Question Would upgrading from 10 to 11 write anything to my motherboard that persists from a reformat and/or downgrade?

[Cyber_Akuma]

I am setting up a system that I am going to clone a very similar Windows 10 Pro system to once it's hardware is fully tested. Currently it has a Windows 10 Pro install (the motherboard has an embedded OEM key, both systems do) that's just a temporary install that I am testing and messing around with until the system is fully tested and configured hardware-wise and then I will clone my previous system onto it.

Before I do that however, I was thinking it would be a good idea to upgrade this current temporary install to Windows 11 to get familiarized with it since I will have to upgrade by 2025 anyway. It's an older system so it doesn't meet the minimum CPU requirements (Xeon 2667 v4), but it does support TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot. I heard that apparently if Windows 10 is already installed it will let you upgrade it to 11 even if these requirements are not met, but it won't let you do that on a fresh install.

One thing I noticed however when I was setting up the system was that it had TPM 1.2, not 2.0. But that there was a firmware update for both TPM 1.2 and 2.0, the 1.2 just updated the 1.2 one to a different version, but the 2.0 one replaced the TPM 1.2 firmware with 2.0. (I had no idea it was even possible for a system to update TPM 1.2 to 2.0 like that, I assumed that 1.2 and 2.0 would be separate from each other instead of 2.0 replacing 1.2) but when I tried I ran into an error that there was already a key or it was registered or something and I had to go through a process to basically wipe the TPM information blank before I could update it (this was a used system).

This made me think, so then would upgrading to Windows 11 write something to the motherboard that could make it problematic once I clone my older Windows 10 system to it? And/or would it lead to issues once I have to update that to 11? I am planning to leave TPM off for now anyway while I am still just using it as a temporary test install when I try to upgrade 10 to 11, but I don't want to leave traces of the old install on the motherboard once I clone the other system to it. I was under the assumption that nothing that the OS does is stored to or changed on the motherboard at all and only the BIOS ever changes anything there, but with UEFI and TMP and other changes nowadays since I am still very much used to an older era of systems I am not so sure anymore.

 

[USAFRet]

I am setting up a system that I am going to clone a very similar Windows 10 Pro system to once it's hardware is fully tested.

"very similar" = different = 'This clone operation may fail'

It's an older system so it doesn't meet the minimum CPU requirements

Don't forcefit Win 11 on to this. In addition to the possible clone fail, you are introducing yet another point of possible incompatibility and fail.


Just install Win 11 on the new system once it is built.

 

[USAFRet]

In answer to your question - No, an OS install doesn't write anything to the motherboard.

But still, don't go down the path you've laid out.

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

"very similar" = different = 'This clone operation may fail'

I am aware, but I have so far had zero issues moving Windows installs across very very different hardware . And this will be the closest difference yet. I know it's not a 100% guarantee but there is a very good chance it will work.

Don't forcefit Win 11 on to this. In addition to the possible clone fail, you are introducing yet another point of possible incompatibility and fail.


Just install Win 11 on the new system once it is built.

I am talking about installing Windows 11 on this new system, it's just that this new system is still a used system from 2017.

And again, this is a temporary install that I am just messing around with before I wipe it, it's not an issue if it becomes crashy since I would want to know if it becomes unstable before I do it for real. This OS install is going to get wiped in max a few weeks anyway.

 

[USAFRet]

I am aware, but I have so far had zero issues moving Windows installs across very very different hardware . And this will be the closest difference yet. I know it's not a 100% guarantee but there is a very good chance it will work.

I've had it work, I've had it fail.

If you do this and something does not work quite right, it is the hardware, or the clone?


I'm really not getting the desire to clone in the middle of this.
Just do the bare OS install. Reduce points of fail.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

I am aware, but I have so far had zero issues moving Windows installs across very very different hardware . And this will be the closest difference yet. I know it's not a 100% guarantee but there is a very good chance it will work.

Hey there,

Whilst it might be true that you haven't had any issues with moving an OS from once system to the other, it's literally down to pure luck. It it's not glitchy now, it will be. The best advice is to do a fresh install. Who would want remnants/drivers of old hardware that will just cause some measure of issue, hanging around on a system. Best practice is start fresh.

