Can you do a Windows 7 reinstall "in place"?

[Carson Dyle]

I have an old netbook on which I run Windows 7 Professional, 32-bit. I think it originally came with XP, but I replaced the hard drive with an SSD a couple years ago and installed Windows 7. Anyway... A problem I began having is that this netbook can no longer connect to other computers on the network. No idea what I did, but I must have screwed something up in the security or wifi network settings.

I've tried everything I can think of to make it work, but haven't had any luck. I'm ready to just reinstall Windows and start over. Can Windows be reinstalled in place, resetting all of the configuration options? I realize I'd have to reinstall programs, but at least it would keep data and folders intact.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Short answer, no. Reinstallation in-place while keeping user data was only added with 8.1, I think.

You'll have to move your data to some sort of external drive while you reinstall. Bu if it's from/to an SSD, it shouldn't be too much of a hassle.

External SSDs are very handy for this kind of situation.

 

[Carson Dyle]

A couple hours ago I bit the bullet and began a fresh install of Windows 7. The good news is that it can see all of the computers and shares on the network and vice versa. The bad news is that installing 125 critical updates on this old computer looks like it will take at least 6 hours.

 

[Iron Woode]

I have an old netbook on which I run Windows 7 Professional, 32-bit. I think it originally came with XP, but I replaced the hard drive with an SSD a couple years ago and installed Windows 7. Anyway... A problem I began having is that this netbook can no longer connect to other computers on the network. No idea what I did, but I must have screwed something up in the security or wifi network settings.

I've tried everything I can think of to make it work, but haven't had any luck. I'm ready to just reinstall Windows and start over. Can Windows be reinstalled in place, resetting all of the configuration options? I realize I'd have to reinstall programs, but at least it would keep data and folders intact.

yes, you can do an in place refresh of win 7:

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

 

[Insert_Nickname]

yes, you can do an in place refresh of win 7:

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

That's very interesting. From what I can gather it essentially does an in place upgrade from 7 to 7. I didn't think it was possible to do that within the same version of Windows.

As a final resort, this could come in very handy, so thank you very much.

 

[Iron Woode]

That's very interesting. From what I can gather it essentially does an in place upgrade from 7 to 7. I didn't think it was possible to do that within the same version of Windows.

As a final resort, this could come in very handy, so thank you very much.

no problem. I have done it myself back in the day. The down side is if your system won't boot you can't do this.