Installing Windows 10 - Upgrade vs Clean Install


Recommended Posts

I have 5 systems I am planning to upgrade to Windows 10, they are Windows 7 and 8 based systems.

I have a few questions about doing a clean install vs an upgrade install.

First of all, is it even possible to do a clean install with that free Win10 offer? Is there any way you can boot into the Win10 installer, then it can check if you already have 7 or 8 installed, then allow you to format the drive and install fresh? I prefer clean installs to upgrade installs in most cases.

One of the systems however due to many apps and settings I have configured on it, I would prefer to do an upgrade install, and I have some questions about that too. First of all, this may be incorrect information, but I was told that it only keeps some of your settings such as your drivers if you choose NOT to keep personal information. That doesn't sound right... So anyway, what does and doesn't it keep? I wanted to do an upgrade install for this system because of all the settings I wanted to keep, will all my apps still be there?

Speaking of which, this system also runs off a SSD, so space is a concern. How large is the Windows.old folder it creates? Can you remove it? I am planning to image the drive before I upgrade to 10 so I can always image it back to 7 anyway, I don't need a downgrade option.

And finally, speaking of drivers. I have a VERY old printer that I do NOT want to replace, by some miracle, the XP64 drivers (the latest OS it had drivers written for) work fine in Vista and 7, they gave me no trouble. (Not sure about 8 as I never installed that printer on a 8 system) but when I tried it on a Win10 system, it complained that the drivers weren't signed. I have run into this annoying signed drivers issue before, but if neither Vita64 or 7 64 complained about them, why would 10? Would it refuse to use my printer if I do an upgrade install to 10?

You can do a clean install, but you must first do the upgrade so that it can verify you have an eligible license. After you have upgraded and activated you can then format the drive and do a clean install. When it asks for a key during the clean install just choose to skip it; your license information is stored online and it will recognize your computer and activate automatically. When upgrading all of your settings and personal files will be saved. The Windows.old folder should be the size of your current Windows installation. You can use disk cleanup to remove it.

As for unsigned drivers this page will tell you how to use them: How to disable driver signature verification

Edited by Thrackerzod

I have 5 systems I am planning to upgrade to Windows 10, they are Windows 7 and 8 based systems.

I have a few questions about doing a clean install vs an upgrade install.

First of all, is it even possible to do a clean install with that free Win10 offer? Is there any way you can boot into the Win10 installer, then it can check if you already have 7 or 8 installed, then allow you to format the drive and install fresh? I prefer clean installs to upgrade installs in most cases.

One of the systems however due to many apps and settings I have configured on it, I would prefer to do an upgrade install, and I have some questions about that too. First of all, this may be incorrect information, but I was told that it only keeps some of your settings such as your drivers if you choose NOT to keep personal information. That doesn't sound right... So anyway, what does and doesn't it keep? I wanted to do an upgrade install for this system because of all the settings I wanted to keep, will all my apps still be there?

Speaking of which, this system also runs off a SSD, so space is a concern. How large is the Windows.old folder it creates? Can you remove it? I am planning to image the drive before I upgrade to 10 so I can always image it back to 7 anyway, I don't need a downgrade option.

And finally, speaking of drivers. I have a VERY old printer that I do NOT want to replace, by some miracle, the XP64 drivers (the latest OS it had drivers written for) work fine in Vista and 7, they gave me no trouble. (Not sure about 8 as I never installed that printer on a 8 system) but when I tried it on a Win10 system, it complained that the drivers weren't signed. I have run into this annoying signed drivers issue before, but if neither Vita64 or 7 64 complained about them, why would 10? Would it refuse to use my printer if I do an upgrade install to 10?

I'm usually exactly the same as you, but i've done 5 inplace upgrades, one retaining all my files and apps (games box) and the rest i told do not keep files or apps, all with free upgrade. All apps and files on my gamesbox were retained and all work like they have just been installed post W10 (very impressed), the only aaddition i did was manually install the latest W10 Nvidia drivers.

All inplace upgrades went amazingly well and each machine feels very quick and slick, after install/licence activation, you can then do into disk tools/advanced and delete remaining OS files from previous build, very neat and cleanly. I forged ahead and used the Media creation toolkit, as none of my machine would install W10 despite being reserved.first one i did as an inplace upgrade, other machines i downloaded the kit and created bootable usb media for inplace upgrade, both methods worked perfectly. im at a loss why MS are still stating you may not get it for a week or so, errr use the media toolkit for instant access??

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

You can then tell W10 to factory reset the machine, which is a clean install, i didn't bother with any as they are performing superbly out of the box. 

re: xp 64 drivers, if they worked in 7 and 8, there is no reason why they wouldn't work in 10.

