Windows 10: Install over Windows 7 has problems - can I reinstall over Windows 7

Here's why: Desktop, Notification area, Taskbar and System Tray blink on and off every few seconds. Everything worked fine in Windows 7 (I have an Image Backup). In W10, System File Checker shows errors, not in Windows 7.

:)

 

Upgrading Windows 7 to Windows 10

If Windows 10 installs over Windows 7; can you reinstall over Windows 10? Will I get everything back that I had before Windows 10?

 

Upgrade Windows 7 on iMac to Windows 10

I have installed windows 7 on my imac (not easy) can I install windows 10 upgrade over this installation or will have to uninstall then reinstall .

 

We need a lot more details.

 

More details - I know. But for the first time, I don't know what to tell you - but let me try: I was using Windows 7, SP-1 on a Dell Workstation M6800, 16GB Ram, I7 processor. I have had no problems for a long time. I ran System File Checker once a week and had no issues. I made two Images of my hard drive just before I downloaded and installed Windows 10. It seems that Windows 10 installed better than I imagined it would. However, the icons on my Desktop will (frequently) disappear all at once - then, almost instantaneously, reappear. The Taskbar will unhide (also frequently) without any input from my mouse nor the cursor being anywhere near the bottom of the screen (where the Taskbar resides). When the Taskbar appears, I have no icons in the Notification area or in the System Tray. Sometimes, it takes over 20 seconds for anything to appear in these two areas (populate). I've Googled and posted elsewhere and have received no responses (except yours). I hate to revert to Windows 7 but, if I can't find a solution to this phenomena, I'll have to. There are some other quirks with the Taskbar also - but I'm at a loss to provide more details because they happen so fast, Also, I can't keep track of the timing between "quirks." If there's anything else I can provide to you that might help, please ask and I'll do my best to reply.

 

When did you upgrade and how did you do it? Did you download an ISO file and from where or did you do the upgrade through Windows Update? Is your Windows activated?

 

Upgraded a few days ago by clicking on Update in one of Microsoft's reminder dialog boxes. I created an ISO file but didn't use it. Windows 7 came with the Dell Workstation. I was approved by Microsoft to receive the free upgrade many months ago. Everything else in W10 seems to be working fine - except for the issues I described.

 

try this: please right click on the start icon and select Command prompt administrator, give admin permissions and copy/paste this into the window that opens and press enter sfc /scannow . If you decide to type it in, please notice the space between the sfc and the /. We want it to say no integrity violations were found. If it says there where corrupt files that could not be repaired, please reboot and run it again. You may have to run it 3 times with reboots in between each time.

 

One of the first things I did was run SFC when I discovered the problems. It showed integrity violations (I had run SFC just before the upgrade and had no violations). However, I am running it per your advice and will run it several more times before I respond again. I had no idea that I might have to run it more than once. Thank you.

 

A lot of times it can't do all of the repairs needed at one time. The actual repairs are done during a reboot. Sometimes it can take 3 times before it can do all of the repairs. Sometimes it can't/won't repair everything.

 

Three times and it still shows corrupt files. Suppose I install a clean copy of W10 in another partition from my ISO disk. Can I just copy all the system files to the corrupt installation?

 

No, but you could try a repair install / in place upgrade which fixes most problems Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade It will also keep all of your personal data and at least much of your installed programs. However, I always recommend to make a system image before beginning.

There are a few other things we can do before going that route. We can try them if you like. Realize though that you can spend days trying to track down the problem only to end up with the repair install anyway. 2 relatively easy things you can do is open an elevated command prompt (same as the sfc command prompt) and run this command and press enter Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth It will seem as though it is not doing much, but give it time. It will give you a success or failure message. If that completes successfully, run the sfc command procedure again.

You could also try to create a new Administrator account and switch to that account to see if it works right. If it does it could be your user account is corrupt. You could then transfer all personal data over to the new account and delete the old account. https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5...dows-10-a.html

And https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/6...dows-10-a.html

 

OK, I'm trying the Dism command right now. If that doesn't work, I'll go the 'dirty' install route. Thank you. I'll let you know the results when I'm finished. By the way, on one of the forums, I found others with the same 'blinking' problem (maybe this forum).

OK, Dism couldn't find the source files. Failure.

 

You can try to download the ISO from TechBench (the one from media creation tool won't work), mount the ISO which will give it a drive letter. In the same elevated command prompt, run
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:wim:\sources\install.wim:1 /limitaccess and press enter, where the D is the letter assigned to your mounted ISO.

 

no tech bench right now.