Need advice upgrading from, WIN 7 PRO OEM (64bit) to WIN 11 PR0, or HOME?

[rivrbyte]

HELLO ALL....Again!
About ten years ago, (2014) I posted several posts regarding a second build from WIN 7 OEM , with a MSI P35 Platinum, (2007) which I changed out, a years later with my current, MSI B85-G41 PC MATE MOBO. Now that I had missed the opportunity to have Microsoft help me get the free upgrades to WIN 10, I was in and out of the hospital with multiple surgeries, when this was going on, with a rare carcinoid tumor cancer. When I was ready to Upgrade, unfortunately, Microsoft had their retail versions @ $199.00. I am now, very low-income, a lot older now, and re-building a system just seems too daunting for me, but since Spectrum does not support Win 7, I am stuck having to do this upgrade, while suffering around the clock, with my associated cancer nausea.
Yesterday, I went to Micro Center, to ask the "tech guys," if I could use my present specs, to upgrade to WIN 11, One guy said, he thought so, but was not sure, and anther said YES, but I had to include a security protocol, and I could go to Microsoft, and be able to get a FREE VERSION? Really?
PC World, a year or two ago, said that anyone could get the free upgrade, but I missed that too!
All day today, I unplugged all cords, took my Cooler Master case outside, opened one side, (the side with the CPU, Mobo) used canned air, and blew out all of the accumulated dust. I was able to make sure the Mobo was indeed, the MSI B85-G41 PC MATE.
My version of WIN 7 PRO IS A OEM, so would I have any issues with that?
With me now much older, more sicker that I've ever been, I seriously do not think that I would still have it in me, to attempt all that is required to set up a new O.S., with me with being older, and not as quick as I used to be, afraid I may miss something in updating the new WIN 11 drivers, firmware, taking a ISO image of a boot drive to do the new install?...You see? This will be crazy, if I can actually do this.
Now that I still have the following, ATX Case, MSI B85-G41 PC MATE MOBO, PSU 700w, INTEL i7 4770 CPU, more fans (5)....IT'S A BIG CASE. Total Memory 16384 MB, 27" Viewsonic Monitor, GeForce GTX-750, Internal HDD's - (1) Samsung Solid State/250GB......(2) Western Digital/2TB....External HDD's
(3) Seagate 3TB.....(4) Western Digital 250GB.......(5) Seagate 1TB Portable Back-Up hard drive, so plenty of room.

......CAN ANYONE WITH CERTAINLY, ADVISE ME ON WHAT I WOULD HAVE TO DO, TO BE ABLE TO UPGRADE.
JUST THINKING ABOUT LOCATING, SAVING, ALL THE WIN 11 DRIVERS, HARDWARE AND FIRMWARE IS A BIG JOB IN ITSELF!
IF, the consensus is, to have to upgrade my CPU, and/or the RAM, which is, 16 MB Kit, (Ballistix-Crucial) DDR3-1600 (PC-12800) then I will have no choice. maybe, Micro Center or the Geeks @ Best Buy, can do anything to help complete this build for me, without paying them an arm, and a face! I feel, (I hope) that this will be far cheaper to have someone else to the upgrade, IF WARRANTED, and since I already have the majority of things needed, it would be cheaper, that the $1,500, that I spent the last time, replacing all the aforementioned hardware.

That would be a huge relief, just to have WIN 11. I've used PRO all these many years, so I'm not sure if the HOME version would suit me, OR, it's back to the PRO version. I used to do a lot of high end graphics, Photoshop, Illustrator, Video editing, Music Files, but not as much these days, but would still want this, just in case, this is needed in the future.
I've said this before on my last post here, back in 2014.....How can I have a huge headache, when I have no brains!!!
I added a few photos of my system.
If you have any additional questions, feel free to reply.
Thank You, All! I greatly Appreciated!

 

[pete.i]

Okay big post with a lot of waffle which someone else can deal with. Bottom line is that The Win7 to Win 11 automatic upgrade finished a long time ago so you will probably have to buy a licence. As for drivers if you have a fairly modern computer then Win 11 will put the vast majority of the drivers in. They may not be the best, although I haven't had any problems with the generic drivers, otherwise you will have to get the drivers from the appropriate web sites. Of course if your computer is as ancient as a Windows 7 machine then the appropriate drivers may not be available from the various web sites.

 

[tehnokraat]

@rivrbyte
The previous answer has already said most of all important.
There is absolutely nothing to update or upgrade.
You need to get a new computer, even if it was a desktop computer (I didn't read the whole text, maybe it was a laptop, it doesn't matter), it will no longer fit in any way.
You will get a new computer with Windows already installed and you don't need any separate license, of course, if you buy the right computer right away.
You can only transfer your documents, pictures, music and some other personal files from the old one, but generally not programs, they all need to be reinstalled 100%.