MS deserves credit for getting the inplace upgrade process so polished tbh, havnt found an issue yet with the process.

I have however had 1 laptop throw a wobble and present just a flashing black cursor, but i suspect its more the laptop than W10 setups fault.

Edited by Mando

As for unsigned drivers this page will tell you how to use them: How to disable driver signature verification

The problem with that is it re-enables it every boot. I know through console commands you can enable Test Mode... but that forces an annoying watermark to appear on your screen. Also from what I heard, you can't sign drivers yourself anymore in newer versions of windows can you?

You can then tell W10 to factory reset the machine, which is a clean install, i didn't bother with any as they are performing superbly out of the box. 

re: xp 64 drivers, if they worked in 7 and 8, there is no reason why they wouldn't work in 10.

I would rather avoid a "factory reset" as that's not a real clean install, do you know if the method Thrackerzod mentioned would work?

And I know, that's why it's confusing! I have Windows 7 64bit and the drivers installed fine, despite being made for XP64. But when I tried to install them on the beta of Windows 10 64bit I had on my VM, it said it refused to load the driver because it's not signed.

I did a Windows 10 upgrade on my Original Windows 8 RTM (upgraded to 8.1) Install. Running smooth as could be. I fracking Loath reinstalling Windows on this machine. Takes a while to set everything back up.

Yup I upgraded. I mounted the ISO in 8.1 and upgraded

I did a clean install (so I thought), but after Win10 was installed, I couldnt delete the windows.old folder. And it didnt appear in disk cleanup

So, I wiped the hdd completely. Started again. Then I couldn't activate it. Then I read online that you could use a generic key. So I did, then went to Go to store, and it activated

 

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • AMAZON needs to take total accountability for this.
    • Server Summit had a heap of announcements, ADCS changes are baller.
    • Nice, hope they *finally* fixed the issue with the NTFS driver where the system would completely brick during large file copies using the built in driver. It's been broken for years requiring me to use the older, slower, NTFS-3G FUSE driver.
    • Windows 11 KB5094126 BSODing, freezing, forcing BitLocker lockout, breaks OneDrive, and more by Sayan Sen Microsoft released Windows 11 KB5094126 and KB5093998 last week as the latest Patch Tuesday updates. Following that the company also published the accompanying dynamic updates under KB5094149, KB5095971, and KB5094156. While Microsoft has so far not acknowledged any major problems with the release, some users online are running into problems. These range from OneDrive and Dropbox access issues, BitLocker recovery lockouts, to blue screens and BSODs. The most common one seems to be happening with HP systems wherein affected users say they hit 0xc0430001 BSOD (blue screen of death) error code after the KB5094126 update. We wonder if this could be related to the recent bug we covered on HP devices wherein the ongoing Secure Boot certificate updates are leading to similar issues. While we are not certain, users affected by this issue likely need to ensure that the boot.stl file is included on the installation media (such as a USB installer or ISO), if the above-mentioned dynamic updates are deployed. If this file is missing, computers may fail to boot from the installation media and could display the error 0xc0430001. This STL file is used by Secure Boot to verify that the boot files are trusted, so it must match the same Windows version and system architecture. To ensure the file is included, Microsoft recommends using the Update WinPE script, which automatically updates the image and handles the required files. Alternatively, you can manually copy the boot.stl file from the Windows\Boot\EFI folder on a Windows device and place it in the matching folder on your installation media before deploying the updated image. Aside from blue screening some users also note their systems have been freezing following the update. This could be happening to Lenovo PCs specifically. In the case of the OneDrive and Dropbox access issues, a user figured out that there could be a conflict with UAC. He explained: "Okay, so I did some digging, and in our environment KB5094126 breaks OneDrive and Dropbox in Explorer. I went through all our GPOs and found out that the combination of disabling UAC and having my user being a local admin breaks OneDrive in Explorer. ... If I enable UAC again, then it works, even with KB5094126 still installed." Hopefully, Microsoft will look into these issues. Source: Microsoft forum (link1, link2, link3, link4), Reddit (link1, link2, link3, link4)
    • It is when it's a desktop in my house though for a PC that's lightly used and not really important when it is. If it was a laptop, it would be a different story. The real solution is varied and begins starting at post #22 in that thread.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      Jeroen Wilms earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      rolfus earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Leroy Jethro Gibbs earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Conversation Starter
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • One Month Later
      AndreaB earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      508
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      198
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      138
    4. 4
      ATLien_0
      90
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      80
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!