Need to Migrate from Windows 10 Pro to Windows 11 Pro: Scared!

Tweakit · May 13, 2025

I won't be able to procrastinate moving from Win10 Pro to Win11 Pro much longer. My hardware is good for Eleven, but I have lots of Software on my system and that includes probably a half dozen really old utilities and special purpose programs. They work fine on Windows Ten even though they predate it by a long time. I had no succuss upgrading from Windows 7 to 10 and had to do a clean install. I dread a clean install since it will take so long to re-load all programs and get everything back where it is now.
Will an upgrade from 10 to 11 be just as risky as from 7 to 10 or has the upgrade process gotten more reliable? Am I right to be afraid of this upgrade? Is there any new way of doing this or are the choices still a risky upgrade, or a clean install and reload all programs??

XxXxX · May 13, 2025

all upgrades carry a risk.
make sure you have everything backed up before you attempt the upgrade.

there are several ways to upgrade.
windows update
rufus USB drive
upgrading in safe mode

best of luck, Steve ..

FreeBooter · May 13, 2025

You can always downgrade back to Windows 10 within 10 days after upgrade to Windows 11.

PenPusher · May 13, 2025

Get a Windows 11 23h2 iso first and upgrade with that. As 24h2 can be a bit funny about some drivers from third party apps.
It should give you a run down of apps it doesn’t like. Or/and check install logs.
As noted here by many users of this forum... make a backup of your working hard disk. e.g. Macrium Reflect free, there are others.
Also post a complete picture of "Disk Management" showing your current disk layout!!

Sheikh · May 13, 2025

Tweakit said:
I won't be able to procrastinate moving from Win10 Pro to Win11 Pro much longer. My hardware is good for Eleven, but I have lots of Software on my system and that includes probably a half dozen really old utilities and special purpose programs. They work fine on Windows Ten even though they predate it by a long time. I had no succuss upgrading from Windows 7 to 10 and had to do a clean install. I dread a clean install since it will take so long to re-load all programs and get everything back where it is now.
Will an upgrade from 10 to 11 be just as risky as from 7 to 10 or has the upgrade process gotten more reliable? Am I right to be afraid of this upgrade? Is there any new way of doing this or are the choices still a risky upgrade, or a clean install and reload all programs??

After centuries of dealing with old and new PCs in my office, I recommend you back up everything and then clean install the latest stable version of Windows 11 from your bootable USB drive. after this, download the latest version of your drivers from your manufacturer website (support page) and install them. Then you can download and install the latest version of your apps which are better than the old ones and are compatible with Win11 24H2.
Don't be afraid of updating your OS and apps!

timbobit · May 13, 2025

Investigate program transfer software. One I have used in Zinstall. It is a little pricy but gets the job done

gunrunnerjohn · May 13, 2025

I would also strongly recommend a clean install of the new version and then install the applications you use. Not only do you get rid of all the bloat of stuff you've stopped using, but you don't have the baggage of the old system and little gremlins that are lurking in the shadows.

DLEWIS · May 13, 2025

Use Macrium Reflect to save a disc image to a USB hard drive. Do an in-place upgrade to Win 11. I recently moved 5 business PCs at my shop and my laptop to Win 11 and all programs are fine. But should you not be so lucky have Macrium Reflect restore your drive C and go to a plan B. For those that say you should do a clean install to leave problems behind I say I have a couple shop PCs that have had hardware and Win version upgrades all the way way from Windows 7 without problems.

gunrunnerjohn · May 13, 2025

DLEWIS said:
For those that say you should do a clean install to leave problems behind I say I have a couple shop PCs that have had hardware and Win version upgrades all the way way from Windows 7 without problems.

OK, you're a sample of one, that doesn't by any stretch of the imagination portend what the greater user community will experience!

Megahertz · May 13, 2025

DLEWIS said:
Use Macrium Reflect to save a disc image to a USB hard drive. Do an in-place upgrade to Win 11. I recently moved 5 business PCs at my shop and my laptop to Win 11 and all programs are fine. But should you not be so lucky have Macrium Reflect restore your drive C and go to a plan B. For those that say you should do a clean install to leave problems behind I say I have a couple shop PCs that have had hardware and Win version upgrades all the way way from Windows 7 without problems.

There is nothing like a clean install and I totally agree with gunrunnerjohn
The easy way is to upgrade but it isn't the best to do.

kelper · May 13, 2025

If you have image backups with Hasleo or Macrium you can try several ways to upgrade and go back to your stable Windows 10 as often as you like.

Megahertz · May 13, 2025

Tweakit,

Is your computer the ASUS Prime B760M with the i5 13500?
If yes, it should be Win 11 compatible, unless you installed win 10 as Legacy - MBR (Win 11 default is UEFI - GPT).
If it's the case, you first need to convert the Legacy - MBR to UEFI - GPT (easy task using mbr2gpt.exe) and then WU will upgrade for you.

