Help moving win 10 to new win 11 computer

johnlgalt · Feb 23, 2023

I generally don't like major OS version upgrades either. I did take the original Windows 11 Beta upgrade directly from stable Windows 10, but since then I've only ever cleanly installed and copied over needed data.

Across all devices I've used, I've found more problems and idiosyncrasies on devices that had a major OS upgrade than went away after clean installing than not.

spapakons · Mar 11, 2023

Haydon said:
That may be a message to forum users, but ... 99.9% of the masses out there will ask 'bypass what?' 'what is compatility check? etc

My previous message was about the masses come EOL of W10.

That is discussed in the appropriate thread: Let's install Windows 11 on incompatible hardware See last posts for 22H2 version. To save you the trouble, all tricks of 21H2 work, but you must also stay disconnected from the internet for a successful upgrade.

spapakons · Mar 11, 2023

jesseinsf said:
This way is not as reliable. Upgrading is supposed to make people's lives easier, but it made many people's lives miserable.

If the new hardware is too much different from the old hardware (such as Intel to AMD or vice versa), then the chances of something going wrong or even a BSOD are more, but you can try that and then go to a clean installation. If done correctly, then upgrading is much faster because you only have to update the drivers for the new computer, not reinstall everything. I always try to upgrade first and then do a clean installation. The exception is when the old computer has only a couple of applications (such as Office and Chrome) and isn't worth the extra time it takes to upgrade over a clean installation (without installing any apps). In that case, I install Windows on the same partition without modifying the disk. The old installation goes at Windows.old folder where I can copy all the data I need, so I save the time it would take to backup the data.

cereberus · Mar 11, 2023

jesseinsf said:
This way is not as reliable. Upgrading is supposed to make people's lives easier, but it made many people's lives miserable.

For crying out loud, it might have made a teeny weeny number of peoples live a misery, but vast majority get no issues.

The nuke it on high and clean install creates issues as well as the standard MS iso often does not have suitable drivers for new devices.

To me a clean install is the LAST THING to try.

spapakons said:
If the new hardware is too much different from the old hardware (such as Intel to AMD or vice versa), then the chances of something going wrong or even a BSOD are more, but you can try that and then go to a clean installation. If done correctly, then upgrading is much faster because you only have to update the drivers for the new computer, not reinstall everything. I always try to upgrade first and then do a clean installation. The exception is when the old computer has only a couple of applications (such as Office and Chrome) and isn't worth the extra time it takes to upgrade over a clean installation (without installing any apps). In that case, I install Windows on the same partition without modifying the disk. The old installation goes at Windows.old folder where I can copy all the data I need, so I save the time it would take to backup the data.

Totally agree.

There is very reliable way to transfer OS+progs etc. from one pc to a completely different pc.

1) create custom install.wim of installation on old pc.
2) download drivers required from new pc. Rather than download.ing drivers for new pc, it is often easier to clean install first on new pc and export the drivers
3) inject drivers into install.wim and possibly boot.wim (irst drivers if using nvme)
4) replace boot.wim and install.wim on standard usb installation drive with custom .wims
5) install on new pc

There are excellent tutorials on all these steps in www.tenforums.com (especially custom install.wim step by our resident guru @Kari)

I have done this several times now and it works every time.

My latest laptop is Intel, nvme, Intel graphics etc.
I migrated from a loptop with completely different hardware i.e. AMD, Sata SSD, Radeon Graphics,
Sound and wifi was also different

I find this method even more reliable than Macrium Redeploy which only really considers key drivers. With this method, if you export drivers from a clean install on new pc, you hardly need to update any drivers afterwards in device manager.

The lengthiest step is creating the custom install.wim which can take 15 mins to over 2 hours depending on number of apps, hardware etc.. The rest takes minutes.

Haydon · Mar 11, 2023

spapakons said:
That is discussed in the appropriate thread: Let's install Windows 11 on incompatible hardware See last posts for 22H2 version. To save you the trouble, all tricks of 21H2 work, but you must also stay disconnected from the internet for a successful upgrade.

