Windows 10: In-place upgrade - XP to 10 without losing the apps

Note In-place upgrade, upgrading Windows to a later version or a superior edition of the same version is the only method to upgrade Windows without losing the installed apps and programs. Certain rules apply to an in-place upgrade:

• The bit version must remain the same, a 32 bit Windows can only be in-place upgraded to another 32 bit Windows, a 64 bit only to 64 bit
• The language version must be exactly the same, Finnish Vista cannot be in-place upgraded to Swedish Windows 7, US English Windows Seven cannot be in-place upgraded to UK English Windows 8
• The Windows edition must remain the same or be superior, for example Windows Vista Home Premium can be in-place upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate but not to Windows 7 Home Basic or Starter

If and when all three conditions apply, you can in-place upgrade and keep the installed software (subject to compatibility with new OS version).

As many other things about and around Windows the in-place upgrade divides us geeks; some are strictly against it preferring a clean install whenever upgrading Windows, some see no problems in in-place upgrade preferring not to reinstall all software after the upgrade. Personally I have never understood why in-place upgrade shouldn't be used, time after time I have both used it by myself and shown to other Windows users how easy and safe it is. I have even written some simple instructions for in-place upgrade at our sister site the Seven Forums.

The argument most often used by the opposing users is that by in-place upgrading you transfer all possible underlying OS issues to the new OS. However, these same users are often recommending a so called Repair Install to fix some Windows issues. The repair install is nothing but an in-place upgrade to same OS version and edition; opposing in-place upgrade while at the same time getting the newer (and better?) OS but advocating it when keeping the old problematic OS, this logics I have never been able to understand.

Anyway, each and every user is free to decide whether to do a clean install with a new version of Windows or if at least give in-place upgrade a try. My point with this post is not to advocate in-place upgrade but just to show it is a realistic and easy alternative.

I was interested to see how well the in-place upgrade would keep my apps working if done on the same machine from Windows XP via Vista, Seven and Eight to Windows 10 Technical Preview. To test this I selected some apps which I first installed in Windows XP: a browser (Maxthon), a media player (VLC), a PDF reader (Adobe), Windows Live 2011 and MS Office XP.

My choice for a third party browser was Maxthon because for the first it is my favorite browser after IE11, and for the second because it allows signing in with a Maxthon account which then automatically syncs settings, saved passwords, favorites and so on. I wanted to see if these were properly carried into next OS version.

I set up a POP3 email account in Outlook XP and an IMAP email account in Windows Live Mail, interested to see if these emails and their settings would be carried over.



Windows XP to Vista Ultimate
All set up as I wanted, here's a screenshot of the start situation, XP set up and Vista in-place upgrade installation started:



Upgrade was surprisingly fast and after a reboot or two I was in Vista desktop:



All programs, native Windows apps and those I had installed, all working fine. Outlook and Windows Live had the accounts set up, Excel and Word still showed recent documents in File menu, Maxthon had all my settings carried over, passwords and favorites remembered, ready to go:





Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate
Windows 7 Ultimate had only one compatibility warning, the Vista Ultimate Extras are not compatible with Seven and would be disabled:



Other than that there was again no issues, I had successfully in-place upgraded Windows XP via Vista to Windows 7 Ultimate:





Windows 7 Ultimate to Windows 8 Pro
As I had started with a 32 bit Windows XP Professional, I had to stay in 32 bit. I had no Windows 8.1 Pro 32 bit ISO and no patience to download one so I gave up and used Windows 8 Pro for which I had an ISO file.

Launching the Windows 8 installer told me all apps, files and settings would be kept:



A problem free in-place upgrade and moments later I was in Windows 8 desktop. Again no issues with installed programs, everything was working as they did in Windows XP when I started:





Windows 8 Pro to Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 9879
Last step in my in-place adventure starts promising, Windows installer tells me everything is kept. No compatibility issues:



Arriving in Windows 10 desktop, everything working. Email accounts set up back in Windows XP in Windows live Mail and Office XP still working, Word XP and Excel XP showing my recent documents I had saved in XP, Maxthon browser automatically logging in to my favorite sites:





Conclusion
Although this was not even close to a real life situation, a "chain upgrade" in one sitting from XP via Vista, Seven and Eight to Windows 10, it at least shows that there's nothing preventing an XP user keeping all his / her installed compatible software, personal settings and files all the way from XP to 10. The direct in-place upgrade from XP to 10 is of course not supported but all the user has to do is to get Vista, Seven and Eight install media (DVD or ISO) and do it. The in-between operating systems (Vista, Seven and Eight in this example) do not even have to be activated and do not require a product code when the in-place upgrade is done within the 30 day grace period each of these operating systems have.

Clean install is of course the preferred way to upgrade but keep in your mind that an in-place upgrade is always an alternative.




