Getting best of W10 and W7 ... Will saving images work?

Hi,
I know Windows 10 is pretty okay and anyway inevitable .... but I do want to prolong Win 7 on my two main machines.
This sounds like a reasonable approach - has anyone done it? or do you see any traps?
- Backup Windows 7 with an image backup
- Upgrade to Windows 10
- Make sure W10 is activated
- Do an image backup of W10 and keep it safe (!)
- Restore Windows 7 and use as long as required

That should give me a backup with Windows 10 that I can install anytime, even after the cutoff date, right?
Cheers

Or maybe this?

Burn an ISO DVD of Windows 10
Back up Windows 7 as above.
Upgrade to Windows 10 and activate.
Roll back to Windows 7
Reinstall Windows 7 image (so it's not messed up after the roll back).
Keep the Windows 10 DVD for a clean install ready for when you stop using Windows 7

Hazel123 said:

Roll back to Windows 7
Reinstall Windows 7 image (so it's not messed up after the roll back).

Why would you do the roll back if you are just going to restore the Windows 7 image anyway?

Probably just me being OCD lol :)

If possible, I'd like to do this for several PCs just to lock in the 'free' upgrade so it is ready 4 years down the road. Without some real confirmation about how this works today, I am doubtful since MS does not see any benefit.

If upgrading changes the key to be win10 specific, then it seems a full rollback would also be necessary to make the key win7 usable again. Imaging does not overcome this unless there is a clearly stated policy. Without a clear policy MS can always 'delist' free activations that were rolled back, and do so at any time. If anyone has actually done some form of the free upgrade/rollback/clean install, tell us how it works today.

Upgrading to Windows 10 does not affect the Windows 7/8/8.1 product key that it came from in any way. Read the "Go back to your previous version of Windows" here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...covery-options

That link is excellent, thank you, I've bookmarked it. It's helpful to see Microsoft options for reinstalling Windows 7 after the month rollback has expired, and to see them suggest the download ISO for Windows 7 and using your original product key.

I must admit though, tns1 made a point that made me think. If you did go back to Windows 7 after registering the free Windows 10 upgrade and the product key was linked to Windows 7 for some time, is there a chance that if you then tried to reinstall Windows 10, say two years later, that the product key would no longer be linked to it?

topgundcp said:

.....
- Re-install Windows 10 Fresh to eliminate all remnants carried over from Windows 7.
....

Thanks for the discussion, much food for thought.
topgundcp, I was coming at it from another direction, ie. the W10 upgrade is the only version upgrade I can remember (though I never touched Vista) that preserves all my applications. In this case, all my W7 applications. That is why I plan the image backups - so I can bounce between them without having to reinstall applications.
I'm assuming the Windows 10 Fresh you refer to is a clean install that removes all the crap, yes - but also all my applications. Right?