How to run an in-place upgrade

Published: Jan 13, 2025

Last updated: Jan 27, 2025

Introduction

In this guide I'm going to show how to run an in-place upgrade on your computer, this can be done with or without a USB. Running an in-place upgrade can help resolve software and Windows OS issues without removing data. An in-place upgrade will reinstall Windows while retaining data, the old installation of Windows will be stored in the Windows.old folder which can be found on your (C:) drive. If you need guidance creating a Windows Installation USB, see How to create a Windows Installation USB. If you already have a Windows Installation USB ready to go, skip to Setup.exe down below. This method works with both Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Media Creation Tool

You'll first need to download Windows Media Creation Tool.

Windows Media Creation Tool links:
Windows 10: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Windows 11: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11

Once downloaded, run MediaCreationTool.exe

Accept EULA


Select Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) for another PC


Choose Language, Edition, and Architecture. By default it should select what is best for your computer, for reference this is what I choose.


Select ISO file


Choose a file name and location to download the ISO


Windows Media Creation Tool will download the ISO file for you. This step can take a while, perhaps consider stepping away to grab a coffee or do some stretches.


Once finished, you can navigate the ISO file with the on screen button. Select Finish.


Navigate to where you downloaded the ISO, right-click and select Open with > Windows Explorer. This will mount the ISO. Assuming you have default Windows settings, you can also doubleclick the ISO to mount it.


Once mounted you can navigate inside the ISO. The ISO will appear as a directory in This PC.


Run setup.exe

Setup.exe

Select Next.
You can leave "I want to help make the installation of Windows better" unselected. In fact, I recommend leaving it unselected as Microsoft doesn't seem to use analytic data to actually make Windows better.


Computer will check for updates and automatically apply any that are available


Once updated, select Install and let the installer do it's thing. Please note the installation can take up to 30 minutes and your computer may restart a few times during the process, please be patient!

TL;DR

Use MediaCreationTool to download ISO, mount ISO, run setup.exe.
OR
Run setup.exe from a Windows Installation USB.