Upgrading to WIN10

[meyercub 2]

Hello,

I currently have windows 8.1 and I am running FSX with Acceleration pack as well as many plane, scenery, etc. addons. I am going to upgrade to WIN10 for the new MSFS 2020 but I wanted to ask if I just upgrade my computer, without uninstalling anything, to WIN10 will my FSX install still be there with all of my addons? Thank you so much!

Cub M

[bobbyjack 61]

I think you will find that different people have had different upgrade experiences. Technically and upgrade from within Windows is supposed to leave things intact. But considering driver and compatibility issues (depending on what add-ons you have, as well as where your add-ons are installed) it's hard to say what is the best course for you. It's a pain, but it's always safer in the long run to do a fresh install of windows followed by a software reinstall.

[meyercub 2]

Thanks for the reply! What I might try is to do the upgrade, see how everything works and if it’s not great I could do a fresh install of FSX. I have a feeling I’ll be playing more of the new sim so I’m not too worried about it!

[Simty 0]

Everyone has a different Windows upgrade experience. I tried the upgrade task of Windows 10 twice. Before I started, I uninstalled all the software on my computer. After I finished it, I downloaded and installed them again.
I just did that In order for the Windows upgrade to proceed smoothly,they are all working well now.

About upgrading Windows 10 from Windows 8 (Windows 7),that is what i did.

https://www.windows10passwordreset.com/free-upgrade-to-windows-10.html

Microsoft also provides methods,but i don't know if it is free.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/get-windows-10

Edited July 20, 2020 by Simty

[vortex681 806]

On 7/18/2020 at 6:12 PM, meyercub said:

if I just upgrade my computer, without uninstalling anything, to WIN10 will my FSX install still be there with all of my addons?

Probably. However, most problems with Windows 10 seem to happen to systems which have been upgraded rather than having a clean install. You can end up with a lot of legacy software and drivers which Windows 10 tries to incorporate often with variable results (some of which only appear at a later date). There's probably a ton of stuff on your system that you installed but didn't use or haven't used in years and a clean install gets rid of that sort of thing and forces you to decide what you really want/need. As for FSX, I'd see it as an opportunity to install FSX:SE which is generally less hassle than the CD version.

Edited July 20, 2020 by vortex681

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

On 7/18/2020 at 11:47 AM, meyercub said:

Thanks for the reply! What I might try is to do the upgrade, see how everything works and if it’s not great I could do a fresh install of FSX. I have a feeling I’ll be playing more of the new sim so I’m not too worried about it!

That is what I did (from Windows 7)..

And FSX still worked, as did all of my other applications..

I did install the latest video driver for my card, since Windows installed its own version which was older than the current nvidia driver at the time.

Edited July 20, 2020 by Bert Pieke

[JayDub 0]

Hi,

I installed Win 10 pro from my Win 7 pro system four days ago.  Had been running Win 7 pro for the last 5 years and was extremely happy with the performance. So far, not too happy with the way my installation of Prepar3D is running with Win 10.  It seems slower and more jerky. Also, I had virtually eliminated  any "blurries" with Prepa3D, now I seem to have some back. I did use the Microsoft free update to Win 10 site and the installation did go well. Also, I did elect to save my personal settings and programs rather than reformat and complete clean install and that may be the problem. My Win 7 install of Prepar3D along with all my Orbx scenery was over 300GB so I did not want to start from scratch and have to redo the whole program. Also updated to the latest Win 10 64bit Drivers for my GTX 970. I did this also to be ready for the release of Flight Simulator 2020 and can only hope that it runs better than Prepar3D on this system. As always I suspect that some "User Error" may be in play on my part, so I will keep working with it.

Intel Core i7-4790K Haswell 4.0 GHz CPU 1150 8MB 4 cores/8 threads  OC to 4.2 GHz
ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark 2 Motherboard
Gigabyte Geforce GTX 970 G1 4GB Video Card
Corsair DDR3 SDRAM 16GB 1866MHz Vengeance Series RAM

JayDub

 

 

 

[meyercub 2]

Hello all,

I did the upgrade without uninstalling anything and it went well. FSX and all other apps seem to be working good so far. Thank you for all the replies!

[Ramppily 0]

First of all, you need to know whether the software is also compatible with Windows 10 computers. If so, I think even if you upgrade to Windows 10, they will still work for you.

[Afterburner 373]

Personally, I recommend to do a clean install of Windows 10. Why?  Because if you go the update route from Windows 8, and you will be experiencing problems, you will not know if it's due to incompatibilities of drivers and other issues that resulted from the update or not. This may give you headache. If you install clean, on the other hand, you will rule out these potential problems.

[coa1117 53]

Can't speak to upgrading specifically from WIN8 but, like others here, I simply ran the Win10 upgrade from my Win7-pro installation and had zero issues. FSX and all other apps ran just fine. It was a huge relief because I was definitely not looking forward to reinstalling Windows and FSX. I also did the Win10 2004 update and, again, had no issues at all.

My guess is that if your system is very stable you'll stand a good chance of having a smooth upgrade process.

 

Edited October 18, 2020 by coa1117