Question Have unopened pro win 10 64 bit OEM Version 1703 DVD and existing Win 7 pro Intel I7 6700 desktop

[ASW28]

I understand Win 7 to 10 upgrade is now history.
Is there any way I can update the Win 7 desktop to Win 10 (thereby saving already installed programs on the Win 7) using the OEM win 10 that is designed for clean install and even now seems to require Microsoft registration as an installer?

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

no.
pretty much all software has been revised for later Windows editions so a direct upgrade path is not considered viable.

you can backup your user settings and any available individual software settings and files to a secondary location and try copying those back into place after the new OS & application re-installations are complete.

 

[ubuysa]

Unless that OEM Windows 10 was shipped with that PC you won't be able to activate it anyway. OEM licensed Windows is permanently tied to the PC on which it came.

Upgrading in-place from Windows 7 to Windows 10 is unlikely to either be simple or to even work. I would strongly advise that you not even attempt this.

 

[BFG-9000]

You can use Windows 10 unactivated indefinitely with only some minor annoyances, so don't let that stop you. I mean at this point Windows 10 will only be supported October 14, 2025 anyway, exactly one year from now.

If your Windows 7 is 32-bit that might be a problem, as support for installation of 32-bit Windows 10 just ended September 30, 2024. And there is no possibility of upgrade install of any 32-bit Windows to 64-bit, only clean install. Upgrading from 64-bit Win 7 should not be an issue even now.

If you would like to try it, first make a clone of your Windows 7 disk and work on only the copy. That way you could always boot back to Windows 7 to use your software even if something goes terribly wrong.

With only the copied Win 7 disk installed and from the Win 7 desktop, run the setup.exe for the Win 10 install (you can't do a upgrade install from booted media). I'd first try with the latest 22H2 which should work fine, or at least it should automatically roll back to Win 7 if it fails (and of course if things get irretrievably borked, well that's why you are working on a copy--so you could always take a clone again). If you have to resort to your seven year old 1703 media, install it when NOT connected to the internet.

There is no automatic upgrade from 1703 to current Windows using WindowsUpdate anyway, so from the desktop of running Win 10 1703 manually run the setup.exe for the current 22H2 build. Once everything is running to your satisfaction, you can plug back in the original Win 7 disk and choose which drive to boot from in the BIOS.