Win 11 install -clean or upgrade Win 10?

First post. Long time member of TenForums, but Bree convinced me that upgrading to 11 was OK, so here I am. Bree pointed out that aside from the GUI, Win 11 is very similar to Win 10, and is also quite stable at this point. Windows 10 22H2 - Windows 10 Help Forums

My home LAN includes two Lenovo laptops, one from 2019 and the other bought just recently. Both are running Win 10. Is it better to do a clean install of Win 11, and then reinstall all programs, etc., or just do an upgrade install.

I organize my system so that each has a C PROGRAMS partition, a D DATA partition, etc. That way, I can do a Win clean install if necessary without concern for my data, my photos and videos, etc.

Even if your data is on a separate partition, all the programs will have registry entries on the C: drive! If you backup with a program like Macrium Reflect (free) and you mess up things, a restore will be much quicker than re-installing Windows. If Win 11 is offered, I would do an upgrade install.

kelper said:

Even if your data is on a separate partition, all the programs will have registry entries on the C: drive! If you backup with a program like Macrium Reflect (free) and you mess up things, a restore will be much quicker than re-installing Windows. If Win 11 is offered, I would do an upgrade install.

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I agree. I did that on one of my VMs and it works fine
Dave

x509 said:

First post. Long time member of TenForums, but Bree convinced me that upgrading to 11 was OK, so here I am.....

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Welcome to Eleven Forum.....

x509 said:

Is it better to do a clean install of Win 11, and then reinstall all programs, etc., or just do an upgrade install.

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I have done both. My System One was upgraded from Win 10 to Win 11. My System Three (it's in the 'Other Info' section) had a clean install. There's little if any difference I can find in their installed Windows.

As said above, make a system image before you start, that way you can go back and start again if you change your mind.

I've had no issues with upgrades from 10 to 11.

Either goes.

The install on Lenovo is pretty fast. I did either way. no issues.

If you prefer clean install, please first export all drivers to the Data partition. When clean install done, you can re-install all drivers from the export folder quick, with 5 min. then re-install apps.

If you go upgrade install, you can save those tasks above. If OS size is NOT a concern, this way is easier. (one of my Lenovo runs 2GB RAM 30GB disk. hence had to go clean-install than upgrade install)

Sometimes upgrading from W10 can go bonkers.

I once had a silly message saying "W11 needs at least a 2 Core CPU" on a 32GB RAM dual (physical i.e 2 CPUs) approved CPU set and wouldn't upgrade. Of course it installed "clean" !!! but I couldn't upgrade from W10.

Meanwhile a lowly 8GB laptop with an unsupported CPU worked !!!!!!!

Then I copied that image via Macrium to the 32GB desktop -- upgraded the drivers and all OK !!!!!

Well part of the fun is of course "The mystery of Windows".

What would I do with all the extra time I would have if Windows didn't have any problems !!!!!

Cheers
jimbo

If your Windows 10 system is good without major issues and with tens of applications installed, an upgrade to Windows 11 looks like a much better idea than a clean installation. If you have a compliant system just download the latest ISO, mount it and run Setup from there. Make sure you download the same language as Windows 10 or you cannot keep both your apps and data. If your computer is unsupported read the appropriate thread to bypass compatibility check and proceed. In 22H2 you must also disconnect from the internet to prevent online compatibility check and Windows Update messing with your working drivers during installation. If you stay online the upgrade will fail after a while. It is important to disconnect from the internet before upgrading an unsupported computer.

All 4 of my initial W11's have been upgrades from W10, with no noticable problems. I have re installed W11 since on 2 of the pc's for unrelated reasons using ISO DVD,s downloaded from Microsoft.

Yes, all you need is the official Microsoft ISO and to bypass compatibility check. In 22H2 you must also disconnect from the internet before upgrading. After a successful upgrade to Windows 11 22H2 you can reconnect to the internet to activate and update your drivers if necessary.