Please post a whole window Disk Manager image of ALL your drives. Don't forget to expand the columns so we can read them. How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management
If you have a MiniTool or AOMEI Partition use it instead or Windows disk manager.

Catnip · May 13, 2025

Tweakit said:
Am I right to be afraid of this upgrade? Is there any new way of doing this or are the choices still a risky upgrade, or a clean install and reload all programs??

There is nothing to be afraid of. Any upgrade incurs risk, but you can mitigate it with a good backup strategy.

I am in the fresh install camp as well. There's nothing like a Windows PC running with a nice clean install. Faster and with less problems, in my own experience. Win 11 is not the devil that some make it out to be. IMHO, it is a good, robust OS. It needs a few fixes, but they are getting to it.

Tweakit · May 13, 2025

Thanks for the many great responses! I'm attaching the disk information from both Mini Tool Partition Wizzard and Windows Disk Management. The 931.5GB disk is where the OS is installed, and all my programs are installed. That disk is NVMe and GPT. Other disks are used for data and backup only. No need to make any changes to other disks.

Tweakit · May 13, 2025

There are a few things that occur to me.

I could uninstall the half dozen or so legacy programs I have, do the upgrade and reinstall them. Any idea if this would decrease the risk? The non-legacy programs are things everyone is familiar with like browsers and Microsoft products.
When I migrated from Win7 to Win10, I kept the Win7 installation in place on its original drive. I clean installed onto a new drive specifically for Win 10 (at that time is was not NVMe type drive). I then could choose what drive to boot from. I may have had to unplug the unused drive, I can remember now. So at my leisure, I installed everything I wanted on Win 10. The process probably took a few months to complete. Before completion I could boot to the Win 7 drive whenever I needed to access some app that wasn’t yet on the Win 10 drive. Once Win 10 was completed I got rid of the Win 7 drive. I did not find that process to be painful at all. I’m not sure if booting from two NVMe drives (one at a time) is possible on this mobo. I could always remove one and replace with the other but that’s too much trouble and over time something might break after many RR operations.

Bree · May 13, 2025

Tweakit said:
I won't be able to procrastinate moving from Win10 Pro to Win11 Pro much longer. My hardware is good for Eleven, but I have lots of Software on my system and that includes probably a half dozen really old utilities and special purpose programs.....

.....Will an upgrade from 10 to 11 be just as risky as from 7 to 10 or has the upgrade process gotten more reliable? Am I right to be afraid of this upgrade? Is there any new way of doing this or are the choices still a risky upgrade, or a clean install and reload all programs??

Less risky, the kernel of Windows 11 is for the most part the same as for Windows 10. I had no problem with my software, and some of mine is pretty old too, for example....

Jasc Paint Shop Pro Version 7.04 ©1991-2000 Jasc Software, Inc.

Megahertz · May 13, 2025

Tweakit said:
Thanks for the many great responses! I'm attaching the disk information from both Mini Tool Partition Wizzard and Windows Disk Management. The 931.5GB disk is where the OS is installed, and all my programs are installed. That disk is NVMe and GPT. Other disks are used for data and backup only. No need to make any changes to other disks.
View attachment 133994

Your drive already is UEFI-GPT. Itseams to have everything to be officially candidate to Win 11
The question is: Why WU didn't offer you to upgrade to win 11?
Maybe TPM isn't enabled on BIOS.
Please download and run WhyNotWin11.exe to see what is blocking your natural upgrade

Tweakit · May 13, 2025

Megahertz said:
Your drive already is UEFI-GPT. Itseams to have everything to be officially candidate to Win 11
The question is: Why WU didn't offer you to upgrade to win 11?
Maybe TPM isn't enabled on BIOS.
Please download and run WhyNotWin11.exe to see what is blocking your natural upgrade

WU has been trying to get me to update, and I've asked it to stop reminding me since I've been procrastinating the upgrade. Is turning it over to WU one of the safer ways of doing the upgrade? Some folks have been advising against upgrading to 24H2 and instead upgrading to 23H2 using some other methods like media creation tool on bootable thumb.

Megahertz · May 13, 2025

You can use the In place upgrade using an Win 11 iso file (23h2 or 24h2). You mount the iso and on the virtual DVD you run setup.exe and it will upgrade.

Upgrade to Windows 11

This tutorial will show you step by step on how to use an ISO or USB to manually upgrade to Windows 11 from Windows 11 (older build/version), Windows 10, Windows 8.1, or Windows 7. Windows 11 has all the power and security of Windows 10 with a redesigned and refreshed look. It also comes with...

www.elevenforum.com

I have an unsupported hardware so I am still on Win 11 23h2 as I read that some of us had some issues but most of us didn't have any problem.

Tweakit · May 13, 2025

That's a pretty straight forwards way of doing things. I may just give that a shot. Of course I'll make a Macrum backup first, maybe two!
The ISO is gotten using the media creation tool, Right??

Need to Migrate from Windows 10 Pro to Windows 11 Pro: Scared!

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