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Thanks, you are probably right, but reinstalling all the apps is a daunting task. As an example, I still use some software which was originally installed using floppies. At the time I had a floppy drive on a spare machine so I was able to create a CD which I managed to get to work as install media. I no longer have anything with a floppy drive, have probably lost the discs anyway and the CD will have vanished.
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You can still buy USB floppy drives on FleaBay, and they are pretty cheap. May not last long, but could be enough if you have the originals and they haven't degraded too badly.
If you do, you could probably create a mountable image of each disk in Macrium / AOMEI which could let you swap them as if the actual floppy disk was installed. Haven't tried it - I haven't even looked at a floppy in several decades!
What software was it?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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OriginalGriff wrote: I haven't even looked at a floppy in several decades! Just the opposite for me. 
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Little blue pill time?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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As OriginalGriff says, it sounds like your problems are more software than hardware.
If you are determined to upgrade to Windows 11 on new hardware, I would follow his advice. If your computer's speed, memory size, disk space, etc. is adequate for your needs, I would suggest making a backup of everything on an external drive, then reinstalling Windows 10 and any applications that you use from scratch. You may find that this alone will cure many issues that are the result of botched installs, etc.
Unless you are doing high-performance computing, video editing, high-level gaming, or some such, it is likely that your current computer is powerful enough for your needs. An i5 with 8GB of ram and a 256GB SDD drive is more than sufficient for most office tasks, watching videos, internet surfing, etc.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I connect to my Windows 8 machine (from Windows 10) if I want to run stuff that can't migrate off the old machine. (Or I can't be bothered).
I also use mainly external drives that can easily be moved around. The only things I put on "C:" are those things that won't install on any other drive.
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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What he said ^. And apart from keeping your old PC to use with old software, you can also use VMWare to create a VM of your old computer that you can keep forever.
Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
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My laptop is almost 5 years old. What you are describing is the same thing I suffer from - MS update rot. Even if you were to clone your drive over, you would still have the rot.
What you need is a clean install.
If this is for development, get something juiced out to handle virtual machines.
Charlie Gilley
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Has never been more appropriate.
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I would just install Windows 11 "raw" on the new machine and then reinstall your applications there followed by copying your files. You have a corrupted version of Windows 10 - don't try to upgrade from it as you'll have nothing but problems with Windows 11 as a result.
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I recommend placing everything you need in the cloud and doing a clean start for the new machine.
Read up on secure boot and TPM before you install, and keep the old device nearby to troubleshoot.
Security has changed a lot in the last decade and it's in your interest to set it up properly from the start.
When I tried to install my new system without secure boot, I couldn't get HDMI output to work with my integrated GPU, because it doesn't run without secure boot. Who expects that?
Took me a couple of days to get everything installed, and Hyper-V working properly, mostly reading up with the current day definition of "good" security setiings and VT-d,x stuff.
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I succeeded in keeping the "same" PC without fresh install from windows XP (to W11), due to similar considerations as you. Of course, nothing remained exactly the same, including MB. I did have to buy a new license for W7, but not afterwards, even after changing the MB, cpu and system disk. This may not be possible with an OEM license, not sure.
I haven't documented my steps, am sure I had some headaches, but issues got solved, so try approaching this as an adventure.
Some have advised to use VM's for old software, but I fail to see how this would help in your situation.
Disk cloning I did with Acronis, though I changed to Macrium because my older Acronis installation was about impossible to deinstall, which I wanted to do because its drivers blocked core isolation security.
(backup software tends to have a lot of drivers)
Such issues tend to take quite a bit of time (not being a sysadmin myself).
And issues with your W10 installation will hopefully be removed by the W11 install, but I am not sure about the MS store and (not getting) updates part.
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Do you have to buy a license for Win11? My understanding is a Win10 key will unlock it.
I have to agree with others that moving your existing installation to new hardware and then upgrading to Win11 may not solve your problems. But having old software for which you may not have the installers is a Catch-22.
