Windows 10: Few questions about upgrading from Windows 7, UEFI and compatibility.

Hey everyone. Fist post *Smile

So I'm in the process of getting my system upgrade-ready for Windows 10 and I would appreciate if anyone could clear up some of my questions. It's the first time I will attempt an actual "upgrade" instead of a clean install. Let's see:

1) UEFI
Currently my Win7 installation is Legacy-BIOS mode. Does that mean the upgrade will default at that? Or will it somehow prompt me for a UEFI install? Given the two use different file systems, could that even be possible without a clean installation or converting afterwards? Would it make more sense to convert Win7 to UEFI prior upgrading? I do want to switch to UEFI, just trying to figure out the best way. Is there any tool that automates the procedure for the conversion, or do I have to manually backup, format in GPT, then restore?

2) Compatibility
That little GWX icon is telling me all is fine and dandy and that I'm good to go, but I'm a little hesitant. What is that thing looking for exactly? I'm pretty convinced that programs that interfere with built-in operations will become fubar. I'm talking about stuff like teracopy, proccess hacker, etc. Won't these be broken? And if so, could they possibly break Windows itself? Should I uninstall them? And how good would you think those tasks are in Win10? Am I better off without third party programs or is it still very basic?

3) Drivers
Will I need to re-install my drivers? If yes, will the old installations somehow end up being there but crippled? Am I better off removing any drivers prior upgrading? Also, would it be wise to check manually for all of my internal hardware to make sure they all have working Win10 versions?

Those are my questions. You can get all technical if you want, no problem. Any answers appreciated and you shall receive free cookies! *Smile

:)

 

A few questions about upgrading to Windows 10

somebody please reply

 

A few questions about upgrading to Windows 10

bump again

 

Does your system have an EFI firmware? If not, then the EFI question is moot.

There's always a chance that something will be broken in an upgrade. Typically, you would just reinstall that application. You don't have to worry about things breaking the OS, since Microsoft only migrates apps they know are safe.

As for drivers, Windows 10 has new drivers for most things. You may have to re-install drivers for exotic things, but most of your general hardware should be supported out of the box.

 

First off - thanks for the reply *Smile

Yes its a fairly new system on the X99 platform, motherboard is running UEFI firmware.

I don't get this kind of proccess. Is Windows really migrating anything? One would assume an in-place upgrade means it copies Win10 over Win7, not moving stuff onto a WIn10 installation. I'm confused, could you elaborate?

Yeah I understand that it will work out of the box, but I was mostly talking about drivers like GPU, SSD, etc, not really the lower level drivers needed for things to function but the higher level software you get with your product. That usually installs different drivers than the out-of-the-box ones too.

What about the UEFI part then? Is it going to be the hassle I'm thinking it will be?

 

Well, if you're doing an upgrade, it won't matter. However, if you're doing a clean install, then Windows might give you a weird error depending on the mode you boot the installer in. If you boot the installer in EFI mode, then it require a GPT partition, if you boot it in legacy mode it requires an MBR partition.

No, Windows first copies your old OS to a Windows.old folder, then it installs a new (essentially "clean") version, then it migrates the registry, and any applications it knows about.

This allows you to restore your old OS because it hasn't touched it.

As I said, unless you have something exotic, you won't have to worry. Windows will have a driver that will at least enable basic operation. You may need to install the manufacturers driver afterwards, but your system would still work. The only major exception would be if you are running with an exotic RAID controller, which may require a special driver, but Microsoft would likely just migrate the driver in this case.

No, not during an upgrade. It will use the same configuration as your original OS.

 

Ah I feel like such a newbie... I have indeed done an in-place upgrade before and I completely forgot about the Windows.old folder. So windows will cherry pick whatever thinks it works fine, but leave my older system files in tact until I decide I'm done and delete it. Makes sense.

My motherboard is set to support both legacy and UEFI boots at the same time. It's either that, or UEFI only. So I guess it will remain legacy as it is now huh. Perhaps I'll bite the bullet and try and do it manually then.

One last quick question, in the event of an in-place upgrade, would location path settings be preserved? I have put my documents, downloads, desktop, etc on a secondary HDD while the OS itself is on an SSD. Would I need to set those up again? Not a problem really, just wondering.

 

It can't support both at the same time. It may boot to EFI and fallback to Legacy if it doesn't find a UEFI loader, but if that is the case then EFI will always boot first. You can typically use the F12 key to choose your boot source (and it will say EFI if it's booting in EFI mode).

You probably will have to, yes.. but i'm not sure to be honest. In my experience, these settings typically are reset to default.

 

It has 2 options, one says Legacy+UEFI and is able to boot both, I checked it. But yeah probably just does it the way you're saying. The other option says UEFI only. Anyhow, not important. Thanks for sticking with me man! Free cookies for you *Smile