Upgrading Damaged Windows 7

My Windows 7 installation has 6 registry errors, some missing/corrupted files which cannot be repaired, which were found with SFC/scannow, and will no longer show the advanced boot menu when F8 is pressed during early boot.

These annoyances do not bother me because the computer runs excellently and fast.

I am concerned about a possible upgrade to Windows 10 in early 2020 once Windows 7 updates end.

At that time, will a Win 7 to Win 10 upgrade carry over these corruptions to the new operating system.

Generally speaking, upgrading to a Windows version to another is a terrible idea and since always it was a steady source of problems. Not only the existing system problems remain in the upgraded one, but also incompatibilities may appear, drivers may break or software may give problems. Already having no F8 boot menu is a big red flag that a serious problem is right there.

If you ever want to downgrade to Windows 10, it's far better to do a clean install. That's the suggested way of changing Windows versions anyway, and has been the prefered action since decades ago.

A bit off-topic, but remember that 2020 means absolute NOTHING in respect to Windows 7. It'll continue to work exactly the same as always and nobody will be forced to use it.

In the OP's first thread on this problem he was told that "some" system corruptions will cause an upgrade to fail. In his second thread on this problem he was told that his Windows Key isn't "Kosher" and he verified that fact, Given those two facts, I would think that since Microsoft has been quite lenient in allowing Free upgrades to Win 10, that the small cost of a extra HDD would be a Good Idea. Clone the present OS then attempt the upgrade and see what'll happen.....

It's not legitimate.

Joe Ciaravino said:

At that time, will a Win 7 to Win 10 upgrade carry over these corruptions to the new operating system.

Windows 10 is a work in progress. It is impossible to say what it will look like in 2020.

Alejandro85 said:

Generally speaking, upgrading to a Windows version to another is a terrible idea and since always it was a steady source of problems. Not only the existing system problems remain in the upgraded one, but also incompatibilities may appear, drivers may break or software may give problems. Already having no F8 boot menu is a big red flag that a serious problem is right there.

If you ever want to downgrade to Windows 10, it's far better to do a clean install. That's the suggested way of changing Windows versions anyway, and has been the prefered action since decades ago.

A bit off-topic, but remember that 2020 means absolute NOTHING in respect to Windows 7. It'll continue to work exactly the same as always and nobody will be forced to use it.

I don't like Windows 10. I like Windows 7. What happens after updates end in 2020? As things change, Win 7 won't keep up. Is there a way to keep Win 7 "updated" once Microsoft stops updating it?

AddRAM said:

I would either clean install W7 now to fix it, or do a repair install. Then create images so you never have this problem again.

Or, clean install W10 now and use your W7 key to activate.

There`s no point in waiting.

I'd like to do a repair install now. I have numerous backup images created with Macrium. The latest one was 4 days ago. The F8 problem started about 2 months ago, and the other 2 issues have been from 2 years ago. So none of my images will restore a "clean" computer.

I have the original ISO from 2012. It has no SP1 and no updates. I went to the Windows download site to download the latest Windows 7 install, but the site "doesn't like" my product key; it won't let me download. My installation is a retail, not OEM install. I built my computer and downloaded the OS from an online website in 2012.