@Bree, @jimbo45 and @NavyLCDR

Hi guys. I'm glad to see some "familiar faces" from the Win 10 forums also here. Makes me feel a bit better about upgrading all my systems to Win 11.

I remember my hesitation to upgrade from one Windows version to the other. From 7 to 8, then to 8.1. Later to Windows 10 and finally to 11. Once done you get used to the new interface and feels weird when using an earlier version on another computer. As always you are missing some new features when using an earlier version. Of course you are also missing some good old features no longer available in the new versions. Thankfully third party applications can restore most of the old features in Windows 11 (classic games, gadgets, start button and start menu, Windows Media Center, Windows Photo Viewer etc).

There are pro and con for an upgrade compared to a clean install.

These are some:

Upgrade:
Pro: typically quicker unless there is an upgrade failure
Con: if there are partition issues the partition architecture often remains the same, may fail to upgrade

Clean install:
Pro: creates new partitions, cleans unknown spyware/malware, allows the installation of Windows 11 in an unsupported fashion without file modifications
Con: slower than an upgrade having to reinstall drivers and applications

My upgrade removed some programs - Brave browser for example.

A clean installation without the data and applications takes less time than an upgrade that has to process all user data and applications. But then you can spend hours to reinstall and reconfigure all your applications. So if it is a typical office PC with Office and a couple applications, it might be faster to do a clean installation. If it is a typical home computer with tons of applications, I would like to avoid all the hassle to reinstall everything from start. I would only do that if upgrade is impossible or there are major issues in the current system.

The best way to install Windows is to do a clean install, disconnect the other disks and install windows on the one you intend to install, ssd or m2 disk.

The 'best' way to install Windows depends on your circumstances!

I have said it before in several posts, not all computers are the same. An office computer typically has Office, Chrome, an ERP software and one or two more applications. In that case I would do a clean installation and reinstall the applications. It gives a more robust system, updated (unless you install old versions of the applications) and is faster than an upgrade. A typical home computer has tens of applications and tons of data. To do a proper clean installation you must first spend a couple of hours taking a backup of all these GB of data with the risk of missing something. You then need half an hour to install Windows and roughly another half an hour to install drivers. No, not everyone should rely entirely on Windows Update. For best performance at least the graphics drivers should be downloaded directly from manufacturer. After that spend a couple of hours to reinstall and reconfigure all the applications with the risk of either forgetting something or cannot find the installer or the setup won't work in Windows 11... Assuming you finally install everything you need another couple hours to copy all your data back. I think now you get the idea. No thanks, I would not like to go through all this nightmare to do a clean installation and get very little performance gain. I prefer doing an upgrade from my earlier Windows version. So it depends upon each case. Clean installation for a few applications and less than 30GB data, and upgrade for more than ten applications and many GB of data.

zbook said:

There are pro and con for an upgrade compared to a clean install.

These are some:

Upgrade:
Pro: typically quicker unless there is an upgrade failure
Con: if there are partition issues the partition architecture often remains the same, may fail to upgrade

Clean install:
Pro: creates new partitions, cleans unknown spyware/malware, allows the installation of Windows 11 in an unsupported fashion without file modifications
Con: slower than an upgrade having to reinstall drivers and applications

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Yes, I agree mostly with your pros and cons. I upgradede from Windows 10 22H2 to Windows 11 22H2. All went well without errors. Still, I got a weird "bug" that no one was able to solve. Norton lost something, or some driver etc issue from Windows side. Norton firewall went grey and could not be accessed. Did about 10 different operations regarding this, no success and help desk could not solve it either => had to go back to Windows 10 because of this.
I have so many programs with licenses etc. that I'm not that glad to clean install. Did that on a test partition, Norton worked flawlessly there.

The best path is to make a risk assessment plan, what is required and what is not. Could be upgrade or clean installation of W11.

spapakons said:

Clean installation for a few applications and less than 30GB data, and upgrade for more than ten applications and many GB of data.

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I keep all my data in separate Windows partitions. A clean Windows install doesn't affect those partitions.