How Does Windows 10 Upgrade Work?

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  1. Posts : 88
    Win 10
       #11

    I am confused. I reserved the Win10 upgrade. And of course I am still in the upgrade queue since I clicked on the little Windows icon weeks ago.

    But a couple of things I've gathered this evening from reading. First, it appears people can skip the queue all together by following instructions to force Windows Update to download the entire ISO all at one time. There are links online that explain how to do that using the cmd prompt.

    Second, it appears people can simply clean install a fresh copy of Win10 from the USB media creation tool (without even doing an in place upgrade first). And if that is the case, why wait in the queue or even try to force Windows Update to complete the download? And if I am able to use the USB media to go straight from 7 to 10....does the installation automatically see that I have Win7 and continue with the installation with me just hitting the skip button (the first go around)....or would I need to enter my Win7 Home product key?

    I am in the process right now (I think) of creating the installable Win10 using that creation tool. So it appears I can simply use this to go straight from my Win7 Home install to a clean Win10 install. Is that right? I don't want to mess anything up as far as the upgrade process and just want to be sure about this!

    Thanks.

    Update: the media creation tool just finished and I have just over 3GB on by USB. I just tested it and I am able to boot the the USB to install Win10. But I backed out of it awaiting answers.
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  2. Posts : 172
    Windows 10 Pro x64
    Thread Starter
       #12

    scott784 said:
    I am confused. I reserved the Win10 upgrade. And of course I am still in the upgrade queue since I clicked on the little Windows icon weeks ago.

    But a couple of things I've gathered this evening from reading. First, it appears people can skip the queue all together by following instructions to force Windows Update to download the entire ISO all at one time. There are links online that explain how to do that using the cmd prompt.

    Second, it appears people can simply clean install a fresh copy of Win10 from the USB media creation tool (without even doing an in place upgrade first). And if that is the case, why wait in the queue or even try to force Windows Update to complete the download?

    I am in the process right now (I think) of creating the installable Win10 using that creation tool. So it appears I can simply use this to go straight from my Win7 Home install to a clean Win10 install. Is that right? I don't want to mess anything up as far as the upgrade process and just want to be sure about this!

    Thanks.
    You HAVE to upgrade first, or the free upgrade offer won't stick... after you upgrade, you can then perform a clean install, from my understanding.
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  3. Posts : 88
    Win 10
       #13

    Chris2005 said:
    You HAVE to upgrade first, or the free upgrade offer won't stick... after you upgrade, you can then perform a clean install, from my understanding.
    So from your comments, do I need to recreate another USB install media, this time selecting upgrade? And I am still confused why people would wait in the queue since that ISO is already published for download.

    Is the upgrade queue perhaps intended for folks that don't want to mess with USB or DVD install media? You know, people that are not comfortable installing Windows? And just want a simple click of the button upgrade?

    I am completely comfortable reinstalling Windows and have done it many times in years past. I also (always) prefer a clean install. But I am just confused with this whole upgrade thing as it relates to the options MS is allowing to activate Win10 from people (like myself) that are currently on a licensed version of Win7.
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  4. Posts : 172
    Windows 10 Pro x64
    Thread Starter
       #14

    scott784 said:
    So from your comments, do I need to recreate another USB install media, this time selecting upgrade? And I am still confused why people would wait in the queue since that ISO is already published for download.

    Is the upgrade queue perhaps intended for folks that don't want to mess with USB or DVD install media? You know, people that are not comfortable installing Windows? And just want a simple click of the button upgrade?

    I am completely comfortable reinstalling Windows and have done it many times in years past. I also (always) prefer a clean install. But I am just confused with this whole upgrade thing as it relates to the options MS is allowing to activate Win10 from people (like myself) that are currently on a licensed version of Win7.
    I haven't used the tool to create any backup media... but when I ran the tool, I just chose upgrade my computer now or whatever the option is, it downloaded the stuff to my Windows drive and the upgrade proceeded to run and stuff.

    I think the ISO route is for those who don't want to wait in the update queue, etc. or those who are more tech savvy.

    However, you have to upgrade first, otherwise you'll be asked for a Windows 10 Product Key if you fresh install first, since the upgrade is using your current Windows installation as a baseline, as far as I understand it.

    But, once you upgrade, activate and all that good stuff, you should be able to then perform a clean install and not have to worry about activation.
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  5. Posts : 88
    Win 10
       #15

    Chris2005 said:
    I haven't used the tool to create any backup media... but when I ran the tool, I just chose upgrade my computer now or whatever the option is, it downloaded the stuff to my Windows drive and the upgrade proceeded to run and stuff.

