Windows 10: Save your windows 10 Preview Drivers and Save the Hassle Later

As many of you are aware windows 10 Preview will have to be removed (on some systems) and the original OS re-installed to get the Upgrade License Activation..

Since you already have the preview of 10 installed - most likely you also have the drivers and windows driver updates installed..

If you export the current drivers from the windows 10 OS before you remove it - you can save the updated drivers to a folder - to be imported later into your New Windows 10 upgrade OS..

I am sure some will find a way clean install windows 10 and it is nice to have all the updated windows 10 drivers on hand and in a folder..

Create a "Drivers" folder on your drive (example> D:\Drivers) then run this command from prompt(admin) to export the current drivers
Code: Dism /online /Export-Driver /Destination:\Drivers[/quote] Once you install or re-install windows 10 - run this command to import the exported drivers into your new windows 10 OS
Code: Dism /online /Add-Driver /Driver:\Drivers /Recurse[/quote]

:)

 

Nokia 6700 Slide Stopwatch?

You need to buy one To save results for later preview.

 

Nokia 808 GPS... can you enter a walking route, like .kmz in GoogleMap? “Camino de Santiago”

it has the function of saving route from one point to another and save from the starting point to many different end point. You can even label each locations and saved for later preview. Hope it help

 

Gabe Aul has said in a tweet that M$ will not ask for the W7 key. So why would a reinstall of the old OS be necessary?

 

I think that might have been in the case when W7 was upgraded to W10 and therefore W10 could read the key.

For people who have clean installed the Preview I don't know how W10 would "know" the key, and I suspect it will need one, although I'm hoping it may be a case of just typing a key in rather than reinstalling.

Anyway there are plenty of cases why this is a really useful tip which I'm definitely filing away for future use.

Just in my own experience:

• My old laptop was giving all sorts of errors with 10 Preview, including corrupting files and eventually not booting. Eventually I figured out this was due to a bank of RAM which had failed. I had to reinstall the OS and if I'd known this tip I'd have saved a lot of time in putting in the old drivers which aren't found automatically by the installer
• I have a much newer tablet running 8.1 with Bing. I bought it from UK supermarket Tesco, and it was being sold as their own brand, but support is non-existent and there doesn't seem to be a website to download drivers from. I'm hoping that saving the 8.1 drivers will help me to upgrade it to 10 if the installer doesn't find them all?

@Kyhi do you know if a driver saved this way under 8.1 would work with 10 in my scenario 2 above?

 

those two commands work with both windows 8.1 and windows 10 (a newer DISM Feature)

and yes I have exported windows 8.1 drivers and imported them into windows 10 - and MS update found better drivers..

 

Seems to me that in order to get the free upgrade to windows 10 rtm > you will need a qualifying OS installed

And the Free Windows 10 Preview > is not a qualifying OS

 

Gabe did tweet that you can go from Win10TP to Win10 RTM.

 

Well, that would save a lot of the hassle.. But I like to save the drivers as it makes reinstalls easier, rather then having to re-download them or run all the installers

 

I agree.. I have my drivers all set if I do need them.

 

You can save them as you wish. But, remember, vendors still have a lot of drivers in Q&A testing w/MS. There may well be a slew of newly released/updated drivers/firmware waiting in the wings. Just use caution and common sense.

 

It exports the current system drivers - the newest available at the time of export..
Yes they might get updated again at a later time
Just export them again as to keep a folder of CURRENT drivers

 

Yes, but that was in response to someone who had originally upgraded from Windows 7, and wondered if they would have to enter the Windows 7 key when they went to the RTM. It wasn't a blanket statement.

 

Anybody can upgrade to the RTM from the preview. The question is, if you did a clean install instead of upgrading from a qualifying OS, will you be activated and good to go? The way I read it is, if you upgraded from windows 7 or 8.1, that fact is stored in the TP and you'll be good to go. If you clean installed the TP, you may have to prove ownership of a qualifying OS. That's just my read, it's open to interpretation, so make up your own mind, or wait for Microsoft to actually spell it out in black and white.

 

Everyone may have a slightly different key-path. In my case, cause I have OEM 8.1 Pro, I think MS will use the UEFI stored key to verify, then issue a WIN 10 key of it's own. That's very similar, in fact the same, as when I got a machine 4 yrs ago with OEM WIN 7 Home Prem, Then did the "Anytime Upgrade" to WIN 7 Ultimate. The WIN 7 upgrade validated from OEM key and issued it's own for Ultimate. I had both keys stored on the box. No, UEFI, of course.