Good luck.

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

I've had it work, I've had it fail.

If you do this and something does not work quite right, it is the hardware, or the clone?


I'm really not getting the desire to clone in the middle of this.
Just do the bare OS install. Reduce points of fail.

I mean, at this point with all the testing I have thrown at it it's pretty much a guarantee that it's going to be the software if something fails after the clone. I have been running overkill tests on the system for over a week and just using it heavily in general with not a single crash. If it starts crashing after the clone of a system that is pretty much the exact same hardware but about two generations older there is very little chance it's the hardware.

And I want to clone because I don't want to re-setup and configure everything all over again, I just want to move the system over to the new hardware and just keep going. But while I have this temp install going for now I wanted to mess with things that I don't mind risking could go bad since it's getting wiped anyway. It's already full of nonsense that I would not install for real for testing and experimentation purposes so even if I did decide to start over I would still wipe this install and start over.

Worst comes to worst, it's a clone of another system, I can just keep using the other system if it goes bad and set up the newer system as a fresh install, it's not like the older system goes away if I clone it. I am willing to put the time into looking into it if something goes bad, every time something has gone wrong it's helped me learn better how something works and what to do and not to do in the future anyway.

 

[USAFRet]

It's already full of nonsense that I would not install for real for testing and experimentation purposes so even if I did decide to start over I would still wipe this install and start over.

Then why clone at all?


You can try this...it won't kill anything.
But in case of fail...it is the hardware, the clone, or the Win 11 on out of spec hardware?

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

Then why clone at all?

I may have described what I am trying to do incorrectly. The temp install that I am messing with is not what's going to be cloned, a working install from a slightly older system of the same make and slightly older model is what I will be cloning to it. This temp install full of experimental nonsense will be wiped so my older non-experimental system will be cloned to it.

Basically I have this Windows 10 system that I am messing with, I want to upgrade that to Windows 11 to mess with that and get used to it without having to upgrade my main Windows 10 system to 11 and learn how to use that while also using it normally.

Eventually I am going to wipe that Windows 11 system and just clone this Windows 10 main system to it once I am done testing Windows 11 and a few more hardware tweaks on it.

I just wanted to make sure that upgrading the temp install of 10 to a temp install of 11 would not write something to some boot area of the UEFI or write keys to the TPM that could cause issues in the future or something when I will be forced to upgrade to 11 because of 10 going EOL.

But in case of fail...it is the hardware, the clone, or the Win 11 on out of spec hardware?

I mean, as I said there is almost no chance it's the hardware at this point, the chance of all of this testing not revealing a fault that the clone would is pretty much zero.

And if it's the upgrade to Win 11 that would show up once I upgrade to 11, which is still going to be before the clone anyway.

So then if something does not work after the clone it's pretty much a guarantee then that it's the clone responsible.

 

[ubuysa]

When Windows is installed it configures itself for the hardware platform it's on. In addition, all the kernel mode drivers are for the chipset and other hardware devices found on that platform.

If you clone that Windows system to a different PC then all the Windows hardware configuration data will be wrong and most of the kernel mode drivers will be wrong too. Sure, you can install drivers for the new hardware but many of those wrong drivers will still be there, waiting to jump up and bite you.

If you've really never had a problem doing this then you've been very (and I mean very) fortunate. What you propose is like playing Russian roulette. It's bad practice, it's unwise, and it's an unnecessary risk. PLEASE DON'T DO IT.

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

It's nowhere near as crazy as you are saying, and no, I have not just been lucky, it's not uncommon at all for people to do this nowadays. This isn't the Windows 98 era anymore, the drivers just simply don't get loaded if the hardware is not there anymore.

Yes, a fresh install is still far FAR recommended, but it's not some crazy experimental insanity to migrate an existing Windows install over anymore.

 

[ubuysa]

A better, more reliable, and safer, way is to generalise the image first: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2113-system-image-create-hardware-independent-system-image.html