How to prepare your PC to upgrade to Windows 10 successfully?

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Windows 10 is the newest and latest operating system developed by Microsoft. Nowadays, more than 1 billion devices are running Windows 10. Many users who were previously using Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 are going to upgrade their OS to Windows 10. So, the people who are currently using Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 and are planning to upgrade to Windows 10 have some questions in their minds. The most asked questions are what will happen to our installed programs, personal files, antivirus software, MS Office, etc.? Do we have to reinstall it? In this article, we are going to resolve these issues.

If you upgrade your PC's Windows smoothly and correctly, all your programs and personal files should remain in place. Here, we shall mention some tips to upgrade your Windows seamlessly.

Following is a list of some simple tips that you should use before installing Windows 10 or any other operating system successfully.

1. Check whether Windows 10 is compatible with your PC

Although most PCs running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 are likely to run Windows 10 correctly, we should care about Microsoft's defined minimum spec requirement to install the new operating system.

Windows can automatically detect and install most device drivers, but it is always good to have the latest update of your system applications. It will be very helpful when you have to reinstall any of them after the upgrade.

Minimum requirements to install Windows 10

• Processor: At least one gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC
• RAM: At least 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit
• Hard disk space: At least 16 GB for 32-bit OS 20 GB for 64-bit OS
• Graphics Card: At least DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver
• Display: 1024x600

2. Scan and Fix Hard Disk and OS Errors

Sometimes, when you want to upgrade your Windows, some broken applications, improper shutdowns, operating system updates, or other factors can corrupt files on the hard disk and make it challenging to upgrade your Windows. You should fix these problems before upgrading your Windows. Follow the steps given below:

• Click on the Start button and type cmd to open the command prompt. If you are a Windows 8 user, press Windows key + X > Command Prompt (Admin).

• Right-click on the above-searched result "Command Prompt" and then click on the "Run as Administrator option to open the command prompt as an administrator.

• Type sfc /scannow on the command prompt. It will check for any integrity violations.

• After completing the above process, 100%, restart your Computer. This process will take some time.
• If everything is fine, it will show a message as Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

Note: If you are using Windows 8 or later, you can use another powerful command-line utility named Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool. You can use DISM to correct corrupted system files and check the status of your PC. Follow the steps given below:

• Press Windows icon key + X > Click Command Prompt (Admin) > Type the each below command at the command prompt and then press the enter button after completing each scan.
• Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
• Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
• Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

3. Make a full backup of your system

You should make a full backup of your system before going to upgrade Windows if you are using Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, both with a System image backup tool. You can find the System image backup in the Control Panel. Using this tool, you can create a bit-by-bit copy of your entire system's hard drive, along with the operating system, settings, programs, and files.

• Click on the Start menu and type Control Panel to open the all control panel items.

• Connect an external hard disc drive and click on the "File History" option to keep a copy of your backup.

• After creating the complete backup, move to the next step.

4. Free up space in Windows drive

To install Windows 10, you must have at least 16GB of free space in your main Windows drive. Follow the steps given below to check how much free space you have on your hard drive and also check how to free some space:

• Go to the Computer> Right-click on the C:/ drive, and then click on the Properties option. See the below image:

• After clicking on the properties option, a new popup window will appear. Now, click on the Disk Cleanup button to free up some space. This action will free up some space.

• You can also uninstall programs that you don't use to free up more space.

5. Keep your Product keys and passwords

Your PC stores a lot of credentials, including product keys and website passwords. You make sure that you have already saved the product keys and passwords because some of these passwords could be lost during a clean-up and upgrade process of the Windows.

There are many applications and programs which you can use to take an inventory of your PC and extract any product keys, for example, Belarc Advisor or NirSoft's ProduKey. Both are free to use.

6. Update Device Drivers

While upgrading your Windows, it is always good to verify that you have updated your device drivers and are using the compatible drivers. This is used to avoid stability issues that could arise due to your Computer's hardware. Go to your PC manufacturer support website where you can find the Windows 10 drivers available. The advanced users can also access the DXDIAG tool in Windows to check drivers.

Note: While upgrading your Windows and installation process, you may be asked for device drivers, so you should download the drivers to an external drive.

7. Restore the redirected Personal folders to their original location

This step is necessary if you have redirected your personal folders to another location. If you have kept your personal folders such as "My Document" folder on another partition or drive for additional space, this may create a problem and prevent Windows from installing correctly. You should restore them to their original location before upgrading to newer Windows.

8. Detach the non-essential devices attached to your PC

• Must ensure that you have detached all non-essential external devices such as a printer, scanner, etc. during the installation process.
• If you have attached an external hard disk or USB thumb drive to your system, detach them too, they can confuse setup during installation.
• Disable your security utilities such as antivirus, window defender, etc. while upgrading your PC from a previous version of Windows to Windows 10. These Antiviruses, AntiSpyware, and Firewall utilities, etc. may act as a typical blocker for Windows setup.

9. Install the latest update for your current Windows version

• You should install the latest updates for your current version of Windows before going to upgrade your PC to a new Windows.
• Run the Windows Update manually to check for available updates.

10. Get the full administrative privileges

• Before going to upgrade your PC to a newer Windows, make sure that your account privileges are set to Administrator. If you don't have administrator privileges, your system cannot write setup files to the hard disk.
• To set your account privileges to Administrator, Press Windows key + R and then type: control userpasswords after that press the Enter button on your keyboard or press the OK button.

• After clicking on the OK button, a new popup window will appear. Now, click on the Change your account type and set the Administrator.

• Here, you can see that my account is already set to the Administrator.

After completing the above 10 steps, you can now upgrade your PC to a new Windows.