Non-destructive reinstall of Win11

Flowers · Mar 16, 2024

Hello,
Non-destructive reinstall of Win11.
Are there any for my Win11 v.23H2?
Any help will be much appreciated.
Regards,
Flowers

Bree · Mar 16, 2024

Flowers said:
Non-destructive reinstall of Win11.
Are there any for my Win11 v.23H2?

By 'non-destructive' I assume you mean you want to keep all your installed software and user files.
That would be an in-place repair upgrade. For 23H2 you need to use Option Two.

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

Django · Mar 16, 2024

like i do.

1. put stuff u want to keep on USB
2. download .iso
3. make bootable USB with rufus
4. install fresh
5. insert USB and copy stuff back
6. Done

JAM83 · Mar 16, 2024

Django said:
like i do.

1. put stuff u want to keep on USB
2. download .iso
3. make bootable USB with rufus
4. install fresh
5. insert USB and copy stuff back
6. Done

Yeah this is what I always do. I don't waste my time with a "repair"

Django · Mar 16, 2024

yea noo "repair", no "upgrade", no "keep stuff", just fresh install

Bree · Mar 16, 2024

JAM83 said:
Yeah this is what I always do. I don't waste my time with a "repair"

Swings and roundabouts. A clean install may be a little faster than an in-place upgrade, but how much time do you waste reinstalling all your software? (assuming you remembered to save all the licence keys. that is).

Ghot · Mar 16, 2024

@Flowers

Do the In-Place Upgrade. It's the best thing Microsoft ever came up with. ^^
It's also the only non-destructive solution, MS offers.

An In-Place Upgrade "compares" what is installed on the computer, with the Windows ISO image.
Then, it overwrites any corrupted Windows files, with clean copies from the ISO image.
This is how it "repairs" Windows while allowing you to keep your programs and personal files.

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

Here is the short version of the In-place upgrade tutorial...

DISABLE non-Microsoft:
a) antivirus software
b) firewall software
c) drive encryption software

Make a full OS backup with a program like Macrium Reflect or AOMEI Backupper Standard
Making a backup is optional, but always a smart move.
Macrium Reflect
AOMEI Backupper Standard (free)

Get the Windows 11 ISO (Option #2), and save it to your desktop...

Right click the ISO image and choose: MOUNT
Open File Explorer and you will see a new drive letter. It will "look" like a DVD optical drive.
Double click the new drive letter to open it.
Find setup.exe and double click it to start the in-place upgrade.

Choose the Keep personal files and apps option.

After it's all done... to UNmount the ISO image, right click the new drive letter and choose: EJECT.

The ONLY thing you will lose is some of your personalizations.
Your drivers, programs and data will be intact.

An In-Place Upgrade will NOT fix 3rd party programs or drivers issues. It WILL fix all Windows issues.

==============================================================================

Once you get everything fixed... start using backup software.

Macrium Reflect, AOMEI Backupper and Hasleo Backup Suite - GUIDES

How to use backup software... 1. When everything is working perfectly... make a full Windows backup. 2. Then, if something breaks... restore from the latest backup. 3. Then... try "whatever you were doing" a different way. If it still breaks Windows, then... go to step #2. 4. Repeat...

www.elevenforum.com

ian50 · Mar 17, 2024

It's the best thing Microsoft ever came up with. [Ghot, above]

Agreed. My simple addition to this is to use the Winaero Tweak export/import facility by exporting any tweaks to an ini file before the Inplace Upgrade and then importing them back after the Upgrade.

The only exception to this, and an annoying one, is that customised font styles for menus, file lists etc are lost. These have to be re-installed one by one after the Upgrade because, as the Winaero Tweak author says, MS has refused to include preservation of font style customisation in the Upgrade scheme so Tweak then has no base to use.

glasskuter · Mar 17, 2024

To the naysayers saying jump right to a clean install without troubleshooting where the problem lies, that's just asinine.
Rule of thumb is if one has problems in windows and can boot into the OS, a repair install usually fixes problems in windows itself and saves the user a ton of work.

Like @Ghot said, An In-Place Upgrade will NOT fix 3rd party programs or drivers issues. It will NOT fix problems due to a corrupt user account either. It WILL fix all Windows issues. It easy to prove whether it's a user account problem or not by creating another local user account or temporarily activating the hidden administrator account. If the problem doesn't exist using another account, you have an account problem.

Likewise, you can prove whether or not a 3rd party app is the problem by using clean boot. Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 11 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts Tutorial
You can run safe boot to eliminate a 3rd party driver problem.

ian50 · Mar 17, 2024

The Inplace Repair (or Upgrade) is easily the best aspect of Win 11 - as Ghot has said. All programmes, files etc remain untouched while the O/S is repaired or upgraded.

As I've just commented though, despite the MS claim that all settings are retained, those customised font choice settings are not, although the choices were made from existing MS font libraries, not some 3rd party supply.. The repair/upgrade process just overwrites these previous choices with the standard default Windows. Note that the actual font libraries remain untouched but choosing them needs to be repeated. Using Winaero Tweak is so far the most efficient method I've found for this, and takes me perhaps 5-10 minutes now. Tweak does not supply font libraries but makes re-choosing from existing libraries easier.

[It seems an occasional characteristic of these websites is for some comment to be misread and then straw manned. ... c'est la vie].

Flowers · Mar 17, 2024

Bree said:
By 'non-destructive' I assume you mean you want to keep all your installed software and user files.
That would be an in-place repair upgrade. For 23H2 you need to use Option Two.

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

Flowers · Mar 17, 2024

Hi Bree,
Thanks for your help.
By the time of Win7, it was called "non-destructive reinstall", but I agree that "in-place repair upgrade" is more appropriate.
Will look the tutorial you mentioned.
Regards,
Flowers

Flowers · Mar 17, 2024

Django said:
like i do.

1. put stuff u want to keep on USB
2. download .iso
3. make bootable USB with rufus
4. install fresh
5. insert USB and copy stuff back
6. Done

Hello Django,
Thanks for helping.
It seems easy.
What a coincidence!
While reading these posts I was listening to one of my traditional jazz playlists which includes several Django Reinhardt plays.
Cheers,
Flowers

Flowers · Mar 17, 2024

Ghot said:
An In-Place Upgrade will NOT fix 3rd party programs or drivers issues. It WILL fix all Windows issues.

Ghot, thanks for helping.
I believe a defective Win11 is my problem!
Best regards,
Flowers

JAM83 · Mar 17, 2024

Bree said:
Swings and roundabouts. A clean install may be a little faster than an in-place upgrade, but how much time do you waste reinstalling all your software? (assuming you remembered to save all the licence keys. that is).

It's not a waste of time for me. I do it because I take no chance on anything getting corrupted, etc.

Flowers · Mar 18, 2024

Hello folks,

Thanks to you all for the help you gave me.
Now I feel confident on how to achieve the "in-place repair upgrade".

Cheers,
Flowers

bobkn · Mar 18, 2024

Flowers said:
Hello folks,

Thanks to you all for the help you gave me.
Now I feel confident on how to achieve the "in-place repair upgrade".

Cheers,
Flowers

Please let us know how it works out for you.