I've been looking for ways to upgrade from Windows 8.1 Pro to LTSC IoT 2021 without having to go through the hassle of reinstalling everything and/or restoring tons of stuff from a backup. I've found four approaches that seem viable, but I'm not sure which is best or if any might not work: 1. Changing EditionID and ProductName in the registry to match the new version and trick the installer into allowing an upgrade. 2. Editing the file in the ISO that sets what versions can be upgraded from to include the current version. 3. Going to LTSB 2015 since that apparently accidentally allowed upgrades from 8.1, and then to LTSC 2021 IoT. 4. Upgrading to 10 Pro then switching to LTSC 2021 IoT. If the registry tweak method works I'd prefer that since it's the simplest, but I'm not familiar enough with how Windows setup works to know if that only tricks it into allowing the upgrade or if it has some effect on what gets installed since it thinks it's overwriting a different version. I've only seen people mention that method for "upgrading" between different Windows 10 editions so I can't tell if it would work from 8.1 to 10. If the registry tweak doesn't work for this situation, which of the others would be best? I'd prefer to not pick up all the bloat in normal Windows 10 from method 4, but that's still probably better than restoring all my stuff if I can't upgrade. Update: I tried method 1 and it didn't work because LTSC doesn't allow upgrades from any version. After that, I used method 2 with the tool linked below and it worked great.
All of these are very bad, and I personally wouldn't recommend any, even if you were upgrading your enemy's computer. I have only one suggestion - if you do something, do it as perfectly as possible. Therefore, the only recommendation is a completely new and clean installation and also a new clean installation of all programs, drivers, etc. It means, you'll get again as good as possible pc for long time.
I did consider that, but it seems very unlikely to be worthwhile for this computer. Slow internet would make it a major pain to reinstall everything, and files and settings are all over the place so restoring those would also be a pain. Unless things go catastrophically wrong (in which case it would hopefully be readily apparent so I can just restore a backup image and try again), I doubt the time and effort needed to troubleshoot any issues would match the time needed to make everything work right after a clean install. One of the main reasons I want to go with LTSC for this is specifically because it's a setup that takes too much effort to get right and I don't want updates breaking something.
I vote for backup your important files and install LTSC 2021 fresh. Upgrading OSs is always hairy but good luck.
Love these mental *anks threads where users have no time to backup or redownload stuff to prepare for a clean install, but never consider a possible disk failure where you can lose everything.
I definitely have a backup ready to go in case it fails. It's just a matter of 20 minutes to restore the OS drive or 6 hours to restore all drives vs probably at least 30 hours to get everything reinstalled and set up again. I'd much rather risk something going wrong and having to restore a backup than guarantee having to go through that.
Not likely to work from <10 to 10. Check my tool for that, modify to your needs: https://forums.mydigitallife.net/th...prise-n-ltsc-2019.76325/page-289#post-1638636 Should work but more work. Not an option (yeah there are people playing with that but i would not advise to do that.
Well I just tried method 1 and it didn't enable the option. Looking into UpgradeMatrix.xml for method 2, it appears LTSC 2021 doesn't have any edition it can do an in-place upgrade from (unless I'm reading it wrong), so method 1 didn't have a chance anyway. Thanks, I'll take a look.
Thanks, but I already did basically that and upgraded. Hopefully that version helps someone who finds this thread in the future. So far everything seems like it went fine, other than that Windows 10 is kind of terrible without a graphics driver and refused to install one until after a long list of other updates. It's normal for LTSC to not have the store, not something to do with upgrading from 8.1. IIRC reenabling it is as easy as running one or two commands, and I personally try to avoid it unless absolutely necessary, so it shouldn't be an issue.
If apps from the source install are meant to be kept, the store should have been kept too. Like it did with 1809 LTSC: https://forums.mydigitallife.net/th...prise-n-ltsc-2019.76325/page-295#post-1653587 Difference was that that was 10 > 10 inplace upgrade and not <10 > 10:
I don't think it keeps any of the built-in Windows 8/8.1 apps, but it definitely kept everything I installed except one thing that was incompatible. I never used the store or any of that Metro crap anyway, so I don't really care and may have removed some of it before the upgrade.
As a small update on the store issue, I didn't think I would need it but quickly ran into a couple things that depend on it. A simple Code: wsreset -i command easily brought it into existence, so now I just need to figure out how to get rid of the apps it comes with that seem to be simultaneously installed and not installed...
Upgrade to windows 10 pro => switch windows pro 21h2 to enterprise 21h2 ( only use rights key ) and after upgrade enterprise to enterprise Ltsc 2021
Hi at all, whats about upgrading from 10 Pro Retail > 10 Enterprise Vol. it is possible ? using a Key and then activate or Inplace Upgrade any suggestion ?