Can you still upgrade to Win10 from Win7 without losing your apps?

If the tutorial does not already have the answer then you could ask your question there
Upgrade to Windows 10 - TenForumsTutorials


All the best,
Denis

It's possible- just no absolute guarantee of success of course.

Before attempting this- ensure you have a full 3rd party disk image of your existing installation - saved to external storage. E.g. using Macrium Reflect, Aomei Backupper etc (free versions available).

Fully uninstall any security programs.


Consider the offer here for a Win 11 key (Win 10 and 11 use the same keys).
Daily free giveaways of paid apps & software

I did an old Notebook with Win8.1 a couple weeks ago and it is activated. I used the MCT USB Thumb drive I'd made in December and ran the setup.exe file on it from within File Exporer/Windows Explorer.

Berton said:

I did an old Notebook with Win8.1 a couple weeks ago and it is activated. I used the MCT USB Thumb drive I'd made in December and ran the setup.exe file on it from within File Exporer/Windows Explorer.

Updates from Windows 8.1 were generally more successful than from Windows 7 as Windows 10 infrastructure was closer, and drivers generally more compatible.

Updates from W7 were often more problematic, and I would hazard a guess this became more exacerbated as time went on.

On a side note, I am not sure you can easily upgrade to W11 in one go as W7 installs were primarily mbr based, and Win 11 uefi.

JackPearson said:

I saw this story in the press this week and got concerned.
Is it definitely still possible to upgrade to Win10 from Win7 and keep all your apps and preferences and data and docs, etc?
I know you need to purchase a win10 key, but even with a new key is it possible?
I am currently on Win7 Pro 64 bit.
The "winver" screen says "Version 6.1 (Build 7601: Service Pack 1)" under the Win7 Pro logo.
It is activated and has a Product ID with "OEM" in it.

Thank you!

The news article: Closure of Windows 10 upgrade path still catching out users • The Register

The answer is yes.
As already mentioned, do a drive image backup before you begin.
I suggest you download the in 10 22h2 iso file using MCT . MCT now only work under Win 10 or 11

On Win 7 use 7Zip to extract all files and folders from the Win 10 iso file to ta folder. Then, under Windows 7 just run setup.exe.

As MS don't activate the Win 10 upgraded from Win 7, you will need to buy a Win 10 key.

JackPearson said:

I saw this story in the press this week and got concerned.
Is it definitely still possible to upgrade to Win10 from Win7 and keep all your apps and preferences and data and docs, etc?
I know you need to purchase a win10 key, but even with a new key is it possible?....
The news article: Closure of Windows 10 upgrade path still catching out users • The Register

The news is that MS have closed the free activation with a digital licence when upgrading from Win7 to Win10. The upgrade itself is still possible, but it won't activate. Once upgraded to Win10 you'll need to activate it with your purchased key.

cereberus said:

On a side note, I am not sure you can easily upgrade to W11 in one go as W7 installs were primarily mbr based, and Win 11 uefi.

There are ways to bypass the Windows 11 system checks and install/upgrade on an unsupported device, such as a Legacy/MBR machine. But even if it were a fully supported device, you cannot upgrade direct from Win7 to Win11. I have tested that. you will not be able to keep installed apps, just your user files.

Bree said:

...upgrading from Windows 7 is an unsupported upgrade path. You will only be allowed to keep user files .... To keep installed apps ... you'd need to upgrade to Windows 10 first.

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial | Windows 11 Forum