Win 11 install -clean or upgrade Win 10?

splitsecond said:

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.

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Why over complicate things doing such plans.

1) export drivers

2) save data

3) make sure you have installation codes for software

4) Try update first

5) if update fails or has issues, clean install.

It is always worth trying update first - you can always clean install later.

Next time permanently disable or uninstall any third party antivirus. Then upgrade to newer version. After successful upgrade enable or reinstall third party antivirus. Much simpler than a backup and clean installation. If you read my posts at the relevant thread you would see that I disable services and startup applications and even some devices yo make sure nothing will interfere with the upgrade. Important for 22H2: disconnect from the internet during all the upgrade procedure or it will fail.

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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Haha. That's cool. I used Macrium Reflect as well. I guess it's fairly new. it was nice and the free stuff worked for what i needed. Mount to virtual, browse. non-destructive.
For the O/P: I migrated from 10 to 11 back in Aug or so. I bought a Beelink minipc from Amazon. i forget what model it was, but it was super nice w/ Win 11, Something was broken inside, so I returned it for a "better" model. I think i posted about that Sound Card problem here, come to think of it.
I must have re-installed Win 11 5+ times before I was finally satisfied. I tried the "OEM" Recover partition (is there an "official" name? i dunno if it matters. you know what i mean). Reset, i guess. Start from scratch, but use the OEM image on the SDD, is what i mean. Honestly, I can't remember by now, but I want to say it finally worked correctly after using the MS Win Media Creation thing to a USB, and did it that way. But Mine was a device issue. The Audio didn't work from the starting line. It did, but some Win updated caused it to break. That was the worst month of my life, recently. When I say, month. I mean 30 days. Ha! probably. You never know what you're going to get. Just don't freak out. And be sure to backup anything important. I wouldn't personally worry about drivers, and whatever. Just go clean. Otherwise, you'll be fighting with it for days, or a month, and it's all the same in the end once it starts getting clogged w/ apps and daily use. just my two cent.s
Cheers all! happy new year!

Unfortunately I have also discovered that some times we spent more time trying to fix issues than starting over. I too avoid a clean installation that would take me many hours or even days to reinstall all my data. But in some, rare thanks God, cases you just can't make it work. And you try and try... Starting over would take less. It depends on the case. Even I that I am an experienced professional some times is hard to judge when I should give up and start over. In my job we usually don't spend more than a couple of hours trying to fix issues. We then take a backup and clean install Windows. An easier way is the "Windows.old" method. That is to boot with the Windows DVD or USB and install Windows on the old Windows partition (usually the larger) without modifying the disk. This will give you a warning that all your data will be copied to Windows.old partition, just proceed. After installation and installing the drivers, go to Windows.old to retrieve your data. As I have said before, you can even restore some applications if you carefully copy all relevant folders at the respective positions and then reinstall the applications. For example, copy any Mozilla folder from ProgramData, Program Files, and user\AppData hidden folders back into the respective folders of the current Windows installation. Then download and install Firefox. It will detect your old data and offer to "upgrade". After installation is over open Firefox. You should see your theme, extensions, bookmarks, passwords and browsing history!

ajaxStardust said:

I wouldn't personally worry about drivers

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IMHO, one should worry about drivers. I've had a few experiences where after doing a clean install over top of an existing install that I had to track down drivers. Usually, it was the chipset drivers. Now I make sure I backup the drivers just in case I need them. It's not that hard. Backup and Restore Device Drivers in Windows 11 Tutorial

Winuser said:

IMHO, one should worry about drivers. I've had a few experiences where after doing a clean install over top of an existing install that I had to track down drivers. Usually, it was the chipset drivers. Now I make sure I backup the drivers just in case I need them. It's not that hard. Backup and Restore Device Drivers in Windows 11 Tutorial

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I hear you on that, but if Win 11 can't find drivers for a PC that's already been running win 10. i dunno.
i'm lazy. there's always a solution. doesn't sound like it'd be brand-new hardware or anything. though, that's a hasty assessment now that i think of it. i mean, i still have a copy of XP i could probably try to install on this Beelink thing w/ the SDD. i'd probably be wishing i had drivers then. and a CD-ROM. LOL!

Don't listen to me O/P.
:)

spapakons said:

I too avoid a clean installation that would take me many hours or even days to reinstall all my data.

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I know what from experience what you're saying. On my main computer, it takes me days to get it up and running with all of my programs and setting. On my old desktop I had I few programs that where from those free software giveaway sites and they had to be installed within a certain time frame after downloading them. Sadly, a few months ago I was forced to do a clean install and lost them. For whatever reason I couldn't update it to the latest insider build. I even tried using my Macrium images that did work in the past.

For most unsupported Intel chipsets (1st or 2nd generation Core-i3/5/7 up to 6th or 7th generation), I have found an Intel INF upgrade installer (chipset drivers pack). I just run it and installs all chipset drivers. If the chipset is older, I have older versions that cover these. If it is 8th generation or older (officially supported), then it is not usually needed to manually install chipset drivers, Windows Update finds them automatically. For old AMD systems I try to find the chipset drivers on AMD's site. If there isn't any, it is usually sufficient to install the graphics drivers and usually includes the chipset drivers (for AMD CPUs with graphics). For current AMD chipsets, such as B450, I always download the chipset drivers from AMD and install them before the graphics drivers. With that I am trying to say, keep any drivers you have downloaded for later use. You never know when you might need them. If you find newer online, install the newer and keep the installer. I usually keep 2-3 versions of my drivers, you never know.

ajaxStardust said:

I hear you on that, but if Win 11 can't find drivers for a PC that's already been running win 10. i dunno.
i'm lazy. there's always a solution. doesn't sound like it'd be brand-new hardware or anything. though, that's a hasty assessment now that i think of it. i mean, i still have a copy of XP i could probably try to install on this Beelink thing w/ the SDD. i'd probably be wishing i had drivers then. and a CD-ROM. LOL!

Don't listen to me O/P.
:)

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Just a FYI. I found out that if one needs a driver for the Beelink mini pc that you have to download the whole folder. I wanted to change my non Beelink mini pc that I used for steaming over to my Beelink. Not wanting to go through the hassle of setting up the Beelink I used an image of the old mini pc on the Beelink. I had a lot of unknown devices in device manager. The downloaded folder did solve my driver problem. As I recall, I updated one driver at a time until all of the unknown devices were working. As for installing Win XP on the Beelink, I think you'll run into trouble trying to find drivers.

If you want to experiment with old Windows, such as XP, make sure you have downloaded all drivers in advance before installing! Even if the network or wireless card is working you may be stuck with Internet Explorer 8 with which you cannot browse most sites, let alone download drivers. Also download in advance the latest working browsers and anything else hard to do from XP. I recommend Mozilla Firefox 52 over Chrome. Firefox 52 can open almost all sites, while old Chrome versions can't open some sites. Been there done that.

spapakons said:

If you want to experiment with old Windows, such as XP, make sure you have downloaded all drivers in advance before installing! Even if the network or wireless card is working you may be stuck with Internet Explorer 8 with which you cannot browse most sites, let alone download drivers. Also download in advance the latest working browsers and anything else hard to do from XP. I recommend Mozilla Firefox 52 over Chrome. Firefox 52 can open almost all sites, while old Chrome versions can't open some sites. Been there done that.

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The "Dell Command | Update" utility has this nicely covered!
See the lower right area that has a complete Driver Restore for a Windows installation.
When you run the utility, it automagically recognizes your Dell computer and needed drivers.