I would be perfectly happy to stick with Windows 10 but am starting to feel pressured to go to Windows 11. I know that a clean reinstall is the preferred approach but I have a lot of P3DV5 compatible planes, scenery, traffic, etc. as well as graphics, photography and other applications.  With the help of contributors to this forum, I have working installations of many of the RealAir simulations planes. Also have AIG traffic, ActiveSky for P3D, PMDG 777 and 737's, and Majestic Q400.

Have any of you done an upgrade to Windows 11 using the option that preserves your apps and data?  Did your flight sim apps and data make it through without massive collateral damage?

I would, of course, make sure I have complete backups of everything before proceeding.

Thanks,

Steve

 

Steve

This chap gives some good hints and tips 

 

35 minutes ago, sab12 said:

Have any of you done an upgrade to Windows 11 using the option that preserves your apps and data? 

In a nutshell, I did this without incident when Windows 11 was released and and Windows has done it
itself several times since.

Versions/Updates:
Version 22H2: The first major update to Windows 11, also known as the Windows 11 2022 Update. 
Version 23H2: The second major update, also known as the Windows 11 2023 Update. 
Version 24H2: The latest version, also known as the Windows 11 2024 Update. 

The days when updating to a new Windows build was a risky and unpredictable business are long over.

 

Edited March 22, 20251 yr by Reader

I did this some weeks ago: 

It all went fine, and I dare to say that better than 10... until 24H2 got automatically installed in my computer. Somehow my sims (and Lossless Scaling) didn't like this update (too many stutters) and undoing the update didn't work at all. I had to spend a whole week doing a clean install and setting my rig back to where I like it.

19 hours ago, Reader said:

The days when updating to a new Windows build was a risky and unpredictable business are long over.

Until 24H2 arrived 🤦🏻‍♂️ Now I've set my rig and laptop to never upgrade to this version. If possible, try upgrading to 23H2 instead.

 

Edited March 23, 20251 yr by Luis Hernandez

Yes, I upgraded from Windows 10 23H2 to Windows 11 with the Windows 11-prompted upgrade from Settings/Windows Update.

I did back up all my drives before hand. I did also create Windows OS Restore points.

I did not encounter any major issues with P3D (v5.3) after upgrading.

 

I did delay the Windows upgrade from 23H2 to 24H2 as I was hesitant base don the reported problems from multiple users, but last month I finally gave in and performed the Windows 11 upgrade and all appears to have gone smoothly.

One of the things that has been previously recommended, is if you have a lot of USB devices connected to your PC, then unplug them before performing the upgrade. In my case I have usually followed this advice by unplugging my joystick and rudder devices but in the case of the Win 11 24H" upgrade I did not bother.

 

One other thing to check is, there are some known issues with certain makes of WD SSDs that have caused problems with Win 11 24H2 upgrade. I did check and fortunately none of the WD SSD's I have installed have matched the models reported where issues can occur.

 

Cheers,
Mark

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to those who replied to this topic. I tried to proceed with your guidance and suggestions and hit an unexpected snag. When I used the media creation tool to download Windows 11 onto a USB drive and then tried to do the upgrade to Windows 11, I was not given the choice for saving my files and/or apps. This is a known problem but with many possible and, to me at least, obscure reasons/fixes and no guarantees that any of them will actually work. It did give me a message that it was going to wipe out everything and a box to verify that I understood that for which I am grateful.

At the moment I am trying to decide whether to try to fix this snag or just bite the bullet and clean install.

Have any of you encountered and overcome this problem?

Thanks,

Stephen

No, so far, it has always offered the choice to either keep them, or not and I have
always selected keep them.

Before you do ANYTHING, especially go YouTube surfing, spend 100 bucks on a QUALITY external USB backup drive and paid premium system backup software. 

If you have a spare nvme or internal hard drive slot /port a small backup internal drive is very useful for when usb drivers fail (they just did for me). 

Do a SYSTEM backup of your current windows config and create a bootable USB flash drive with the backup software. 

Also do a FILE backup of all your data. If you use a separate storage drive from Windows already (please do this!) then there is less worry but do it anyway. Drives and interfaces do fail. 

Check the boot usb WORKS and you can access the system restore option and the image is available. 

Finally... Install w11 however you want knowing if you mess it all up a full restore is only an easy hour or two away.