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Windows 10 Upgrade - All programs gone
I just got suckered into upgrading from Windows7 to Windows10 (clicking the "download" instead of the "install" button still forces you into an upgrade within a week with no way to cancel). The update itself took 2-3h and it seems to work, at least the desktop comes back up and stuff. However, pretty much all the installed programs are gone. The only thing left are old copies of Word & Excel 2003 and those fail to start on Windows10. Nothing in the startmenu or on desktop. This does not seem to be the intended behaviour, does it? Quick Internet search at least didn't bring up a lot of complaining. So what's going on here?
Now the programs are still in C:\Windows.old, but I assume there is no way to make them work in Windows10 without a proper reinstall.
So what are my options now to get the system back into working conditions? Reinstalling all the apps is something I'd like to avoid. So that leaves the Windows7 downgrade option, which is bound to a timelimit of a month before potential dataloss.
Does the Windows7 downgrade work without issues? Or will I go from broken Windows10 to broken Windows7? Is it possible to update back from a downgraded Windows7 to Windows10 at a later point? And how long will the downgrade take?