Windows 10: Windows 10 Upgrade - All programs gone

I just got suckered into upgrading from Windows7 to Windows10 (clicking the "download" instead of the "install" button still forces you into an upgrade within a week with no way to cancel). The update itself took 2-3h and it seems to work, at least the desktop comes back up and stuff. However, pretty much all the installed programs are gone. The only thing left are old copies of Word & Excel 2003 and those fail to start on Windows10. Nothing in the startmenu or on desktop. This does not seem to be the intended behaviour, does it? Quick Internet search at least didn't bring up a lot of complaining. So what's going on here?
Now the programs are still in C:\Windows.old, but I assume there is no way to make them work in Windows10 without a proper reinstall.
So what are my options now to get the system back into working conditions? Reinstalling all the apps is something I'd like to avoid. So that leaves the Windows7 downgrade option, which is bound to a timelimit of a month before potential dataloss.
Does the Windows7 downgrade work without issues? Or will I go from broken Windows10 to broken Windows7? Is it possible to update back from a downgraded Windows7 to Windows10 at a later point? And how long will the downgrade take?

:)

 

Windows 10 - all the programs are gone!

Hi Bruce,

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Windows 10 - all the programs are gone!

Hello,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

I can imagine the inconvenience you have experienced. I will definitely help you with this.

Please be informed that, Windows 10 updates won't cause in loosing any of the installed applications.
In Windows 10, your device is always kept up to date with the latest features and fixes. Updates and drivers are installed automatically, with no need to select which updates are needed or not needed. In rare cases, a specific driver
or update might temporarily cause issues with your device.

However, you are not able to find the installed applications I suggest you to install it from online.

I hope this information helps. Please do let us know if you need any further assistance.

 

I still have no idea why none of the applications got carried over from Windows7 to Windows10, among them lots of really standard stuff Audacity, IrfanView, iTunes, etc. However I did now do a downgrade from Windows10 back to Windows7 and that worked mostly as expected. Took around 20min and Windows7 booted back up normal. Only issue I could see so far is that all the pinned applications in the task bar stopped working and had to be repinned, but otherwise I haven't found any issues yet.


The Windows10 nag screen came right back after the downgrade, so I guess future upgrades back to Windows10 are still possible.

 

Hi, some people upgrading Win 10 10240 to 10586 lost their desktop files and folders- and I just found this on Win 7-10 which sounds somewhat similar to your experience.
Solved Missing applications in Start Menu after upgrading from 7 to 10 - Windows 10 Forums
After upgrading to Windows 10 I have lost all my programs and documents - Super User

I was just wondering whether you checked the installation folders for your programs were still present.

Note that the Win 10 start menu is very poor at expressing the traditional start menu structure; whilst I have many shortcuts in the Win 10 start menu, it's flattened the hierarchical structure, and subfolders e.g. those created by programs being installed which I place under folders for each of 6 categories are lost.

There are plenty of reports of Office start menu problems.

Personally I don't use the Win 10 start menu- Classic Shell is so much more user friendly and 'normal'.

You are strongly recommended to make a disk image of your system before any major change, and maintain image regularly, both so you can revert to it and as a backup (Aomei Backupper or Macrium Reflect - both free. I prefer the former for my use, others Macrium R.).

If you do that, you can readily try the upgrade again.. it's recommended to uninstall your AV before doing so.
Avast users have had some significant issues, but there is now a compatible version I understand.

A very few programs will be uninstalled or removed- some noticed this moving from build 10240 to 10586.

Note that you can experience driver issues when upgrading to Win 10- Win 10 manages more drivers now.