    I think the ISO route is for those who don't want to wait in the update queue, etc. or those who are more tech savvy.

    However, you have to upgrade first, otherwise you'll be asked for a Windows 10 Product Key if you fresh install first, since the upgrade is using your current Windows installation as a baseline, as far as I understand it.

    But, once you upgrade, activate and all that good stuff, you should be able to then perform a clean install and not have to worry about activation.
    So basically I just need to go back and use the creation tool again. And this time, just select the upgrade option (as you mentioned) to allow this one time activation of Win7 to Win10. And I suppose after that, I can then use the USB (that I created a short time ago) for a clean install--at any time in the future-skipping the product key.

    I guess it's time to dig out another unused USB stick and create a new one (for this one time upgrade process) . I'll do this tomorrow night after work. Thanks Chris
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  6. Posts : 360
    Windows 10 Pro x64
       #16

    I am a Windows Insider and my PC already had 10240 on it from previous install about a week ago. But I downloaded the Microsoft tool and ran the upgrade to get the 29 July version of Windows 10 Pro x64 10240. Everything went smoothly. I also downloaded an ISO for later clean install use.

    The upgrade did leave the following hidden folder on my pc that wasn't there prior to running the upgrade tool , it's 5.79GB in size:

    C:/$Windows.~WM

    It is probably just used for the upgrade. But since I am only using 300gb on a 3TB new disk drive, I will leave it alone for now.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 172
    Windows 10 Pro x64
    Thread Starter
       #17

    scott784 said:
    So basically I just need to go back and use the creation tool again. And this time, just select the upgrade option (as you mentioned) to allow this one time activation of Win7 to Win10. And I suppose after that, I can then use the USB (that I created a short time ago) for a clean install--at any time in the future-skipping the product key.

    I guess it's time to dig out another unused USB stick and create a new one (for this one time upgrade process) . I'll do this tomorrow night after work. Thanks Chris
    From my understanding, yes, as the upgrade will be registered in the Windows Store and referenced if you reinstall Windows 10 in the future.

    Antilope said:
    I am a Windows Insider and my PC already had 10240 on it from previous install about a week ago. But I downloaded the Microsoft tool and ran the upgrade to get the 29 July version of Windows 10 Pro x64 10240. Everything went smoothly. I also downloaded an ISO for later clean install use.

    The upgrade did leave the following hidden folder on my pc that wasn't there prior to running the upgrade tool , it's 5.79GB in size:

    C:/$Windows.~WM

    It is probably just used for the upgrade. But since I am only using 300gb on a 3TB new disk drive, I will leave it alone for now.
    Yea, I think those are temp files use for the upgrade... The Disk Cleanup tool should get rid of them and the old Windows.old folder, but once you do, you won't be able to revert back to your previous install.

    Chances are I'm sticking to Windows 10, but I'll keep my Windows 7 Windows.old folder (which is almost 45 GB of space) for a while myself, even though the temp upgrade files are eating up 10+GB of space on top of the Windows 10 installation and such. I have a 240 GB SSD.
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  8. Posts : 88
    Win 10
       #18

    This is some good information here posted by others. I haven't created the upgrade USB install media yet, but will probably do that this evening. The only thing that is still a mystery to me is the fact that MS created that waiting queue for people? MS can't be too concerned about their servers being overloaded since they are offering the ISO images online. But at any rate, I will proceed with the upgrade media using an additional USB stick
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  9. Posts : 88
    Win 10
       #19

    Well, I upgraded my PC this evening using the media creation tool. It took about 2 1/2 hours to download and install the upgrade from my Win7 X64 to Win10. I am thinking I might hold off a bit before doing a clean install using the media I created on USB before doing this in place upgrade. I am impressed that my Device Manager is clean on this PC which is now over 8 years old.
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  10. Posts : 172
    Windows 10 Pro x64
    Thread Starter
       #20

    scott784 said:
    Well, I upgraded my PC this evening using the media creation tool. It took about 2 1/2 hours to download and install the upgrade from my Win7 X64 to Win10. I am thinking I might hold off a bit before doing a clean install using the media I created on USB before doing this in place upgrade. I am impressed that my Device Manager is clean on this PC which is now over 8 years old.
    I assume it's the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 in your System Specs?

    If so, that's what I used to have, nice little processor. I had to upgrade back in May 2014 after I was having computer problems, that was most likely the CPU going bad. Worked rather well though, I got it from a friend in 2008 and it was used at the time and it lasted til 2014.
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