 

[Joe C]

Instead of fighting with Windows 11...Just install/upgrade to Windows 10. I'm fairly sure that you can still use your Windows 7 license to get a free 10 upgrade. You can still download Windows 10 and stick with that. not that much difference from 10 to 11 but 11 seems buggier than 10 to me personally.
Windows 10 .ISO from Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Edit: you'll need to burn the 10 iso to a larger usb drive because 10 will not fit onto a dvd anymore. I use Active ISO Burner for this
https://www.lsoft.net/iso-burner/

There are other freebe iso burners that someone else can also recommend too

 

[tehnokraat]

Instead of fighting with Windows 11...Just install/upgrade to Windows 10. I'm fairly sure that you can still use your Windows 7 license to get a free 10 upgrade.

@rivrbyte
I haven't really tried it myself for long, but I believe it can't be done no more.
But you can try it, and not by upgrading to Windows 10, but first download Windows 10 then generate a Genuine Ticket using gatherosstate.exe from the downloaded Windows 10. Save it somewhere else, clean your computer completely and then install Windows 10. Once this is done, do the following and if the Windows 7 => Windows 10 update is still working, your Windows will be activated shortly after you get an internet connection. (It is worth knowing that sometimes this can happen within a few days, but generally not more than a quarter of an hour). If it still doesn't work, you need to use other activation methods, of which there are quite a few.
Here is what You should do after Windows 10 nstallation
1. just copy \source\gatherosstate.exe to a writable directory, launch it and get GenuineTicket.xml there!
2. Once Windows 10 is up and running, copy GenuineTicket.xml to
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\ClipSVC\GenuineTicket. (The folder is hidden by default)
3. Reboot your PC.
4. This will bring up a window showing system information, and at the bottom it should show
Windows 10 as activated.

 

[pete.i]

I tried to upgrade a win7 machine a couple of months ago and it didn't work as it said that upgrade route had closed.

 

[Joe C]

Yup... I checked into that after I posted and it looks like that way is shut (and it was made by those who are dead)

 

[Ste]

Plus windows 10 is going to stop getting updates and security updates in 2025. So if the hardware is windows 11 compatible my suggestion would be to just back up all the data files and make a list of programs to reinstall.


Then once all that is done, then do fresh and full reformat of the drives and install windows 11. Then after updates and your security programs then you can reinstall your list of programs and copy over data.

 

[PP Mguire]

Spectrum does not support Win 7

Spectrum? Like the internet company? If so that's absolutely false.

Your hardware doesn't officially support WIndows 11. If you want to use Windows 11 you will need to use Rufus to create a bootable flash drive and use the hardware bypass options that are presented to you so Windows 11 will install. I have 11 running on older hardware than you.

Download the portable version of Rufus and extract the download. Inside the folder you'll see the program. If you need help using it there's plenty of simple guides out there to run through the couple of clicks necessary. As Joe said, you'll need an 8GB or larger flash drive this on either Windows 10 or 11.

https://rufus.ie/en/

To get an ISO of Windows 11 you can either use the Media Creation Tool to download an ISO, or what I recommend is using the English 23H2 copy off of this site. You can find it in the middle of the page. Let Windows Updates upgrade you to 24H2. You use 23H2 to make sure there's no trouble trying to create a hardware bypass version with Rufus.

https://massgrave.dev/windows_11_links

Alternatively, if you decide to go the Windows 10 route you can use the same site to download the latest version of Windows 10. You will still use Rufus to create your bootable flash drive but the hardware bypass is not needed.

https://massgrave.dev/windows_10_links

Don't worry about pesky license upgrades or trying to waste 200 on a retail key, or a cheap key off a shady site. Follow the instructions here and use option 1 to activate Windows. You can do this as soon as you have an internet connection or whenever it's convenient.

https://massgrave.dev/#download--how-to-use-it

 

[pete.i]

Spectrum? Like the internet company? If so that's absolutely false.

Your hardware doesn't officially support WIndows 11. If you want to use Windows 11 you will need to use Rufus to create a bootable flash drive and use the hardware bypass options that are presented to you so Windows 11 will install. I have 11 running on older hardware than you.

Download the portable version of Rufus and extract the download. Inside the folder you'll see the program. If you need help using it there's plenty of simple guides out there to run through the couple of clicks necessary. As Joe said, you'll need an 8GB or larger flash drive this on either Windows 10 or 11.

https://rufus.ie/en/

To get an ISO of Windows 11 you can either use the Media Creation Tool to download an ISO, or what I recommend is using the English 23H2 copy off of this site. You can find it in the middle of the page. Let Windows Updates upgrade you to 24H2. You use 23H2 to make sure there's no trouble trying to create a hardware bypass version with Rufus.

https://massgrave.dev/windows_11_links

Alternatively, if you decide to go the Windows 10 route you can use the same site to download the latest version of Windows 10. You will still use Rufus to create your bootable flash drive but the hardware bypass is not needed.

https://massgrave.dev/windows_10_links

Don't worry about pesky license upgrades or trying to waste 200 on a retail key, or a cheap key off a shady site. Follow the instructions here and use option 1 to activate Windows. You can do this as soon as you have an internet connection or whenever it's convenient.

https://massgrave.dev/#download--how-to-use-it

HHMMMM let us know how you get on with that OP because I tried it that way and it failed although I will freely admit that it could well have been my fault. I cannot try it again as I binned that Win 7 pc when I failed to upgrade it.