Upgrading guest from Win 10 to Win 11

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
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Ken S
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Primary OS: MS Windows 10
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Upgrading guest from Win 10 to Win 11

Post by Ken S »

I have a desktop running Win 11 as host. I have a VM running under the latest release of Vbox, with Win 10 as guest.

I have already created a backup copy of my Vbox directory.

I now want to upgrade Win 10 in the VM to Win 11. I have been reading all the notes I could find over the last 6 months or so, with the initial problems and the fact that Vbox is now compatible, then there was something recently that it wasn't.

What I want to achieve is to upgrade my (registered) copy of Win 10 in the guest to a registered Win 11.

Is it as simple as it was to upgrade the host ... just ask for an upgrade and I end up with Win 11 (activated)? Or do I have to create a new VM, install from a Win 11 ISO, then install all my software?

All help appreciated.
mpack
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Re: Upgrading guest from Win 10 to Win 11

Post by mpack »

Ken S wrote:with the initial problems and the fact that Vbox is now compatible, then there was something recently that it wasn't.
The current official VirtualBox release is not compatible with Windows 11 compatibility checks, which will complain about lack of TPM 2.0 support and an older generation CPU if present.

It is expected that the next major release of VirtualBox (i.e. v7.x) will be compatible with Win11 provided your PC has a supported CPU, since of course the CPU is not emulated in a hypervisor.

There is a test build of v7 already available, or you can Google for how to disable the Win11 compatibility checks - which is how all of us 6.1.x users have managed to create Win11 VMs without much trouble.

Questions about how easily Win10 can be upgraded to Win11 really ought to be addressed to Microsoft. We have no remit to do Windows support here.
Ken S
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Re: Upgrading guest from Win 10 to Win 11

Post by Ken S »

mpack wrote:... provided your PC has a supported CPU
I had assumed my PC has a supported CPU because the host accepted Win 11
mpack wrote:you can Google for how to disable the Win11 compatibility checks
I had read up on them a few months ago, but they seemed to create new VMs, with no installed software and I was not sure how to register the new Windows 11 VM
mpack wrote:We have no remit to do Windows support here.
Ok. I had thought someone may have done an upgrade of an existing VM rather than create a new one.
mpack
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Re: Upgrading guest from Win 10 to Win 11

Post by mpack »

Ken S wrote:
mpack wrote:... provided your PC has a supported CPU
I had assumed my PC has a supported CPU because the host accepted Win 11
It's a logical assumption... unless you made the aforementioned compatibility hacks to get Win11 installed on the host. I have no way to know that. If so then the hacks will not apply to Win11 installed in a different PC (e.g. a VM).
BillG
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Re: Upgrading guest from Win 10 to Win 11

Post by BillG »

I have upgraded a Win10 vm to Win11 and everything worked as expected. No problems with activation.

However I did this a long time ago before the compatibility checks were imposed, so I can't say that you won't have problems with that.
W11update.png
W11update.png (54.69 KiB) Viewed 9740 times
Bill
TimHerb
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Re: Upgrading guest from Win 10 to Win 11

Post by TimHerb »

VB 7.0.10 is happy to do a fresh Win11 machine if I enable EFI, but if I change the EFI setting for my existing Win10 VM it can no longer find the boot drive. So, upgrade impossible.

Suggestions?
scottgus1
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Re: Upgrading guest from Win 10 to Win 11

Post by scottgus1 »

TimHerb wrote: 20. Sep 2023, 00:02 if I change the EFI setting for my existing Win10 VM
A quick web search:

convert windows 10 to efi boot

leads me to

Convert an existing Windows 10 Installation from Legacy BIOS to UEFI
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... 1405f800d7

Seems possible, but I haven't tried it.
TimHerb
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Re: Upgrading guest from Win 10 to Win 11

Post by TimHerb »

Thanks for trying.

Unfortunately, mbr2gpt.exe couldn't find an OS boot sector, either.
TimHerb
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Re: Upgrading guest from Win 10 to Win 11

Post by TimHerb »

Looking at logs, the MBR Boot Partition 1 on Disk 0 is recognized with
2023-09-20 02:14:58, Info Volume: \\?\Volume{c1411cec-3cff-11e3-824c-806e6f6e6963}\
2023-09-20 02:14:58, Info Drive: None
2023-09-20 02:14:58, Info NT Path: \Device\HardDisk0\Partition1
but
2023-09-20 02:14:58, Info FindOSPartitions: Default boot entry: {157E2459-B0F7-11EA-B6E7-F79C50446FFB}
2023-09-20 02:14:58, Info BCD: Opening object {157e2459-b0f7-11ea-b6e7-f79c50446ffb}
2023-09-20 02:14:58, Info VERBOSE: Device path: \Device\HarddiskVolume2
2023-09-20 02:14:58, Info VERBOSE: Dos path: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolume2
2023-09-20 02:14:58, Info FindOSPartitions: Volume name for the default boot entry: \\?\Volume{c1411ced-3cff-11e3-824c-806e6f6e6963}\
2023-09-20 02:14:58, Info BCD: Opening object {db23a476-b0ee-11ea-85aa-9faaa1197dd1}
2023-09-20 02:14:58, Error GetOSDeviceVolume: Cannot get NT path for entry.[gle=0x000000ea]
2023-09-20 02:14:58, Error FindOSPartitions: Cannot get volume name for the recovery boot entry. Error: 0x000000EA[gle=0x000000ea]
2023-09-20 02:14:58, Error Cannot find OS partition(s) for disk 0[gle=0x000000ea]