My solution is to do all the suggestions. Install a clean copy of Win11 on the new HD and install all the applications that you can.
Create a virtual PC and clone your Win10 hard drive into it. This way you have a clean install for (hopefully) most of your applications while preserving the ones you don't have installers for.
However, before doing anything, there are things you can do to remove junk from your system:
- Uninstall any programs you're not using.
- Run Microsoft's Disk Cleanup utility to remove junk from your system. If you haven't been doing this, you may have many GB's of Windows updates hanging around.
- Run Defragment and Optimize Drives to clean up issues.
Disk Cleanup Utility clears Temp folders, which can make a huge difference. A while ago I helped a friend with an older PC. His Windows/Temp folder had 50,000+ items in it -- deleting everything not in use made a huge improvement.
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Sounds like you're over complicating things.
Buy a external USB hard-drive. Backup what you need to it.
Then either build a new computer (do not destroy your old one).
Then transfer what you need from your backup drive to your new computer after its working.
Or just re-install Windows 10 on your old one from a clean USB drive (as it probably fixes your issues).
Then restore stuff from your USB backup drive
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I revive these "old" systems all the time.
Keep it simple and let the software do the work.
Run virus/malware check on entire system - in Safe Mode, if possible.
Defrag any HDD's.
Then Run DISM to fix Windows Component Store and then SFC to fix Windows System Files. Look up for details. Both of these from the CMD prompt.
If you are not familiar with the cmd prompt there are several well established, safe freeware programs to do all this for you. As they are all freeware no one should object to me posting them. Before doing all this, as always do a complete image backup of your system drive.
* Tweaking.com - Windows Repair v4.13.1 (fixes just about everything
* WinaeroTweaker v1.52 (for settings)
* WagnardSoft Tools v1.0.2.4 will do just DISM and SFC from its "Repair" Scan and Repair selection
* Update all drivers - this can do wonders. Video drivers are notorious and may need complete removal. Check in Device Manager for any yellow exclaimation marks on any device drivers. Uninstalling them there and and rebooting sometimes is enough.
* Once all running smoothly run Windows Update.
You may have to reset some of your favourite setting after using the above.
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Thank you, I wish I'd read that earlier. I fell into the trap of reinstalling Windows using their "keep all your files and apps" option. It erased all my apps and kindly left me an html file listing all 608 applications it deleted. It even deleted Office including my .pst files. I hate MS.
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Sorry to hear that. Did you not have a full backup backup backup backup - did I say it enough?
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Yes, I have a back up, done with Acronis, to a NAS. The trouble is that I have had to reinstall Acronis and my licence details are in an email in a deleted .pst file..... Without a licence Acronis is being picky about adding the existing backup to its list.
If I survive this then I might delete Acronis and simply have a physical copy of my system on the NAS and, nightly, copy over all files changed within the last 25 hours, using robocopy.
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You should be able to get that from the Acronis web site. But you should be able to just boot Acronis from a USB drive - you do have that right? or DVD if you have one.
When you do get it back up and running I am curious how you found my solutions.
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Thank you, I'll let you know. However I suspect that by the time this is untangled it will be a very different computer with another set of problems. I've bought a new case, MB, Power supply, M2 SSD, etc and plan on cloning to that when I've retrieved as much as I can from the present system.
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Well, I'm back up and running and have upgraded to Win 11, so all my problems disappeared. That means I am unable to comment on your suggestions, but thanks anyway.
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I recall the story of a newbie radio announcer scheduled to play that track. He was terrified that he'd mispronounce "Rimsky-Korsakoff" so practiced for a week until it rolled off his tongue.
Come the fateful moment, and he introduced
Rimsky-Korsakoff's well known piece, "The Bite of the Flumble Bee."
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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Even with our typing speeds, we introduce so many bugs. Just imagine how much more are likely to be introduced by such a fast typer
Can we say that "The slower the coder in typing, the better the code"?
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