Will upgrading windows 7 to windows 10 break my other software?

December 13, 2019 7:03 AM

Among other purchased software, I have Adobe Acrobat professional 9, Scrivener, and Office 2016. Would I have to reregister or reinstall any of these if I upgrade from Windows 7 professional to Windows 10 or would the upgrade be transparent to previously installed software? If upgrading to 10 will be problematic, how dangerous will it be for me to continue running windows 7 in the future? Thanks!
posted by DB Cooper to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Best answer: Data point: I have Adobe Acrobat X Pro and Scrivener, and they work fine on Windows 10.
posted by nosila at 7:14 AM on December 13, 2019

Best answer: The upgrade should be transparent. Not upgrading Win7 is a really, really bad idea. Source: 15 years in information security.
posted by bfranklin at 7:16 AM on December 13, 2019 [2 favorites]

Works fine. bfranklin is 100% correct. Make it happen. Today.
posted by tgrundke at 7:19 AM on December 13, 2019

It even transferred my Office 2010 without a hitch.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 7:20 AM on December 13, 2019

Best answer: btw- acrobat 9 has been out of support for six years now and is a similar gaping security hole.
posted by noloveforned at 7:21 AM on December 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Acrobat 9 is probably still fine for creating PDF stuff, but for rendering PDFs you didn't make yourself, something like a recent build of Sumatra PDF will certainly be far far less insecure. Also free, open source and loads a lot faster than any Adobe product.
posted by flabdablet at 7:53 AM on December 13, 2019

I upgraded my computer from Win 7 pro to Win 10 pro not that long ago, and I have a lot of outdated software installed on it. It was the most problem-free upgrade experience I have had, and my Windows upgrading experience dates back to Windows 3.1 days. I think I came across two minor programs I had to re-install. Before I upgraded I cloned my hard drive to a new, larger one just in case it didn't go well. Ends up I didn't need to do that, but it gave me piece of mind that I could always easily revert if the switch was catastrophic.
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:33 AM on December 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

If you can swing it, use the opportunity to invest in an SSD at the same time. Macrium Reflect Free is pretty good at cloning a hard drive to an SSD. Once done, take out the HD and put in the SSD and run the upgrade. If things go wrong somewhere you can easily switch back and if it all works OK you will be amazed how much faster an SSD is. Just a thought.
posted by nostrada at 10:57 AM on December 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Upgrade went flawlessly. Thank you everyone!
posted by DB Cooper at 5:42 PM on December 13, 2019 [1 favorite]