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What is the best way to reinstall Windows after a MoBo/CPU upgrade while maximizing app/file/configuration retention? (lemm.ee)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I recently acquired a new MoBo, CPU, and RAM kit to upgrade my platform for the first time in just about a decade. What I failed to consider until now is the near requirement of a clean Windows install after the upgrade.

I want to retain as much of my personal files, installed software, Windows and Explorer settings, etc. as humanly possible after the reinstall, WITHOUT retaining any files/drivers that could possibly cause performance loss and/or conflicts. I also use Classic Shell, if that matters.

On Windows 10 Home x64, and my current C: drive is a 1TB SSD, and I plan on backing it up to a 4TB HDD I bought for data hording. GPU and other PCIe cards will remain the same, along with a stack of storage HDDs with various media files and installed software/games.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Yeah, I’d definitely try just booting windows as is. Windows should detect change in hardware and simply pick the right drivers for the new system / hardware. If you go into device manager you can enable “show all devices”which will show the old hardware, you can remove those devices if you want but even that isn’t necessary/required