Clean installation of W11 - but keeping my current settings/apps/etc

Discussion in 'Windows 11' started by TheSkaffer, Jun 23, 2022.

  1. TheSkaffer

    TheSkaffer MDL Senior Member

    May 16, 2010
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    I was about to post this in @Enthousiast thread about imaging, but realized it might be off topic.
    There is a tool to collect data about current image and using that as some kind of template when doing a new installation. That was for W10, so not so sure about W11.

    How would you - and beware of subsequent questions from me - make a template of your current W11 installation ( Steam, mapped drives, apps, office, settings etc..) and use that as a base for a brand new W11 clean setup?

    I did an upgrade from W10 that was like 2 years old so I figure a cleanup and fresh installation might be in order.
     
  2. AveYo

    AveYo MDL Expert

    Feb 10, 2009
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    Why don't you try an in-place upgrade?
    Mount 11 iso and run setup again, it will cleanup stuff by design.
    Modern windows setup does just that: saves whatever is worth saving, does a clean install (minus formatting), and imports back the saved stuff.
    When there's years of software baggage, a clean install is not worth the time, and the best template is always gonna be the one windows itself makes (when licensing and registry stuff is involved).

    This in-place upgrade is a must when doing cross-versions i.e. if going 7 to 10, then immediately after do 10 setup again, likewise for 10 to 11, or 11 rtm (SV1) to 11 dev / beta / rp (SV2).
     
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  3. TheSkaffer

    TheSkaffer MDL Senior Member

    May 16, 2010
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    I went for @AveYo 's approach after checking some stuff at elevenforums and it went well.
    Kinda hard to tell much difference since it was mostly due to maintenance, I think it may have been over three years since the last installation. Yeah, probably October 2019. Might even be my longest running desktop.
     
  4. TheSkaffer

    TheSkaffer MDL Senior Member

    May 16, 2010
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    After a few days turns out I had to do a manual reinstall of chipset and gpu drivers since the procedure above did really not take those in account.