The error log says:
2023-09-20 02:13:24, Error GetOSDeviceVolume: Cannot get NT path for entry.[gle=0x000000ea]
2023-09-20 02:13:24, Error FindOSPartitions: Cannot get volume name for the recovery boot entry. Error: 0x000000EA[gle=0x000000ea]
2023-09-20 02:13:24, Error Cannot find OS partition(s) for disk 0[gle=0x000000ea]
2023-09-20 02:14:58, Error GetOSDeviceVolume: Cannot get NT path for entry.[gle=0x000000ea]
2023-09-20 02:14:58, Error FindOSPartitions: Cannot get volume name for the recovery boot entry. Error: 0x000000EA[gle=0x000000ea]
2023-09-20 02:14:58, Error Cannot find OS partition(s) for disk 0[gle=0x000000ea]
TimHerb
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Re: Upgrading guest from Win 10 to Win 11

Post by TimHerb »

I have a screen shot
Screenshot 2023-09-20 030057.png
Screenshot 2023-09-20 030057.png (61.61 KiB) Viewed 5285 times
scottgus1
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Re: Upgrading guest from Win 10 to Win 11

Post by scottgus1 »

TimHerb wrote: 20. Sep 2023, 11:22 mbr2gpt.exe couldn't find an OS boot sector
According to the Microsoft tutorial, mbr2gpt is run from the Windows Recovery environment Command Prompt while the PC is still on Legacy BIOS.

Was your VM still on Legacy BIOS?

The Windows Recovery environment is shown in the tutorial as a command prompt window on a blue background. Your mbr2gpt screenshot is a black background with a Disk Management window also open. Did you boot to the Windows Recovery environment first?

Your screenshot shows the "/allowfullOS" switch being used. The tutorial does not mention this switch. Why did you deviate from the tutorial?
TimHerb
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Re: Upgrading guest from Win 10 to Win 11

Post by TimHerb »

My VM has the EFI box unchecked. I included the Disk Management in the screenshot to show that I have only the two partitions, System Reserved, and C:. Properties on the disk shows MBR.

Trying to boot to the Recovery Environment does not yield the bluescreen Advanced Options shown in the tutorial, but I was offered a bluescreen text menu in which F6 booted to Safe Mode Command Line. Running mbr2gpt.exe there produced the logs I copied. Running it without the /allowFullOS switch produced an error message saying I needed it.

The HowTo at <https://www.windowscentral.com/how-conv ... windows-10> says an Administrator can run the program from from within Win10, so I tried that also and showed the result.

For grins I tried assigning a drive letter to the System Reserved partition, and renaming it Boot, neither of which helped the program find it.

I'm about to give up and just create a fresh VM and try to use my old Win10 authentication.
scottgus1
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Re: Upgrading guest from Win 10 to Win 11

Post by scottgus1 »

TimHerb wrote: 20. Sep 2023, 18:03 I'm about to give up and just create a fresh VM and try to use my old Win10 authentication.
Don't throw away the whole VM. Instead, reinstall on a new drive file attached to the VM after you set the VM to EFI. Then you can keep the UUIDs that will let you reactivate the OS on the old license. You can also keep the old drive file as a backup.

FWIW your Disk Management screenshot does not show the Recovery Partition that my Windows 10 hosts have:
recovery partition.png
recovery partition.png (24.91 KiB) Viewed 5227 times
Maybe that's why you cannot get to the place the tutorial says could be successful for running mbr2gpt.
TimHerb
Posts: 23
Joined: 7. Feb 2009, 23:44
Primary OS: Mandriva
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Re: Upgrading guest from Win 10 to Win 11

Post by TimHerb »

I'm keeping the whole Win10 VM. I guess once I use its key on the new one I'll run into authentication issues but we'll see.
TimHerb
Posts: 23
Joined: 7. Feb 2009, 23:44
Primary OS: Mandriva
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: WinXP

Re: Upgrading guest from Win 10 to Win 11

Post by TimHerb »

Well, Quicken is even more poorly behaved in the Win11 VM than it is in Win10. Very disappointing. Won't bother to activate.
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