I'm trying to move my W7 OS to a new W10 laptop; anyone know how?

I realize I'm one of the last folks using 7, as I've had a rock-solid W7 on my 2012 Toshi for 11 years. It's on its third keyboard, third HD, doing okay but starting to have problems. SO...saw a Gateway with 500 GB SSD, 16 GB RAM for under $300. Took a chance. Nice laptop...but I really hate W10 (as a lot of folks reportedly do).

In prior computer moves I've been able to move old pgms to the new device, and some pgms work on the new GW. But my Office12 (2007) doesn't, and Micro$oft confirms that 2007 won't work under W10.

Obviously I could just "subscribe" to "365" or whatever MSoft calls it, but it irritates me that M$oft obsoleted my paid-for programs! So I wondered if I could move my W7 to the new Gateway, making it a dual-boot system.

I've used Macrium Reflect free edition to clone drives in the past, but not sure how to move the entire OS. Some net folks say Windoze hates dual-boot drives. Anyone tried this? Thanks!

T38 said:

In prior computer moves I've been able to move old pgms to the new device, and some pgms work on the new GW. But my Office12 (2007) doesn't, and Micro$oft confirms that 2007 won't work under W10.

Do not confuse 'no longer supported' with 'won't work'. Note that MS only say that versions before Office 2007 may not work, not 2007 itself.

Microsoft said:

Office 2010 (Version 14) and Office 2007 (Version 12) are no longer part of mainstream support. Versions of Office prior to Office 2007 are also no longer supported and may not work on Windows 10.

Which versions of Office work with Windows 10? - Microsoft Support

Office 2007 works well under Windows 10.

Thanks for replying, Bree. Looks like we're running exactly the same version of 7: home premium 64. But when I clicked on any of the executables in Office (powerpoint, excel and word) I got the same message: "This OS is not configured to run this program."

SO...somehow you solved the mystery. Now if we can just figure out what you did that I didn't, I won't need to deal w/ the challenge of loading 7 on my new laptop and going thru the dual-booting headache.

I just copied my Office folder to the new laptop, which has always worked when changing computers before. Is there some hidden switch ("/-f" or similar) that needs to be called when doing the switch? Thanks.

T38 said:

I just copied my Office folder to the new laptop, which has always worked when changing computers before. Is there some hidden switch ("/-f" or similar) that needs to be called when doing the switch? Thanks.

SIW2 said:

I don't use office, but I expect it needs to be installed rather than just copied.
The message would seem to indicate that is the case

I agree, Office requires installing so that all the required registry settings are correctly configured.

- - - Updated - - -

T38 said:

SO...somehow you solved the mystery. Now if we can just figure out what you did that I didn't, I won't need to deal w/ the challenge of loading 7 on my new laptop and going thru the dual-booting headache.

I did nothing. That W10 machine already had Office 2007 installed when it was running Windows 7, then that PC was upgraded to Windows 10.

I just copied my Office folder to the new laptop, which has always worked when changing computers before...

I'm surprised that ever worked for Office. I've just tried in a W10 VM and can confirm it doesn't for copying Office to a W10 machine.

Thanks to both Bree and SIW for your ideas. I'd moved Office twice from older computers by just copying the folder, and it worked, so I was surprised (though only a bit) that it didn't work with 10. Unfortunately the original CD vanished two divorces ago.
So looks like my next plan is to try to move my W7 to the 10 laptop.

T38 said:

Thanks to both Bree and SIW for your ideas. I'd moved Office twice from older computers by just copying the folder, and it worked, so I was surprised (though only a bit) that it didn't work with 10. Unfortunately the original CD vanished two divorces ago.
So looks like my next plan is to try to move my W7 to the 10 laptop.

T38 said:

I've used Macrium Reflect free edition to clone drives in the past, but not sure how to move the entire OS. Some net folks say Windoze hates dual-boot drives. Anyone tried this? Thanks!

