Installing Windows 8.1: upgrading from Windows 7; what is the best way?

[kiddingguy]

I am planning of upgrading my main (gaming) rig to Windows 8.1.

I currently have Windows 7 installed and I am not so keen as to reinstall everything I have installed.

 

So my question is: can, without (decent) performance loss, Windows 7 be upgraded to Windows 8.1 (via Windows 8, since I would like to keep all my files, personal settings etc)?

Or is a clean install - and thus reinstall of all my software and games - (still) preferable?

[Roger H. Veteran]

Generally you will have to. Windows as of lately always moves Windows installations to Windows.OLD and then install a fresh one. You can backup settings and such but it's best to start from fresh IMO.

[kiddingguy]

Generally you will have to. Windows as of lately always moves Windows installations to Windows.OLD and then install a fresh one. You can backup settings and such but it's best to start from fresh IMO.

 

I know the latter is/should be best, but like I said... I don't feel the urge to install everything again...

[George P Global Moderator]

Well, if you don't want to lose apps and go to 8.1 then the best, only, way to do it form 7 is to first upgrade to 8 and then from 8 upgrade again to 8.1.  This should keep all your apps with it, otherwise you'll be reinstalling things.

[kiddingguy]

Well, if you don't want to lose apps and go to 8.1 then the best, only, way to do it form 7 is to first upgrade to 8 and then from 8 upgrade again to 8.1.  This should keep all your apps with it, otherwise you'll be reinstalling things.

Exactly my kind of thinking ;)

[George P Global Moderator]

Even if you upgrade to Windows 8.1, the upgrade process will only migrate supported apps and that list is very limited. For example WinRAR, notepad++ and quite a few games are not migrated.

 

 

You sure?  I just upgraded from 8 to 8.1 through the store and my WinRAR works fine.

[demon_speed]

Upgrade is the worst thing you can do.. I recommend doing a fresh install :). that's what I always have done! Just save the files and stuff you wanna save to a usb or cd and then do the fresh install. 

[George P Global Moderator]

I've upgraded this desktop from 7 to 8 and now to 8.1 and haven't had a problem.  Upgrades aren't the same as they used to be back in the Windows 9x and up till Vista really.   While going from 8 to 8.1 is a "upgrade" the OS itself is installed just as a clean install would be, then your data/apps are migrated back over so you don't have to reinstall them.  It's still a clean image install which is why since Windows 7 the install/upgrade process has been cut down from the hours it used to take to 20mins or less.  Of course depending on how much data/apps you have that need to be moved back over it adds to the time.

 

The old thinking that you have to do a clean install for everything just doesn't hold true anymore, not in my experience. 

[ryoohki]

I did an upgrade from 7 to 8, it will scan your system and tell you whart is not compatible and what to un install before upgrading. I did that and none of my software was in trouble so i proceed with the upgrade. Worked great, no problem to report, i just did the 8.1 update yesterday but didn't had a chance to really test it yet