Windows 10 Version 1909 on a brand new machine, who'da thunk it!

[britechguy]

My client who had the monitor with the missing power supply received the replacement yesterday and I went over to set up the new system and transfer his files from old to new today.

I was surprised when I saw that his old machine still had 2004 running on it, but I was shocked when the brand new machine fired up with Version 1909 on it. I'm not new to this business, so I know that things can sit on the shelf such that "the very latest" will not be on it by the time of purchase, but this machine had a 10th gen i3 (the old one had an 8th gen i5) and I never would have expected that to ship with 1909. The update to 20H2 via Windows Update went without a hitch. This was the first time I've done a 4-feature-update jump via this method, and the time taken at reboot was substantial and two restarts were a part of it.

Since the client wanted me to dispose of the old machine, and I suspect there may be "user error" involved in the problems he says it had (it's only 3 years old) my intention is to try doing an upgrade to Windows 11 to get the license, immediately followed by a completely clean reinstall of Windows 11 that includes a "clean all" drive wipe as part of it. If it behaves afterward it will be nice to have a Windows 11 reference machine even if I don't use it for anything but that.

 

[Sky-Knight]

There is no need to upgrade to 11, Windows 11's license is Windows 10s license. If one activates, so will the other.

Besides, the key is in the BIOS, so worst case is you use your tool to read it, and stuff it into the box manually.

 

[nlinecomputers]

There is no need to upgrade to 11, Windows 11's license is Windows 10s license. If one activates, so will the other.

Besides, the key is in the BIOS, so worst case is you use your tool to read it, and stuff it into the box manually.

This. You can just nuke and pave it directly to Windows 11.

 

[Markverhyden]

If the old one doesn't have TPM I'm pretty sure it will not automatically upgrade. However there is a reg hack you can do to by pass that when doing a clean install. As mentioned, since it's a legit W10 machine you don't need to worry about the license key.

Install Windows 11 as VM on VMware vSphere / Workstation without TPM 2.0

All about End User Computing, AVD, Windows 365 and Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

www.ivobeerens.nl

 

[nlinecomputers]

Most machines built in the past 5 years have TPM. It just needs to be enabled, along with secure boot, in the UEFI bios.

 

[NETWizz]

What I do is just upgrade direct to Windows 11 keeping everything in tact UNLESS it is a new computer in which case, it is always best to start clean.

The real problem is OEMs like Dell, HP, Lenovo etc. all put their own junk in it. Literally, if you do a full OS reset, it comes with all their junk software on it, but otherwise the reset does a pretty good job cleaning it up.

Now if I am imaging one HDD to another such as RAID to AHCI or SATA to NVME etc... I would upgrade to the latest version of Windows 10 before doing it because I now from experience it takes care of itself fixing storage drivers if you boot into safemode. I do not know what version automated the fix only that the most recent versions of 10 it is a non-issue.

 

[britechguy]

Well, based on what's been offered here I will end up doing a completely clean reinstall direct to Windows 11.

The machine must qualify, as the "invitation" to download and install has been sitting in Settings, Update & Security, Windows Update Pane for a while, the client just didn't want to do it. He even got his new machine specifically with Windows 10 (though I think he will end up upgrading to Windows 11 on it at some point).

I'm still thinking in the Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 mindset, where I would always (and still will always) do an in-place upgrade before doing a nuke and pave afterward if doing a nuke and pave is my actual final intent. If it isn't, I can count on less than one hand any of the in-place upgrades I've done from 8/8/8.1 to 10 that haven't worked like a charm both during the upgrade and in the Windows 10 instance afterward. The ability to do this still amazes me to this day.

For this particular computer, since it had belonged to a client, I definitely want everything wiped from it, and he was fine with my taking it so long as I agreed to do that. There's no way I want any client data in any form over the long term. Even when I image a client machine or otherwise transfer their data using my own drives, the retention period is only as long as I think I might need it for CYA purposes. As soon as I feel comfortable deleting it, away it goes!

 

[nlinecomputers]

I'm still thinking in the Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 mindset, where I would always (and still will always) do an in-place upgrade before doing a nuke and pave afterward if doing a nuke and pave is my actual final intent.

And you are wasting a lot time. Windows 10 has cleanly installed as a nuke and pave upgrade using the Windows 7 key without issue for years now. I’ve had several that never prompted me for a key even though I was fairly sure that they NEVER had been previously upgraded. So it was not a case of it retrieving the key via a filed hardware hash.

 

[britechguy]

And you are wasting a lot time.

About which I truly don't care, as I don't do this often and never did. When you add to that the fact that the process was a 5 minute kick off and then I walked away to do other things, it just wasn't problematic.

Like I also said, I seldom was doing an upgrade with the intent of nuking and paving afterward. When it came to Window 7/8/8.1 to Windows 10 (and, now, Windows 11) upgrades, my standard progression is (after having run DISM and/or SFC prior, as applicable):

1. In-place upgrade. If everything looks OK and is behaving, you're done. Back to the client.

2. If there was misbehavior after the upgrade, repair install after using the ISO. If everything looks OK and is behaving, you're done.

3. Completely clean reinstall (the nuke and pave) with all the configuration reinstallation needed afterward.

I try to avoid getting to option 3 whenever that is possible, and always will, unless a nuke and pave is actually what I'm wanting to do from the outset (which does happen occasionally).

Most clients have years of custom configuration they've done, and have no memory of doing or how to do it again, along with a lot of third-party software that it is a grand PITA to deal with afterward. I'd rather all "that the owner is used to" is retained without any effort on my part whenever possible.

 

[nlinecomputers]

About which I truly don't care, as I don't do this often and never did. When you add to that the fact that the process was a 5 minute kick off and then I walked away to do other things, it just wasn't problematic.

Like I also said, I seldom was doing an upgrade with the intent of nuking and paving afterward. When it came to Window 7/8/8.1 to Windows 10 (and, now, Windows 11) upgrades, my standard progression is (after having run DISM and/or SFC prior, as applicable):

1. In-place upgrade. If everything looks OK and is behaving, you're done. Back to the client.

2. If there was misbehavior after the upgrade, repair install after using the ISO. If everything looks OK and is behaving, you're done.

3. Completely clean reinstall (the nuke and pave) with all the configuration reinstallation needed afterward.

I try to avoid getting to option 3 whenever that is possible, and always will, unless a nuke and pave is actually what I'm wanting to do from the outset (which does happen occasionally).

Most clients have years of custom configuration they've done, and have no memory of doing or how to do it again, along with a lot of third-party software that it is a grand PITA to deal with afterward. I'd rather all "that the owner is used to" is retained without any effort on my part whenever possible.

None of that is what you said in the snippet I quoted. You said that you perform an in place upgrade before the final goal of a nuke and pave. The assumption I had, because it was at one time early in Windows 10’s deployment, is that you mistakenly thought it was a necessary step to perform an upgrade.