That's still a message to forum users, but not to the masses, it won't help them at all come EOL of W10.

spapakons · Mar 11, 2023

EOL of Windows 10 is not the end of the world! It just means no more security updates or new feature support. If you have an updated antivirus and be careful what you click on when online, you should not have any issues. That is as long as there are applications for your everyday usage. It will be much longer than 2025 when Windows 10 will be at the stage you cannot use it. See Windows XP and Vista. You can still use them for office work but you have trouble browsing modern web sites (even with last XP compatible version of Chrome or Firefox) and using Netflix and other apps. I estimate you can use Windows 10 at least up to 2030 before they become unusable like XP or Vista. Until then you will probably also have replaced your computer and won't care.

cereberus · Mar 11, 2023

spapakons said:
EOL of Windows 10 is not the end of the world! It just means no more security updates or new feature support. If you have an updated antivirus and be careful what you click on when online, you should not have any issues. That is as long as there are applications for your everyday usage. It will be much longer than 2025 when Windows 10 will be at the stage you cannot use it. See Windows XP and Vista. You can still use them for office work but you have trouble browsing modern web sites (even with last XP compatible version of Chrome or Firefox) and using Netflix and other apps. I estimate you can use Windows 10 at least up to 2030 before they become unusable like XP or Vista. Until then you will probably also have replaced your computer and won't care.

Security is more than just an anti-virus.

You should say "in my opinion - you should not have issues" as it is opinion, not fact.

In my opinion, hackers are cleverer than the average person. If they can find a loophole, they will exploit it, knowing it will not get fixed.

MS have a big public relations problem after W10 EOL as there will literally be millions of devices not suitable of W11 upgrade, so regrettably users will continue to use these with increased risk.

jesseinsf · Mar 11, 2023

cereberus said:
For crying out loud, it might have made a teeny weeny number of peoples live a misery, but vast majority get no issues.

The nuke it on high and clean install creates issues as well as the standard MS iso often does not have suitable drivers for new devices.

To me a clean install is the LAST THING to try.

I've been installing Windows and upgrading Windows since 1995 and one thing I do is I pay close attention to details when clean installing and upgrading. I've experienced (1) minor negatives being revealed after the upgrade (2) to a buggy upgraded OS (3) to an OS error during installation where number 2 and 3 being the most common. The only time I got number 1 to happen was when I fresh installed the previous OS and immediately installed the newly upgraded OS. The problem is most people don't notice the bugs as those bugs are not interfering with what they use their PC for. However, later on down the line they will experience an issue when installing (for example) a graphics card driver and think the issue was the GPU manufacturer's problem when in fact the upgrade caused this. This usually happens between 5% to 50% of the time (depending on how long they were using their PC before upgrading). Look, the problem is, with all the PCs in this world, there are millions (if not billions) of different configurations of hardware and software that can contribute to a buggy upgrade (let alone the countless Windows updates being installed in the prior OS).

At all the jobs I worked at, we had so much more support issues when upgrading vs when clean installing. This is a fact that most of you guys do not like to admit too.

johnlgalt · Mar 12, 2023

jesseinsf said:
I've been installing Windows and upgrading Windows since 1995 and one thing I do is I pay close attention to details when clean installing and upgrading. I've experienced (1) minor negatives being revealed after the upgrade (2) to a buggy upgraded OS (3) to an OS error during installation where number 2 and 3 being the most common. The only time I got number 1 to happen was when I fresh installed the previous OS and immediately installed the newly upgraded OS. The problem is most people don't notice the bugs as those bugs are not interfering with what they use their PC for. However, later on down the line they will experience an issue when installing (for example) a graphics card driver and think the issue was the GPU manufacturer's problem when in fact the upgrade caused this. This usually happens between 5% to 50% of the time (depending on how long they were using their PC before upgrading). Look, the problem is, with all the PCs in this world, there are millions (if not billions) of different configurations of hardware and software that can contribute to a buggy upgrade (let alone the countless Windows updates being installed in the prior OS).

At all the jobs I worked at, we had so much more support issues when upgrading vs when clean installing. This is a fact that most of you guys do not like to admit too.

I've said almost the exact same thing in either 7F or 10F at one point or another. I just prefer clean installs. Definitely are tricks out there to make it a lot easier to do - but at the end of the day, a clean install eliminates at the very least the potential for a buggy upgrade. You and I, sir, clearly see eye to eye.

Scannerman · Mar 12, 2023

Clean install eliminates a lot of variables when troubleshooting hardware. Can also free up space on the drive and gives the user a fresh start. It can also be considerable work if the user is accustomed to having many programs on their PC and desires that it be set up a certain way. So much of this is determined by user preference. Upgrades usually fail me and I shouldn't be surprised because nothing about my systems are simple. (Unless it's my laptop.) A fresh install can generate other set backs as well. All those various programs and aps don't always return so easily via Windows File History and how often does the Old School Win 7 system image actually work? So it really is about user preference in the end. That said I've had so many upgrades crash and burn on me that I tend to err on the side of caution and simply do a fresh install. This also seems to be Microsoft's official policy also. Every time I call them for help they always recommend this to me so I don't ask them for help anymore because you don't have to call Microsoft to give up on fixing a PC and just reinstall the operating system.