Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade  

Bree said:

Welcome to TenForums Telos,

Yes, that is correct. It's just like upgrading to the next version, except you are upgrading to the same version.

Thank you. I've lost my Action Center notifications (after only 3 weeks on Win10 coming from 8.1), and as a last resort, I may try this to resolve things.

In the introductory remarks, I see the line:

• The installation media (ex: ISO or USB) must be the same edition and same or newer build as your currently installed Windows 10. If it's not, then the repair install will fail.

What does this mean: "the repair install will fail."?

I made my Repair Install DVD over a year ago. If I just try the DVD to see what happens, will it convert my disk into a pretzel if it doesn't match the prerequisites?

Thanks.

A failed in place upgrade generally leaves the computer in the same condition that it was in before the repair attempt.

The versions must match to be successful: for example Enterprise cannot be used for home and home cannot be used for Enterprise.

When using a windows 10 iso:

There can be a failure to upgrade preventing a repair of the operating system when a newer version is used.

In contrast if the same version iso is used it may be possible to repair the operating system.

For example if you have a Windows 10 1709 that cannot upgrade to 1809 the in place upgrade will fail.
In contrast if you have a Windows 10 1709 iso you may be able to repair operating system and component store corruption using the Windows 10 1709 iso.

A Windows 10 iso can be made at any time.
The iso version that is available on the Microsoft website is always the latest version.

If you need an older Windows 10 iso there are multiple websites that offer free versions.

So it is relatively easy to create a new windows 10 iso by using the an older flash drive.
Make sure it is a drive that you can format and the size is > or = 8 GB

When performing an in place upgrade repair the repair does not have to performed using a flash drive.
The in place upgrade repair can be performed with the iso downloaded to the desktop.

These are websites that offer free windows 10 iso:

Windows Download - #1 Windows ISO Download Source
Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool
TechBench by WZT (v4.1.1)

OldGrantonian said:

In the introductory remarks, I see the line:

• The installation media (ex: ISO or USB) must be the same edition and same or newer build as your currently installed Windows 10. If it's not, then the repair install will fail.

What does this mean: "the repair install will fail."?

You cannot downgrade with a repair install, not if you want to keep your files and installed apps. The ISO you use must be the same or higher version (1709, 1803, etc) as the Windows you currently have.

"Failure" in this case means you cannot keep anything - if you proceed you will loose everything, the attempted 'downgrade' will only allow you to perform a clean install.

After all this rigmarole, I decided to simply replace the motherboard. The fan had been spinning up to fever pitch any time I tried to do anything other than, say, look at a directory in Explorer, often followed by a black screen and a need to restart the PC, so I came to strongly suspect that the problem was with the physicals, despite the fact that this machine had worked well for a long time. Windows 10 coped with having its existential basis undermined very smoothly I must say, and all seemed well. However, when I turned the machine on later, there was a message onscreen telling me that Windows was not activated. I went through the various troubleshooters but no joy. Finally I phoned Microsoft Customer Support and they walked me through the process using a command which I hope at least some of you might find handy. This tip only works if you upgraded from Windows 7 (or 8 I guess) AND still have the product key for that version to hand. Bring up the Run box (Winkey + R) and enter
slui 3
You must then enter the key for the version of Windows from which you upgraded to 10.
Not exactly an epiphany but hopefully a useful tip and it has solved the problem I was having, which seems after all to have been at least largely hardware-based. Thanks again for all your help, guys.

I'm having trouble at the first step, as you can see, the image made by MSMG doesn't have a setup.exe to click on. However, the image works fine from a boot. Is there another way to start in in-place upgrade since I don't have a setup-exe file?

I tried clicking the one in the sources folder but it gives the error winsetup.dll is missing or corrupted. And as you can see, there's not much in the sources folder to include the file they say is missing.

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