Tip For virtual machine users:

I did the above test in a Hyper-V virtual machine, installing first Windows XP on it and in-place upgrading it to each next Windows version.

Before I started the first upgrade, XP to Vista, I created a checkpoint. I then created a new checkpoint after each upgrade:




Now I have one virtual machine which I can revert in a few seconds to any of the Windows versions: I can go back to Vista, install software, save files, anything, then shutdown it and create a new checkpoint replacing the original Vista checkpoint, then return to Windows Eight (or XP, Seven or Ten).

Practical!



:)

 

EXPERTS PLEASE HELP MULTIPLE PROBLEMS

You could try an in-place upgrade by running the Media Creation Tool, this will repair Windows 10 without losing any files/Folders, choose to keep everything.

More information here:

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

 

Windows 10 apps not working

In effect my Windows 10 has reverted to XP without the mobile type apps which is not a great problem. I suspect the last upgrade did this. There was a Flashplayer update also which could have contributed. If Microsoft want people to use Microsoft Store they
certainly need to fix this. A Windows reset where I apparently my lose my other apps is not an option and the greater of 2 evils.

The windowsapps folder is still there but just unlinked for some reason.

 

You are a super geek my friend *Wink

 

Did this mostly for fun but at the same time showing in-place is a viable alternative *Smile.

 

This is a masterpiece. You have been a really busy beaver. And a very good path from XP to Win 10. I guess it would only require XP > Win7 > Win10.

 

Wolfgang, you need at least two steps (Vista & Seven) between XP and 10, the Eight can be bypassed:

• XP can only be in-place upgraded to Vista, not Seven or later
• Vista can be in-place upgraded to Seven but not Eight or later
• Seven can be in-place upgraded to 10
• Ergo: XP to Vista is a must, as well as Vista to Seven but then you can bypass the Eight and jump to 10

 

Thanks Kari. I did not remember that. I am getting old, LOL.

 

Kari,
You are a Geeks, Geek. The King of all Geeks. The Master Geek from the Dark Side.

 

Thanks Computiac but there's nothing special or extra geeky in this procedure. Every user can do it by simply following the in-place upgrade rules and instructions.

 

Very well constructed with detailed explanations, Kari. *Thumbs

 

Hi there

Kari -- great idea but unfortunately I have some programs and hardware which will ONLY work on XP such as some studio equipment for creating and cutting VINYL records, HP Plotting equipment etc. etc. This gear is still perfectly serviceable and I'm not spending 1000's of dollars on replacing it so I'm continuing to use XP as a VM. Your idea is great if people can USE their programs on newer OS'es.

It's a really great pity that OUTLOOK EXPRESS could never be made to work after XP -- a brilliant SMALL and SIMPLE email client - OUTLOOK is OK but possibly way too much for people just wanting basic email and who hate the webmail type of clients.

Incidently you might like to have a look at the "Unofficial" SP4 for XP -- people are keeping this alive !!!!.

Windows XP SP4 Unofficial Download - Softpedia

For people who don't have VISTA - as it's only required for an UPGRADE step in your process you could always risk getting an ISO from one of the "Unofficial" places. I wouldn't recommend that normally but you are only going to use it ONCE as part of the upgrade cycle so any possible "nasties" would be purged with the W7 / W10 upgrades in your sequence.

Cheers
jimbo

 

As I mentioned in my original post, I just showed a method to keep the compatible software. As is quite natural when talking about OS as old as XP, there are of course a lot of programs which simply do not work on later operating systems.

I had the Vista, Seven and Eight ISO images to do this, no need to download, but for those who need valid original ISOs, see these tutorials on our sister sites for official download links:

• Windows Vista: Vista ISO - Download and Create Installation DVD or USB
• Windows 7: Clean Install Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums
• Windows 8: Clean Install - Windows 8

 

This is awesome! Thank you so much, Kari, for posting this info!
Question though. I'm running a dual boot system with XP Pro 64 bit and Win 7 Ultimate. I'm researching on how to upgrade the XP installation to Win10. I have a boat load of software installed on the XP installation. I never went through installing all of them on to Win7 and I'd prefer to keep the Win7 installation.

According to this site: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...-windows-vista
and due to XP being 64bit it claims I have to do a clean installation to get to Vista.

Is anyone here aware of a way to upgrage XP 64bit to Win10 pro without having to do a ton of re-installing programs?
If not...then...I may as well just do the clean installation of Win10.

I'm aware this is an old post. Apologies but I'd love to do this if it's possible instead of going through all the re-installing I'll have to go through if it's not possible.

 

Hi Arel, welcome to the Ten Forums.

I have to admit that I have never used a 64 bit XP. My first 64 bit Windows was Vista. I have not tested the scenario you are interested in, doing this starting with XP 64 bit.

Microsoft is quite clear in that article you linked to, in-place upgrade seems impossible from XP x64. At this point I cannot give you any other answer but I will do some research.