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

I'd also have an image backup before starting this upgrade in case it doesn't go well.

Did the upgrade to Win11 but may have an issue. After the upgrade was completed, I ran WU and several updates were installed. One update failed to install. The screenshot below shows the Warning received in the Reliability Monitor. The failed update is not seen in the in the Windows Update History and when I check for updates, WU says I’m “up to date.”

What’s going on here?

Tweakit said:

The screenshot below shows the Warning received in the Reliability Monitor. The failed update is not seen in the in the Windows Update History and when I check for updates, WU says I’m “up to date.”

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That's because it's not a Windows update, it's a Store update.

Bree said:

That's because it's not a Windows update, it's a Store update.

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Thanks for this information. I followed the instructions of the link and Windows Web Experience Pack shows up as installed, last updated 5/5/2025. Installed version 525.10401.30.0 and modified today. I don't see an opportunity to update displayed. Seems like I should be okay so I'm not sure why I got the warning seen in my last post above. Comment on that if you can. It looks like the upgrade is working well!

For those who may be interested in how I chose to do this upgrade:

• First, I ran Windows Update on my Win 10 system to make sure it was fully current.
• I made a Macrium Free image of my Win 10 OS drive and a Macrium Rescue Disk. I verified I could boot on the rescue disk and see the image I had made. This was for insurance.
• I used the Microsoft Media Creation Tool to make an iso file for Win 11.
• I ran DISM and SFC as recommended by glasskuter earlier.
• I disconnected all other drives from the system so that only the drive containing the Win 10 OS to be upgraded, was connected at the time of the upgrade.
• I booted on my Win 10 system, mounted the Win 11 iso file as a virtual disk and clicked setup.exe. I opted to not let setup download drivers and updates during the upgrade. I ran Windows Update after the upgrade to Windows 11. I had to do this a few times before WU came back saying I’m Up to Date.
• All went very smoothly with all of my apps in place and working fine on Windows 11.
• I pleasantly noticed that some minor annoyances I was having with Windows 10 simply disappeared after the upgrade. For example, Microsoft photos would usually launch behind other open windows rather then on top as expected. This may have happened periodically with some other apps as well but not since the upgrade. Excel would also hesitate by 5-secs or so when opening a new file, when an existing file was already opened. That along with one or two other delays are no longer happening after the upgrade. Accordingly, it seems the upgrade fixed some minor issues rather than creating some issues.

Thanks for the suggestions and help!

Just giving my two cents.

What I can tell OP is that in terms of legacy software compatibility, even very old software from Windows XP and Windows 9x days, Windows 11 24H2 is pretty good. Better than I expected, basically on the same level as Windows 10 22H2.

I'm talking only app software here, though. I haven't tested games. Also don't know about drivers compatibility since I only used 11 in VMs so far.

Also, OP seem to be planning to do an in-place update, in that case I don't know what issues might come up. The last times I did in-place updates have been when I upgraded from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95, and from a fresh install of Windows 95 to Windows 98SE. These were traumatic experiences. Since then Windows version migrations always meant a reformat and fresh install for me.

Glad to hear that all went well.

arrowflash said:

OP seem to be planning to do an in-place update, in that case I don't know what issues might come up. The last times I did in-place updates have been when I upgraded from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95, and from a fresh install of Windows 95 to Windows 98SE. These were traumatic experiences. Since then Windows version migrations always meant a reformat and fresh install for me.

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It's far less traumatic these days. My System One has an OS that upgraded from Win7 to Win10, took every W10 upgrade until it was migrated to a new machine to get Win11 21H2, then all the W11 upgrades up to 24H2. My System One's upgrade history goes back a very long way.

arrowflash said:

Just giving my two cents.

What I can tell OP is that in terms of legacy software compatibility, even very old software from Windows XP and Windows 9x days, Windows 11 24H2 is pretty good. Better than I expected, basically on the same level as Windows 10 22H2.

I'm talking only app software here, though. I haven't tested games. Also don't know about drivers compatibility since I only used 11 in VMs so far.

Also, OP seem to be planning to do an in-place update, in that case I don't know what issues might come up. The last times I did in-place updates have been when I upgraded from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95, and from a fresh install of Windows 95 to Windows 98SE. These were traumatic experiences. Since then Windows version migrations always meant a reformat and fresh install for me.