What are the specs on your Windows 10 laptop? Does it have NVME? Does it have USB 3.0? Is it UEFI-only or can you boot CSM? Also, do you have 7 x86 or 7 x64? These specs matter as if you have these, you will have to do a bit of work to get Windows 7 working on your laptop. If you have 64 bit UEFI, but x86 Windows 7, you will have to upgrade to x64 first (it's possible, but tedious). Since you are doing a dual boot, you need to make sure you have enough space for a dual boot on your Windows 10 laptop. I would shrink your Windows 10 partition from 476 GB to 238 GB. Then, on your Windows 7 partition, make sure it's no more than 238 GB. If it is, shrink it to at most 238 GB. After that, make sure you have all the drivers set up on your Windows 7 partition. A great source for drivers that you can use are in the XP2ESD driverpack, see here: [TOOL] XP2ESD - Create modern Windows XP installer v1.6.2 | My Digital Life Forums, you can also get a USB 3.0 driver here: USB 3/XHCI driver stack for Windows 7 | My Digital Life Forums,. If you have UEFI Class 3, you will need to convert your drive into GPT, then you will need to use EFI files from something like UEFISeven or FlashBootPro, both of which can be found in the XP2ESD pack. You need to do something like this, otherwise Windows 7 will hang at "Starting Windows" or give you the 0xc0000000d error. Personally I recommend FlashBootPro, as I used it to help me install Windows Vista and Windows 7 on a UEFI-only Surface Pro 1, see here: How to install Windows 7 on a Surface Pro 1. Here are some EFI files you can use:
- FlashBootPro (look in the apps folder in the XP2ESD pack)
- MSFN article on native UEFI support apparently added: Error
- UefiSeven (didn't work for me but has worked for others apparently): Release 1.30 . manatails/uefiseven . GitHub
- Quibble (probably won't work as you don't have CSM): Release Version 20230328 . maharmstone/quibble . GitHub
- Disable vga.sys (didn't work for me either, but this was on my Surface Pro 6): Install Windows 7 at UEFI Graphics Output Protocol (GOP) hardware - Windows 7 - reboot.pro
- Windows 10 bootmgr (again, didn't work for me either, but this was on my Surface Pro 6, but this guy w.keller claims for it to work flawlessly for him every time): [TIP] Windows 7 UEFI install without CSM | My Digital Life Forums
-VgaShim: GitHub - davidcie/VgaShim: Enables some recent Apple computers to run Windows 7, [GUIDE] Install Windows 7 on Air 2015 | MacRumors Forums
- Normal boot files as you have a graphics driver installed (this worked for me on my Surface Pro 1 once I got drivers working, but in your case since you didn't get the graphics fully working it may not fully work) What I would probably do is get a Windows 7 ISO, integrate the necessary drivers into install.wim, then do a repair install (upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 7) with that ISO, then once the laptop shuts down DO NOT BOOT INTO WINDOWS 7 ON YOUR OLD LAPTOP. After the first reboot, I would boot into the Macrium Reflect media and back up the hard drive with the incomplete upgrade. Then after you have done that, go on your Windows 10 laptop and open Macrium Reflect (you can do this with the media or in Windows 10) and restore the Windows 7 partition. After that, if necessary add Windows 7 to Boot Manager and boot into Windows 7 and finish the upgrade/repair install. Here's a helpful video: How to clone a virtual machine to a physical/real computer tutorual - YouTube (think of the VM as your old laptop and the other laptop as your new laptop). Let me know if you need assistance or have any questions.

Thanks for your reply, 2W10. I'll try to answer all your questions. Let me start by saying I've been using W7 on the same laptop every day for 11 years or so, so I'm almost totally out of touch with newer tech like "NVMe," so bear with me.
New W10 laptop: 64-bit, 500 GB SSD, 16 GB ram, usb3. Can boot UEFI and bios. I don't know how to determine whether it can do CSM, which I gather is needed to run some legacy programs.
My W7 is 64-bit "home premium," SP1.
I'll check out all the links you thoughtfully provided. Also, I'm looking at a pgm called WinNTsetup that looks like a clean way to install 7 on the 10 laptop. Only think is, you have to have either a WIM image or similar, and a key. Since my W7 came installed on my old laptop, the key is OEM, and all the sources I've seen say that won't work. Are you familiar with that pgm?

T38 said:

I'm almost totally out of touch with newer tech like "NVMe," so bear with me.

Send me the hardware ID of your SSD and I will be able to determine if it's NVME or not. This is important as vanilla Windows 7 will not boot on NVME hard drives.

T38 said:

New W10 laptop: 64-bit, 500 GB SSD, 16 GB ram, usb3. Can boot UEFI and bios. I don't know how to determine whether it can do CSM, which I gather is needed to run some legacy programs.

That's great. Make sure both OSES are either UEFI or BIOS. CSM is essentially the same thing as BIOS, which allows BIOS to boot on UEFI. If you install on BIOS you don't need any of the EFI files I provided.

T38 said:

Also, I'm looking at a pgm called WinNTsetup that looks like a clean way to install 7 on the 10 laptop. Only think is, you have to have either a WIM image or similar, and a key. Since my W7 came installed on my old laptop, the key is OEM, and all the sources I've seen say that won't work. Are you familiar with that pgm?

Yes I have used it before. I believe you don't need a key. However, you do need installation media. But if you want to keep all your data, try what I suggested in the earlier post.