Migrating Windows 7 system to new motherboard

Anthony, this type of migration will have your swear jar filling up quite quickly unfortunately as it is not just a case of doing a simple swap of the motherboards and restoring the Windows 7 OS backup to the system.

Before you do anything:  make a full Disks & Partitions backup of the working Windows 7 system!  This is your safety net that will get you back to square one if needed!

Next, you need to identify what type of Windows 7 system you are dealing with?
Is this 32-bit or 64-bit?  Look at the System Properties page which should give an indication.
Is it a Legacy/MBR or UEFI/GPT boot system?
Which edition of Windows 7 is it?  Home, Pro, Enterprise?  Is it an OEM license?
What type of disk drive(s) are being used?
How old is this system?  Looking at the BIOS date can give an idea of age.

Note: download a copy of the free Belarc Advisor tool and install this / run it to produce an audit report for the working Windows 7 system which may answer most of the above questions.

If you are wanting to remain on Windows 7 then you should also be aware that Microsoft is dropping all support for this OS version in January 2020, so it will not receive any more security updates etc, plus you can expect that other software vendors will drop their support for their applications running on Windows 7 too, as happened previously with Vista and XP etc.

After all of the above, now comes the point where you need to consider what motherboard you will be buying, which in turn depends of if you are sticking with Windows 7 or going to move up to Windows 10.  You may need to look at older motherboards if staying with 7 and then go look at the board makers support web site to ensure that they are providing device drivers for Windows 7 that you will need for the hardware that is installed in this computer?

Normally, I would recommend doing an upgrade from Windows 7 to 10 on the current working computer before attempting this type of hardware / software migration.  The free upgrade from 7 to 10 is still available even though Microsoft have stopped telling people about it!  I know it still works because I have used it in the last month or so!

The issue here though is that MS Office 2010 will not work with Windows 10 (again I know because I tried to install it on a system and couldn't!) - so I ended up buying a copy of Office 2019 from Amazon.  I would expect the same may apply to other very old applications on the current computer.

Assuming that you can find a suitable motherboard that will working with Windows 7, you may still have an issue with Windows Activation, especially if the current Windows 7 license is an OEM one, as this is not transferable to different hardware, so you may need to buy a new Win 7 license to continue using it on the new motherboard!

Concur with Steve here on this. unfortunately there comes a time to just move on.  It has come that time for Windows 7 with new hardware.

Another thing to remember, you can't use a processor (Intel) above the 6th generation (7th and above is Win10 only). I have Win7 Pro (64bit) running on an ASUS TUF Z270 MK2 with an Intel i5 6600k. Works great.

Thanks everybody for your time and thoughtful replies.

Much to think about.

Anthony

You haven't said why you need to replace the motherboard. Did it die or do you have another reason? If it just died, you should consider buying a used motherboard of the exact same model. This will eliminate most of your headaches with the exception of an OEM licensing issue. If you need a more modern board for some reason. You should stick with a board that supports you existing processor and memory. It gets expensive if you don't.

Be aware that most licensed software will see your new configuration as a new computer.  If you are lucky you will be able to unregister your software while you have the old MB and re-register is after you have upgraded.  (I actually don't remember having a problem with ATI when I replaced a MB, but that may be my failing memory.)  Windows 10 allows you to upgrade the MB pretty painlessly if you use a Microsoft account rather than a local account.  (You can use the Microsoft account just long enough to "transfer" to the new MB; then go back to a local account.  That's what I did.)

I've been running MS Office 2010 just fine under Windows 10. No problems at all and I often get security updates during Windows updates. Don't know about Photoshop 4. But to agree with the others... and update to Windows 10 is better than staying with 7.

Fry's is going out of business? I still get emails from them every day. I've been a fan of B&H photo in NYC, good prices and they've been around a long time.

MS Office 2007 will run on Win10. Frys, Newegg, TigerDirect, and Amazon are my usual component stores.

I see and hear too many issues with Win10. Optical drives disappearing, Document folder deleted, and some other issues after updates. My main computer is on Win7 Pro and I plan on keeping it there (as long as possible anyway). I am not a big fan of Win10, but I have a laptop with Win10 Pro and I keep up with it there.

MS Office 2007 will run on Win10.

Are you sure about this Michael.  I had Office 2007, 2010 and while these used to work on Win 10 with the older builds such as 1803, 1809, etc I found that they stopped working with 1903 and 1909, such that they would not even install?  

Steve Smith wrote:

MS Office 2007 will run on Win10.

Are you sure about this Michael.  I had Office 2007, 2010 and while these used to work on Win 10 with the older builds such as 1803, 1809, etc I found that they stopped working with 1903 and 1909, such that they would not even install?  

For a client of mine I installed Office 2007 on a brand new MS Surface Pro 4 with Win10. He insisted, so I did not argue with him. Definitely worked, not sure though which version of Win10 that was. Can't look it up either, because I finally convinced him  to migrate to Office 365 ...

To: Steve Smith. (Also, I sent you a private message)

A bit Off Topic but important...

I have MS Office 2010 on all 3 of my Windows 10 computers.  1 running Intel processors and 1 with AMD. No problem here with Outlook, Excel, Publisher, PP and Exp Web.  I have never experienced any issue with the MS Office 2010 product being non functional under Win 10/64.  So I am interested in any issues with MS Office 2010 that might pop up in the future. 

I'll be moving a copy of my OS to a new NVMe PCIe in the next couple of weeks and will report that process and any pitfalls I encounter.

Regards and Happy Holidays to All....

Steve F. 

Hi Steve F.  I have to confess to only having one copy of MS Office 2019 in use on my main laptop, and that purely for dealing with documents sent to me by others using Office that don't play nicely with my main LibreOffice app that I use on all my computers.  So I didn't try too hard to get the older versions of Office to install on Win 10.  I probably wouldn't use MS Office at all if given a choice as LibreOffice does everything that I need for my own purposes!

Positive Steve. I have MS Office 2007 on a Win10 Pro build 1909 laptop running just fine. It was installed well before 1909 came out, so I can't say about the installing now, but it is still running and working fine. That is one of my issues with Win10, M$ is deciding for you what you can and cannot put on your computer.

This all makes me wonder if those having issue with older versions of Office on later versions of Win 10 somehow missed a update to Office 07 or 10 that causes the issue.

It would be worth it for someone to run MS update on versions having issue to see what the outcome would be.

Bob, I am sure that there were no missing Office 07 or 10 updates as the machine I was trying to install on hadn't had Office installed previously and was upto date on Win 10 64-bit 1903 updates at the time.

Steve, okay, just a thought.  I know that in the past MS update would at time push out updates that Windows update would not.  Unsure if that is still in place or a factor any longer.

Hello, Steve S. and Enchant, and ALL

I have the Win 10 update settings to "Include" other Microsoft products such as Office 2010.

Because of that setting, I have seen numerous times there were MS Office associated files and updates included along with windows 10 updates.  I manually check for Win10 updates every week.

I have not experienced any failure of the Office 2010 products associated with the Windows 10 environment or updates.....  not to say we wont... so when Steve S. mentioned that he experienced trouble with Office and Win 10, I was anxious to hear about it....

So far so good on this end...

Happy Holidays to All...

Steve F.

Hello Steve F.

I think the default setting for Windows update has the Microsoft update disabled unless they have changed that recently which is why I chimed in on it.  I have mine set like you.

I also have Windows Update set to include updates for other MS products such as office too.