Windows 7 to Windows 10
Anyone with similar situations? Thanks muchly.
I forgot to state I have a 2TB external HDD available
In my opinion a clean install as opposed to an upgrade install is always best.
One way to do it would be to get the installation keys for all your software and reinstall them on the new computer.
There are many free apps that will snag the keys of your existing software from your old laptop.
https://www.lifewire.com/free-product-key-finder-programs-2625119
Belarc Advisor is the one I use.
You can move the data with a flash drive or external hard drive.
My Windows 7 Laptop died,had to switch to Windows 10.
Turned off everything I didn’t like about it and started over,downloading everything I had on the old laptop.
To be honest I have a 2 year old Dell desktop with windows 10. Have had no issues. I always have McAfee on. Use a portable hard drive plugged in always and save everything of value onto that. I don’t use the cloud.
I am starting my journey to my new laptop too(great deal at Costco!). It is Windows 10. I will install Classic Shell as I did my current one. It makes my life so much easier.
A few years ago my Brother-in-Law gave me an HP laptop with Vista installed. It had so many viruses that it would barely work, often not at all.
It took a while but I finally got it to wipe everything clean. I then used a Windows 7 Professional disk which had come with a refurbished computer. When it asked for the code, I used the one which was on the disk package and it worked fine.
Maybe a month later I got a notice from Microsoft asking me for my computers serial number. I just put in the number on the laptop and again no problem. It has worked fine ever since. I installed a McAfee total protection program and it has so far found no viruses at all.
You have my sympathy. I lost my Windows 7 too...and after a brief, loveless fling with Windows 8, I bought a laptop with Windows 10. The moving was easy because I’m not an adept, I just put everything on usb’s, which I collect like squirrels have nuts.
The headaches begin with the updates. Windows 10 has a mind of its own. It decides when to update, what to update and whether to open the pod door when it’s done its nasty business.
Best of luck to you.
Backup everything!
Come to the dark side...
I have always gone with the USB external.
This last time I have NAS and use that almost exclusively for storage.
Now if things go south, I “map network drive” and everything is where it was.
Going through it too. It’s living hell.
Just to be clear; you can’t migrate one computer to another even if they are the same make and model.
All you can do is transfer files. All programs and the OS need to be re-installed.
As mentioned; use your external hard drive to back up your files so you don’t lose them then copy (not move and not cut and paste) them to the new computer from your external drive to the new computer.
Back up your files at least once a month or more often if you have critical files/data.
You can buy a nice, brand new laptop for $500 and get a faster processor, more memory, migrate all your old Windows files and settings, and get Windows 10 factory installed.
Why go to all the trouble of adapting an old laptop?
Unless you enjoy playing around with them, of course.
My first question is what Windows 10 will do for you which you can not do with Windows 7.
I recently purchased a refurbished Dell Laptop which came with Windows 10 installed. Windows is just an operating system, just a tool. My own software runs exactly same as in windows 7 as in 10.
My Windows-7 installation USB would not work with the existing disk format on which Windows 10 was installed by the refurbisher.
Here are the simple steps how I reformatted the hard drive and installed Windows 7. All I needed was the Windows-7 Installation USB (it was USB since my laptop does not have a CD drive, and I did not want to purchase external drive). No other software is needed.
To Format hard drive acceptable for Windows 7 Install,
Boot up from the USB drive (change Bios if necessary)
at the first screen of the install,
“SHIFT + F10” to enter command prompt.
Command> diskpart
(to run disk management utility)
diskpart> list disk
(If only hard drive is present it will show as disk 0)
diskpart> select disk 0
(or whichever number indicates your hard disk)
diskpart> clean
diskpart> create partition primary
diskpart> select partition 1
diskpart> active
diskpart> format fs=ntfs quick
diskpart> List Volume
diskpart> exit
At that point, you will return to the installation of first screen of Windows 7 installation.