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There are no guarantees, but often Win10 can be upgraded to Win11 smoothly.

IMHO, it's wise to do the preparations for a clean install, just in case. That involves gathering files and installers to bring a clean install back up to what Windows was like before.

Personally, I vastly prefer a clean install over an upgrade. Yes, I know it's potentially considerably more work, however the return on the investment can be major.

You doubtless have tons of things that have gotten installed over the years that you no longer use if you're the typical user. Also, things like the registry get larger and larger as the years go by, and it never shrinks by itself. With a clean install, the registry is back to the clean install size, that also will help performance, even if it's in a small way.

After I left all the unused applications behind in the change from Win10 to Win11 a couple months ago, my boot drive used space went from over 250GB to currently 134GB. I suspect much of that was the no longer used applications and other bloat that gets left behind even when you do an uninstall, but the Windows folder also shrank in size from over 50GB to 36GB, don't know what all that bloat was from.

gunrunnerjohn said:

Personally, I vastly prefer a clean install over an upgrade. Yes, I know it's potentially considerably more work, however the return on the investment can be major.

You doubtless have tons of things that have gotten installed over the years that you no longer use if you're the typical user. Also, things like the registry get larger and larger as the years go by, and it never shrinks by itself. With a clean install, the registry is back to the clean install size, that also will help performance, even if it's in a small way.

After I left all the unused applications behind in the change from Win10 to Win11 a couple months ago, my boot drive used space went from over 250GB to currently 134GB. I suspect much of that was the no longer used applications and other bloat that gets left behind even when you do an uninstall, but the Windows folder also shrank in size from over 50GB to 36GB, don't know what all that bloat was from.

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I agree 100%

The history of my windows 10 installation from which I just upgraded as described in post #45, is as follows. Back in Feb 2016 I did a Win 10 clean install onto a WD Velociraptor HDD and a Gigabyte P55-USB3_v2.0 which I bought in 2010. Over time I loaded up all my software. In March, 2023 I migrated that Win 10 installation to the Samsung 980 Pro 1TB NVMe SSD and the Asus Prime B760M-A AX D4 Mobo. I did that migration manually using the method described by NavyLCDR in Tenforums here in his post #20. That migration went smoothly and that’s the hardware I’m using today. The original Win 10 install has been thru hardware and software changes including three video cards that I can remember, so I’m sure there is leftover driver fragments and other stuff on the system. That said, this upgrade proceeding smoothly and the system appears to be quite solid and even improved over the Win 10 install from which it originated as I described in post #45 above. If it could work better or faster than it is now, it’s beyond my ability to perceive. The nice thing about having upgraded, aside from the obvious time and effort saved, is that I can always do a clean install should I find a reason to do so later on. Given the history of the Win 10 installation from which I upgraded, I can only imagine that the upgrade process has improved over the years, or maybe I just got lucky! Of course, as Bree mentioned in post #16, the two kernels are very similar, so maybe that played a role also (I’d like to know what a “kernel” is). I should point out that back in Feb of 2016, I tried to upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10 on the Velociraptor/Gigabyte P55 platform. I had no success getting that to work right, so I had to go the clean install route.

@Tweakit The Windows 11 kernel is the core part of the operating system that manages system resources, hardware interactions, and process execution. It provides essential services like memory management, process scheduling, and security enforcement, ensuring efficient performance and stability. The kernel enables communication between hardware and software, acting as a bridge for seamless operation.

I usually prefer a clean install, but on one machine it was problematic and didn't go right until I a) clean installed windows 10, then b) upgraded to Windows 11.

Tweakit said:

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??

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Heck, if you have a macrium backup image, why not shoot for the moon and just let windows update do all the work for you.

OOOPS ...didn't realize you'd already done the upgrade! Sorry.

But I'm happy the upgrade went smoothly.

I know many on this thread have recommend and clean install of Win11 followed by an install of all your programs. But I have around 50 installed programs, and getting their customizations correct after installing on as clean system is an absolute nightmare. I go with those that say do a backup and then an upgrade in place. If it works, fine. If it doesn't you can restore ant then go the clean install route. Yes, you'll still have all the old garbage you had in your Win10 system, but you'll probably also have working installed programs.