I was in the midst of checking the page file on my wife's Win 10 PC and I was startled to see that the default OS displayed was Windows 7 (System/Advanced System Settings/Startup and Recovery/Default Operating System). The 'System' display page itself shows Windows 10 Home.
If you upgrade the OS from one version to another, shouldn't that parameter change too? Anyone know what could have happened here?
Thanks.
Yes, it should have changed - and it did on both my systems (one Home, the other Pro) that were upgraded from Win7 to Win10.
I can't explain what glitch in the upgrade caused this, but I can reassure you that it has no effect at all on the running of the system. This description is a single line of text in the Boot Configuration Data (BCD). It has no function other than being an identifier so you can choose which system you are booting. This is useful for a dual-boot system, where you'd see a list of operating systems in that drop-down box to choose from.
I'm guessing your wife's system isn't dual-boot, in that case what the description says is irrelevant - you've only got the one to choose, and it's Windows 10 whatever the description says :)
To change it, you need to use BCDEDIT in a Command Prompt (Admin). First type BCDEDIT on its own to see all the current settings. You'll see something like this.
Change Operating System Name at Startup in Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials
{current} is the identifier of my system that will boot at startup, its 'description' item is the one that (for your wife) currently says 'Windows 7'. If that's what you see, then to change the description the command is:
BCDEDIT /set {current} description "Windows 10"
Or you could just leave it - it does no harm at all (apart from confusing all who see it).
Last edited by Brink; 15 Dec 2017 at 11:47. Reason: added tutorial link for more info
Startled to see what? That you did a upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and the previous OS edition was not fully removed after it aged out. It shows Windows 10, because that is the Boot Manager that has labeled it that way.
Last edited by bro67; 16 Dec 2017 at 01:22.
OK, changed with BCDEDIT but obviously something in the upgrade from 7 to 10 did not take place correctly. I'm having trouble upgrading to 10 Pro 64bit Fall CU on her 32bit PC, too (can't activate the new version because it doesn't recognize the old version) - ticket in 'Installation and Upgrade called "Can't activate Windows after clean install".
Two things here to comment on.
First, you cannot upgrade a 32-bit Windows to a 64-bit Windows. Your only option is a clean install.
Second, when the PC was upgraded from a qualifying Windows 7 to Windows 10 it was entitled to the Home edition. It should then have activated with a digital licence stored on Microsoft's activation servers and tied to the PC's unique hardware ID.
This digital licence is ONLY valid for Home. You can clean install 64-bit Home and it will activate automatically from the digital licence, but if you install Pro it will (quite rightly) say you have no licence for Pro on this machine. If you really want Windows 10 Pro (either 32 or 64 bit) you will have to purchase a new licence for it.
You need to not check the activate if you are doing a clean install of FCU. You need to use the same version as you have for Home. Otherwise you need to purchase a Pro license.
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