• Windows 7 Pro can be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro only
• Windows 7 Ultimate can be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro only

 

Well that's annoying. Thank you.

 

So my best bet would be to put anything that I want to save, pictures, documents etc, on to my D drive. Then boot from the USB and install Windows normally on to the C drive?

If I do that, do you know what happens to the Steam games that I already have installed on the D and E drive? Would I be able to install Steam on to my C drive once I'm on Windows 10, then it somehow detect the games on the D and E drive and count them as installed? Or do I need to uninstall them through Steam before starting the process?

[LogicalDrm]

16 hours ago, DatBrummie said:

 

Well that's annoying. Thank you.

 

So my best bet would be to put anything that I want to save, pictures, documents etc, on to my D drive. Then boot from the USB and install Windows normally on to the C drive?

If I do that, do you know what happens to the Steam games that I already have installed on the D and E drive? Would I be able to install Steam on to my C drive once I'm on Windows 10, then it somehow detect the games on the D and E drive and count them as installed? Or do I need to uninstall them through Steam before starting the process?

Windows install only effects to drive you choose to install to. You can format and partition other drives within installer if you wish. Or you can disconnect drives dur8ing install to prevent any misclicks from happening. If Windows detects existing install on the drive you have selected (eg. you didn't format drive), it asks if you want to keep old files. They will be moved to windows.old folder.

 

You can get all Steam and Origin games you already have by just installing client software (also GOG and Blizzard games, I have no experience from Uplay). With most software you can also paste settings and config files back in their places.