By the way it is very easy to create a bootable USB stick for use with Laptops without CD drives. Then just copy all files from Windows-7 Installation CD to the USB stick, and then you can install any version of Windows 7 on Laptops (Home Premium, Profesional, Ultimate etc)
My first question is what Windows 10 will do for you which you can not do with Windows 7.
I recently purchased a refurbished Dell Laptop which came with Windows 10 installed. Windows is just an operating system, just a tool. My own software runs exactly same as in windows 7 as in 10.
My Windows-7 installation USB would not work with the existing disk format on which Windows 10 was installed by the refurbisher.
Here are the simple steps how I reformatted the hard drive and installed Windows 7. All I needed was the Windows-7 Installation USB (it was USB since my laptop does not have a CD drive, and I did not want to purchase external drive). No other software is needed.
To Format hard drive acceptable for Windows 7 Install,
Boot up from the USB drive (change Bios if necessary)
at the first screen of the install,
“SHIFT + F10” to enter command prompt.
Command> diskpart
(to run disk management utility)
diskpart> list disk
(If only hard drive is present it will show as disk 0)
diskpart> select disk 0
(or whichever number indicates your hard disk)
diskpart> clean
diskpart> create partition primary
diskpart> select partition 1
diskpart> active
diskpart> format fs=ntfs quick
diskpart> List Volume
diskpart> exit
At that point, you will return to the installation of first screen of Windows 7 installation.
By the way it is very easy to create a bootable USB stick for use with Laptops without CD drives. Then just copy all files from Windows-7 Installation CD to the USB stick, and then you can install any version of Windows 7 on Laptops (Home Premium, Profesional, Ultimate etc)
If you want to move your purchased programs that have been installed and registered with their manufacturers, in some (NOT ALL) cases you can uninstall a program from the old computer, let that uninstallation notify the software manufacturer over the internet during the uninstall process, then use the program's installer to install to the new computer using the original installation key. Whether or not this will work depends on the specific program.
I doubt that any of the OS migration programs you mentioned can handle that re-registering process automatically. AFAIK they just transfer data files between computers. They will move files from the old My Documents folder to the new My Documents folder, or from one Pictures folder to another, etc. That process does not install programs. Most Windows programs must be installed before they will run.
The safest option is to install new programs to the Win 10 laptop, and transfer your data files by copying them to your external drive from your old computer, then copying those to the new computer. It's a PITA but it works.
Keep your Windows 7 machine.
Backup files to save on DVD on the Windows 10 machine. Wipe and format drive on the machine. Make a clean install of Xubuntu or Debian Linux using XFCE for GUI.
Use Firefox with No Script plugin and login with https: (secure shell)
Never have another slimware exploit.
I’ve been running some form of Linux since 1994, exclusively Linux for my personal machine for over 10 years.
Never going back. (I ran all of MS DOS versions, All of Windows Versions until 10. There is not a thing I now miss using Linux, except the instability and headaches cleaning it up. And upgrades are no hassle.
Not sure about migrating to a new box, but I’ve used Acronis to move to new HDs without any problems, other than having to reregister Windows. I’m assuming it’s the HD serial which gets attached to your copy of windows. You will have to reregister each time you switch out the drive.
HDs are cheap and easy to replace. Buy a spare and copy your current windows 7 HD to it and use it in the new box while saving the HD with Windows 10 for future use.
I’m running 5 boxes with Windows 7. I’ve got Acronis running on 3 of them. I use acronis for daily backups, and for backups of multiple apple and android devices.
Get a set of cables which allows you to access a HD externally via a USB port. You can find these at Amazon.
Check YouTube for videos of how to do it.
Thinking about it, I have swapped operating HDs from one box to another. The main issue, IIRC, was the need to update drivers for the new hardware.
Hope that helps.
I have TWO Win 7 laptops and using one now. The best. I just dont want to migrate to W10 and our office OS are all W10 until next year when no more upgrades LOL
But I am interested how to do it. Our Windows expert Freeper dayglored is the Man to talk to...join up with his ping list or PM the dude..
Acronis user guide at bottom of page: https://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/disk-manager/