[SOLVED] Hey! Does someone know if all of my files will transfer to Windows 11 if I have a local account?

[FergyBoi]

Title says it all!

 

[USAFRet]

No, the title does NOT say it all.

Transfer from what, and how?

 

[FergyBoi]

Transfer Documents, Pictures, Videos, Chrome bookmarks. Stuff like that. I just upgraded from windows 10 to 11 on my PC (Unsupported CPU) and it transferred everything but I had a Microsoft account linked to my PC. What about if you don't have one? What if it's just a local account?

 

[USAFRet]

Transfer Documents, Pictures, Videos, Chrome bookmarks. Stuff like that. I just upgraded from windows 10 to 11 on my PC (Unsupported CPU) and it transferred everything but I had a Microsoft account linked to my PC. What about if you don't have one? What if it's just a local account?

An inplace upgrade should not affect files, etc.

But always...have a known good backup before any procedure like this. Just in case.

Actually, have a known good backup any time you turn the system on, but thats a topic for a different thread.

 

[joeldf]

An inplace upgrade should not affect files, etc.

True, in place upgrades would (or should) leave existing files... well... in place, but the question has a bit more to it.

I haven't upgraded to 11 yet myself, but I'm on Win 10 Pro, so I know I can upgrade without needing an MS account.

However, my wife's PC is ready to upgrade. It's a Dell AIO that is only 3 months old, so it already has Win 11 downloaded and ready to install now (got the notification about it a couple of days ago). I just haven't done it yet, and she's not ready for it either. However, since that is running Win 10 Home, it's gonna want the MS account if we do decide to upgrade it.

Now, when I first set it up, it was on the recent version of Win 10 that forced me to set it up with her MS account (I had gone too far by the time it was asking for the account for me to go back and find that point where you could by-pass it by skipping the wi-fi). But after I was done, I put it back to the local account like her previous machine had so I could directly copy back her files from her old machine into her local account name under /Users/.

So, that question is, if I do upgrade to Win 11 on that machine, will it add the MS account user name under /Users?

If so, can I still change the system back to her old local account name and maintain the document saving location back to that existing local account name? I would assume that the local account would still be on the system in Win 11 since it would be an "in-place" upgrade.

In the case of my wife's computer, she has a primary (C:/) SSD drive with the OS, and secondary (D:/) HDD where the data files are saved to her /User/local_account_name/ folder.

I think this is sort of what the OP was asking about as well.

 

[USAFRet]

So, that question is, if I do upgrade to Win 11 on that machine, will it add the MS account user name under /Users?

Almost certainly, yes.

If so, can I still change the system back to her old local account name and maintain the document saving location back to that existing local account name? I would assume that the local account would still be on the system in Win 11 since it would be an "in-place" upgrade.

Almost certainly, yes.
It should still work as before, with the same accounts. MS and local.

 

[joeldf]

Almost certainly, yes.



Almost certainly, yes.
It should still work as before, with the same accounts. MS and local.

Cool. That was really my only concern related to my wife's PC.

But then, I may never have to deal with it until the next time I have to replace that PC. This one replaced her last Dell AIO that we had for 7 years and went through 2 HDD replacements before the whole thing just quit turning on.

 

[USAFRet]

Cool. That was really my only concern related to my wife's PC.

But then, I may never have to deal with it until the next time I have to replace that PC. This one replaced her last Dell AIO that we had for 7 years and went through 2 HDD replacements before the whole thing just quit turning on.

Your data, especially critical personal data, should always be backed up.

Especially when you're trying to do a major upgrade, such as changing the OS from Win 10 to Win 11.

A LARGE percentage of problems/questions we see here could have been avoided with a proper backup.

 

[joeldf]

Your data, especially critical personal data, should always be backed up.

Especially when you're trying to do a major upgrade, such as changing the OS from Win 10 to Win 11.

A LARGE percentage of problems/questions we see here could have been avoided with a proper backup.

Oh, I plan on that. Already keep a running backup anyway. She keeps way too much stuff from as far back as 20 years ago for me to lose now.

 

[USAFRet]

Oh, I plan on that. Already keep a running backup anyway. She keeps way too much stuff from as far back as 20 years ago for me to lose now.

Kudos for you.
Far too many people....don't.