Upgrading Windows & Effect on Steam Games

[⚜ 𝕮𝖔𝖇𝖇𝖑𝖊 ⚜]

If you upgrade to Windows 10 from an earlier Windows version (7, 8, 8.1, etc), do you have to reinstall your steam games after the upgrade??

Are games on other games on other launchers like Origin & Blizzard affected too?

Thanks

[Omega]

Most applications will remain installed after a Windows upgrade.

You don't have to reinstall Steam and/or games.


It is recommended that you do a clean install instead of an upgrade. Just to avoid various issues.

If you do a clean install your games can also simply be coppied over. By moving the Steamapps folder over to your new installation. Something similar can be done with Origin and Battlenet.

[TehSpoopyKitteh]

Absolutely not :-) I play Starcraft 2 all the time through the Blizzard app...and I launch the Blizzard app from Steam. If you run Steam as Administrator, you will be able to use the Steam Overlay while playing.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

You do not want to upgrade. Download the very latest Win10 from Microsoft directly and clean install it. All your old files will be pushed to "C:\Windows.old"
Then reinstall your apps and drivers (download latest ones for your hardware made for Win10 64bit); then move your Steam + Games back to where they should reside and run Steam. Now you're back to where you were, but under new OS.

Then activate your Win10 with your previous OS key.

[MA☝Omgwtfbbqstfu™]

Eh, upgrade works fine if its too much trouble to start over, the upgrade installer is very good at importing all your windows 7 installs and stuff. Only difference with a fresh install is that there maybe less wasted space from unnecessary stuff being imported into the new install. All the machines I originally upgraded had seamless installs, basically it just behaves as the biggest windows update ever.

[Supafly]

Most issues can usually solved by wiping and reinstalling drivers and verifying games files (some files may get changed/redownloaded/installed)

If redoing drivers and verifying game files doesn't solve any issues its possible the update screwed something up. Could be fixed, possibly, but that will require identifying precisely what part or windows got screwed before you can attempt to solve it. Chances are it's faster to wipe, fresh install and set up your system from scratch than it is to identify any upgrade complications.

Personally I'd do a fresh install without attempting to upgrade. Simple with no possible upgrade complications. On the plus side you get a nice CLEAN system.

[Manic Jorge]

Some games might not word correctly

[tford1956]

I've updated through the win update from 7. Never had any troubles. I'm running 1809 as of yesterday and the update was faster this time. It save windows.old folder so you can rolll back for 30 days..I think 30 days anyway. Never had to roll back. And make a img bkup with reflect or something just in case.