Win 7 inplace upgrade as non-destructive repair ???

glnz · 18 Sep 2016

I've been bugging MS to help me with a problem doing a 100% clean Reinstall of Office 365 Home 64-bit on my Win 7 Pro 64-bit PC. Each Reinstall of O365 creates 70± Warning messages in Event Viewer that certain registry keys are protected and cannot be modified by Office 365 Click-to-Run. (O365 actually works fine so far - I just don't like those Warning messages and want to Reinstall without them.)

The MS O365 help line tech 2 level person accessed my PC and showed me how my further Event Viewer error messages show errors with ntdll.dll and kernelbase.dll. He says the only way we can fix the problem with Reinstall of Office 365 Home 64-bit is to repair those dll's in my Win 7 Pro 64-bit OS, and the only way to do that in a non-destructive fashion is to do an "inplace upgrade" of my Win 7 off the .iso image of Win 7 Pro 64-bit.

What do you think?

First, please see the very interesting article about non-destructive repair using inplace upgrade at
http://mcs-notes1.open.ac.uk:8080/tbtknowl.nsf/0e36766f24334c4c80256554005a57dc/8779f10d83d5276e8025794400355753?OpenDocument

Second, following the instructions of the MS tech 2, I am downloading an .iso of Win 7 Pro 64-bit. [Source redacted.]
The .iso I am downloading is called en_windows_7_professional_with_sp1_x64_dvd_u_676939.iso. I see that the file's date is August of 2015 (last year), so that means I'll have to do a lot of Windows Updates afterwards (and carefully so as to avoid the updates that install the Win 10 "spy" features)? Do you think there are better .iso sources for the install, maybe already updated?

Third, he also showed me the normal MS Windows .iso download page https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/software-download/windows7 , but when I inserted my perfectly good Key for my Win 7 at the bottom of that page, it did NOT verify. He said that MS's verification server is down, and has been down for some days. (Really?) I know my key is good because I used it for a re-install of the OS almost two years ago on this PC.

Fourth, my PC is actually dual-boot Win 7 Pro SP1 64-bit and Win 10 Pro 64-bit. (FYI - I have separate keys/licenses for each - the 10 is NOT an upgrade of the 7.) Do you think the non-destructive repair of Win 7 using inplace upgrade will wipe out the 10? I think I'm OK because I did a destructive 7 repair about 1½ years ago, and that did not wipe out the other OS (which was then 8.1, since changed to 10). But is there anything special I should do to preserve the 10?

Fifth - reminder that my core problem isn't with the OS, which seems to be 100% fine. It's only that I am getting 70+ Warning messages about non-modifiable registry keys whenever I reinstall my O365 Home 64-bit.

Hey, what do you think???? Easy, huh?

Thanks.

Megahertz07 · 18 Sep 2016

I'll recommend you to edit your post and remove the link for MS Win 7 download. I'm sure they won't like to see a link for their server on the web.
If you are having trouble with the existing register files, I'll recommend to do a clean install. I know it takes a loooooong time to do it, but there is nothing as a clean install. Along the years you get a lot of trash on your system and a clean install is the best solution.
For the updates:
KB3125574 contains all the security and non-security fixes released since the release of Windows 7 SP1 that are suitable for general distribution, up through April 2016.
It’s single, Multi language, 488MB update file (msu). On a recent installation, you must have first to install KB3020369.
For more information read this article: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/...ows-7-and-8-1/
If you launch Win 7 setup installation (from inside actual installation) it will do a "upgrade". It should reinstall win 7 keeping the others programs and settings. There is no reason to have your Win 10 installation modified. But, as always, backup your data first.

glnz · 18 Sep 2016

MHz - Thanks very much for your post. I've made the edit.

By "clean install", do you mean the "inplace upgrade" that has been suggested and that (we hope) won't touch (a) my existing installed apps or data or (b) my dual-boot?

Or do you mean a true new install wiping everything out?

[By the way, I have made almost no use of this Win 7 Pro 64-bit machine until a few weeks ago when I installed the O365 and worked on taxes on its Excel. Not even email. (I'm still relying heavily on an old Optiplex 755 with XP Pro SP3 and updates through the POS hack.) So not much has piled up or rusted on this Win 7 machine.]

Thanks - please advise.

Megahertz07 · 18 Sep 2016

Clean install = Wipe actual installation and start from scratch.
Upgrade = Reinstall windows over the existing, that should replace Windows and keep other programs and personal data.

glnz · 18 Sep 2016

MHz -

Do you think an "upgrade" might work to fix that registry problem?

Megahertz07 · 18 Sep 2016

I really don't know. In what part of the register are those non editable settings?

glnz · 18 Sep 2016

MHz - see the attached zip, which has an evtx file of all the Warning messages in my Event Viewer. The evtx file will open in your event viewer.

Megahertz07 · 18 Sep 2016

I guess they are at HKEY_Local_Machine, but not sure. Also not sure if a Upgrade will clean the problem. Give it a try.

glnz · 02 Feb 2017

To all - Before I try a "non-destructive repair" of my Win 7 Pro 64-bit, please consider that my PC is actually DUAL-BOOTING Win 7 Pro 64-bit and Win 10 Pro 64-bit. Each has its separate partition on the hard drive, and there are other partitions with the needed boot-loader/MBR and other things that we rarely think about.

How should I do the "non-destructive repair" of my Win 7 Pro 64-bit so that it only refreshes the Win 7 Pro and doesn't touch the Win 10 Pro or the needed ancillary partitions and keeps my PC as a dual-booting beauty?

Thanks.

torchwood · 02 Feb 2017

before you go flying of down that route.

would be interested in 2 things
1 from you scrubbing script output did it report any 0800713 errors, if so then that operation failed.

2) and whats here (products), see screenshot

Roy