Now that Windows 11 is here, should I finally upgrade to Windows 10?

My PC is pretty old (~2014, maybe - I can't remember), but I built it from scratch, and with minor upgrades along the way, it's still perfectly fine. For reference, it's an Intel Core i5 4690K @ 3.50GHz on a MSI Z97 PC Mate, 16GB DDR3, and an EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER. Right now it's still on Windows 7, but of course that's been deprecated, and I'm contemplating doing the Win10 upgrade on it. I've got the .iso downloaded, but I have my doubts about doing a straight upgrade versus a clean install. I'd really rather not do the latter, as it will be a huge pile of work to get everything back to where it should be from clean. Trouble is, I don't trust Microsoft's OS upgrades (bad past experiences). I would clone the SSD before I did anything, so in theory I could go back to 7 if need be. Any insights on how well the Win7->Win10 upgrade works? Things to look out for? Positive or negative experiences?

I'm normally adverse to in-place upgrades, but I went from Win7 to Win10 on two ancient laptops (they're now 10 years old) with no issues.  I went for the upgrade a few years back when Win10 first came out, and was pretty impressed how smoothly the upgrade went. 
 

With an image backup of your SSD, I think you'll be fine.

I did the Win 7 to Win 10 upgrade years ago on a system that had been downgraded after purchase (user 'hated' both Win 8 and Win 10).  No drama.  After I determined that all was well, I deleted the Windows.Old folder.  The issue I did run into was that there was no driver available for their HP scanner.

That being said, if your components are from bigger manufacturers, OEM drivers should be available.  Even if they aren't, Win 10 has many drivers built into the Win 10 install or Windows Update. 

The other side of this is, when I was still working, I always told the guys, "When in doubt, wipe it out" ie: reload Windows, but we were dealing with a lot of systems and reloading was often faster than troubleshooting.

Think you are on the right path.  Clone your existing drive, do the upgrade, and see what happens.

Win10 is fine but it is a RAM hog and it likes an SSD.  With 16GB I think you'll be good to go.

I've upgraded multiple machines from Win7 and Win8 to Win10, with few to no issues. Obviously after creating a backup.

Win10 is fairly mature these days and I do run it on a pretty ancient laptop of similar vintage to your desktop, with only 8GB of RAM. Works fine. Given that Windows 7 doesn't get any security updates and hasn't for a while, IMHO it is more than high time to upgrade.

Over 24 hours and nobody has suggested upgrading to a "real" OS.

Thanks folks. When I get time I'll jump through the hoops and cross my fingers.

In reply to jwagner (Forum Supporter) :

I have another box running Mint, a couple of Linux VMs on the Windows box, run apps via Crostini on my Chromebook, and have a beard (and possibly a smug expression - no suspenders, though), so I think I'm covered.

I always go clean install. Just seems to work better that way. 

OK, I finally had the time to dive into this. The upgrade went pretty smoothly, but right now I'm at a bit of an impasse. I can't get connected to the internet. My Wifi adapter is detected, but when I try to connect I get a BSOD with a Page Fault in Non-paged Area error in netr28ux.sys. I've tried several wifi adapters, all with the same result. I also did driver updates from within Windows, but no change. From what I've read so far, this seems to be a driver error, but I haven't yet figured out how to correct it. Anyone got a quick and easy solution?

OK, never mind - I found the Windows 10 driver, downloaded it onto a flash drive, and installed it, which seems to have resolved the issue. I have a feeling I'm going to have to do this for a few other things that aren't working, like my video card.

Upgraded from Win7 to Win10 no problem back in the early days (may have required driver updates too but that's hardly a problem). I've actually upgraded my gaming PC's OS all the way up from Win7 RC and will likely go to Windows 11 on it too.

Uggg ... I wish I had kept one of my PC's running Windows 7 back when I changed them all over the Windows 10, just so I could still use my legit copy (i.e. I bought it) of AutoCAD 2000 ... if only I had known I'd lose the use of this program with the OS change

win 3.1 4 lyfe

In reply to einy (Forum Supporter) :

Ha! I'm still running Win 7 pro.