Good news! With Windows 10, we finally see the return of the “in-place upgrade,” more commonly known as the ability to repair install!
Windows XP was the last version of Windows that had a true “repair install” option, allowing users to fix a non-working system by simply booting from their Windows XP setup CD and simply pressing ‘r’ when prompted to begin an in-place upgrade/reinstall of Windows XP that would replace damaged or missing system files, fix system misconfigurations, reset drivers, and more while retaining users’ files, applications, and settings.
But with Windows Vista, Microsoft completely restructured the way Windows setup worked to bring about faster deployments and to unify their many deployment options with the introduction of WIM, the Windows Imaging Format, which basically stored a basic Windows image as an archive on the DVD, ready for extraction to the local disk from where it bootstrapped itself, configuring devices and drivers. The only problem was that WIM-based setup did not lend itself to the replacement/patching of individual system files, and rather than coming up with a workaround, Microsoft did away entirely with the entire concept of in-place upgrades and repair installs, leaving users with damaged, non-booting, or mis-configured Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 operating systems on their own.
Some expected later versions of Windows to feature improvements to WIM and provide repair install or reinstall options with Windows 7 and later with Windows 8, but that never happened. However, we’re super excited to share that after experimentation and testing, we can now share the good news: Windows 10 brings back the ability to perform a repair install!
The only caveat is that unlike with Windows XP, you must be able to boot into Windows 10 before you can start the reinstall procedure – i.e. if your PC is too damaged to boot up and log in, you can’t just boot from the Windows 10 DVD or USB and start a repair install. On the other hand, from our testing, it seems that reinstalling Windows 10 plays much nicer with installed software than a Windows XP in-place upgrade ever did – it doesn’t break MSI packages (like Microsoft Office) and manages to more-cleanly separate between user and system files and registry keys; replacing/refreshing only what it needs to in order to get Windows up and running again with minimal impact on everything else.
If you need to repair install but can’t boot into Windows, you’ll first need to fix your boot and repair any startup issues, perhaps with a tool like our own, free Windows 10 recovery CDs, allowing you get back into Windows from where you can start the repair install.
How-To: Repair Install Windows 10
I’ve posted to Microsoft Community Forums issues pertaining to the creation or recovery drives, capacity required as well as the ability to repair a windows 10 installation without losing already installed software etc.
It was interesting to read your post as I’d already used this method. I used the Media Creation Tool to create the DVD iso used. However, a slight anomaly with your post……
Item 4. After the licence terms window I receive “Getting Updates” windows.
When I click ‘next’ on the “Ready to Install” window, I do not get the “Choose what to Keep” Windows (your item 5). I go straight into repair.
Can you explain ? Do I need to recreate a new DVD iso ? Has the Media Creation Tool been updated to include what you’ve posted.??
@Tom: I’m not sure – this was with the actual Windows 10 setup ISO, not a DVD or USB created with the MCT (media creation tool). Not sure if that helps shed any light on the situation or not.
They brought back in-place upgrade but they took out recimg.exe functionality of Windows 8 which let you use a custom refresh image with desktop apps also captured in the image (but not your files etc). If something goes wrong with your desktop apps, a refresh with a custom image captured by recimg quickly restored it. Now you must reinstall your desktop apps, drivers etc. In-replace repair/upgrade will only repair the system files.
This is beyond infuriating. Most times a repair install is needed IS BECAUSE YOU CAN’T BOOT INTO WINDOWS! I REALLY have a deep seething hatred for whoever’s idea this was. I don’t even know them and I despise them.
Having managed to create USB recovery media Ifound on first use in repairing friends Windows 10 installation the option to keep personal files was available unlike MCT as posted earlier. The device was an ASUS laptop and whilst docs and pictures were retained the removing of ASUS installed apps and Office etc. was a blow; aren’t this classified as personal? Why Microsoft deemed this necessary to do is beyond comprehension. All one wants to do is repair Windows files without any impact being taken on other installed software. I would of thought Microsoft would have had the forethought, intelligence and capability to include a mechanism to test the boot functionality and fix if necessary and then check and perform the repair install. Definitely frustrating and can understand how infuriating this can/will be.