Whilst I agree about a clean install, I have never once needed a Windows 7 installation key nor needed to do an upgrade first... and I've done loads of Win 7-to-Win 10 clean installs.
Instead I just followed Brink's Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First tutorial. Worked every time without fail and activated immediately.
(I now keep a copy of gatherosstate.exe just in case it's ever needed for another Win 7-to-Win 10 clean install.)
I'm also a very happy W7 user, but I've recently been checking out various W10 versions, and tweaks, to see if there's anything to be gained from going to 10. So far I'm not convinced it's worth the effort. My W7 Ultimate 16GB ram machine, with Windows on a Samsung 500GB NVME 970-Plus SSD and numerous multi-TB SATA drives for storage is is very fast and well behaved. I know where everything is and how to accomplish all the tasks that interest me. The GUI is well laid out and easy to navigate, especially when it's tuned up a little.
If I were to move to 10, I'd probably use an Enterprise, or Enterprise\LTSC version, with Edge, Cortana, Defender removed, along with all the gratuitous OOB apps and with Windows Updates turned off. But I still hate 10's interface, so I'd want to severely tweak that.
Nope, nothing to be gained from W10. W11 is, IMHO, no better than 10 - maybe even not as good. Maybe 12 might contain all the best features of 7? Now, that'd be worth checking out
Live in the past by all means and use an insecure OS. The wannabe ransomware attack a couple of years or so back amply demonstrated that - it was Windows 7 users and dumb Windows 10 users who blocked updates who got it.I'm also a very happy W7 user, but I've recently been checking out various W10 versions, and tweaks, to see if there's anything to be gained from going to 10. So far I'm not convinced it's worth the effort. My W7 Ultimate 16GB ram machine, with Windows on a Samsung 500GB NVME 970-Plus SSD and numerous multi-TB SATA drives for storage is is very fast and well behaved. I know where everything is and how to accomplish all the tasks that interest me. The GUI is well laid out and easy to navigate, especially when it's tuned up a little.
If I were to move to 10, I'd probably use an Enterprise, or Enterprise\LTSC version, with Edge, Cortana, Defender removed, along with all the gratuitous OOB apps and with Windows Updates turned off. But I still hate 10's interface, so I'd want to severely tweak that.
Nope, nothing to be gained from W10. W11 is, IMHO, no better than 10 - maybe even not as good. Maybe 12 might contain all the best features of 7? Now, that'd be worth checking out
Life has moved on - you only remain on W7 because you do not use full features in W10 or W11 now. The most obvious example is Hyper-V.
Windows 7 is just outdated crock - no secure boot, inability to mount isos, really poor driver support, no power menu, old boot menus, and most important no security support (and don't bs me you know better than hackers). Lots of other things as well.
All the crap you complain about W10 is easily sorted /removed. All the things I mentioned above cannot be added to crappy Windows 7.
So live in the past by all means, but do not kid yourself it is a good thing to do!
As you have Win 7 Pro, you will get Win 10 Pro.
You are understandably concerned about maintaining a stable system
As you will have Pro, you can use Group Policy to set updates to 'Notify' - that means you are notified of available updates, and nothing will happen until you choose to accept them.
That gives you time to read the tenforums News articles about the update and user comments, and research yourself.
That gives YOU control
Want to stay on a fixed major build? There's a tutorial for that- a group policy setting - "target feature update"
Win 10 updates also include 'preview' updates by default. Again, you can use a Group Policy setting to skip those.
Note that without changing things, by default, Win 10 can restart by itself after an update. Do the above, and this will not happen.
Further tutorials relate to updates and restart and much much more.
Should be no need to 'hack' Windows update as you have Pro.
Win 10's support ends in Oct '25 for Home and Pro at least, after which there will be no further routine updates.
1. As recommended above, take steps to preserve your existing Win 7 before attempting any upgrade.
e.g. Clone your Win 7 to another drive, create a full 3rd party disk image of it to external storage... (the routine and regular use of 4rd party disk imaging is endlessly recommended here - e.g. Macrium Reflect).
2. Before attempting the upgrade, remove any 3rd party security programs.
3. There's no guarantee the upgrade will succeed. Many things can cause this to fail.
Don't even think about removing stuff from Win 10 other than the simplest. You need to gain familiarity first before considering how best to break it!
Edge: certain things rely on Edge being there. If you don't like it- simply don't use it. Easy.
Cortana: long since retired- it does nothing useful now- and takes no resources, so forget about it.
Windows 10 iso are available for multiple versions / builds.
Any can be installed and then there is the new problem of preventing updates / upgrades / reboots ,etc.
It's always best to make free backup images.
This link has the status as of 12/22:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...indows-10-21h1
One or more of these links may be useful:
Upgrade to Windows 10
Upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 for Free
Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First
Download Windows 10 ISO File
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10
Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool
How to Specify Target Feature Update Version in Windows 10
The problem is the OP asked for the most stable version of Windows 10 and the more "tweaks" the user applies, the less stable it becomes.
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