Using SCCM Upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10 1909

The steps covered in this post should help you to upgrade your existing Windows 7 computers to Windows 10 1909 using SCCM tasks sequence. Using SCCM we will perform an in-place upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

Windows 7 will hit its end of life on January 2020, just few more days to go. After January 14, 2020, if your PC is running Windows 7, it will no longer receive security updates. Therefore, it’s important that you upgrade to Windows 10. In addition, without the security updates, Windows 7 OS is going to become more vulnerable to security risks and viruses.

Microsoft made the official announcement on its online support pages. I am sure many organizations are currently planning to upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10. If you have got Configuration Manager in your setup, using task sequence, you can upgrade all your computers running Windows 7 to Windows 10 1909.

In this post I will be using SCCM 1910 to perform in-place upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 1909. The ADK version is 1903 which is the latest one I believe. You should be using SCCM 1906 and above to perform the upgrade. This is because only ConfigMgr 1906 and above support Windows 10 1909 as client.

If you are looking to deploy Windows 10 1909 using SCCM, you can read this post – https://www.prajwaldesai.com/deploy-windows-10-1909-using-sccm/. To upgrade Windows 10 1809 to Windows 10 1909, here is a post to help you – https://www.prajwaldesai.com/sccm-update-windows-10-1809-to-windows-10-1909/.

Step 1 – Import Windows 10 1909 Upgrade Package to SCCM

The first step is to import Windows 10 1909 upgrade package in SCCM. To do that launch ConfigMgr console and go to Software Library > Operating Systems. Right click Operating System Upgrade packages and click Add Operating System Upgrade Package.

On the Data Source page, specify the path to Windows 10 1909 files. You can also extract a specific image index from install.wim. Since I have got only Windows 7 Enterprise OS, I am going to extract Windows 10 Enterprise. Click Next.

Specify the general information about operating system upgrade package and click Next.

Review the settings on Summary page and hit Next.

Click Close.

Step 2 – Distribute the Windows 10 1909 Operating System Image

After you’ve imported Windows 10 1909 OS, you must distribute the content to distribution point(s). Right click Windows 10 1909 Enterprise and click Distribute Content.

Add the distribution point or distribution point groups and click Next.

Finally on the Completion page, click Close.

To know if the content distribution was successful or not, check the content status. Green color indicates the content is distributed while Red color indicates errors.

Step 3 – Create Windows 7 to Windows 10 Upgrade Task Sequence in SCCM

Let’s create a SCCM task sequence to upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10 1909.

• In the SCCM console, go to Software Library > Operating Systems > Task Sequences.
• Right click Task Sequences and click Create Task Sequence.

From the list of options, select Upgrade an operating system from an upgrade package. Click Next.

Enter the task sequence name and description. Click Next.

Click Browse and select the Windows 10 1909 upgrade package and click Next.

Select whether you want to install updates. If not select Do not install any software updates and click Next.

You can add the applications to install. Hit Next.

On the Completion page, click Close.

Drivers Management during In-place Upgrades – Probably this is one of the common question that is frequently asked. During the in-place upgrade how to deploy the correct drivers. Especially relevant question in scenarios where you upgrade your laptops running Windows 7 to Windows 10.

There are many good blog posts using which you can deploy the driver packages to laptops during upgrades. You can basically pre-cache the drivers before in-place upgrades with ConfigMgr task sequences. In the task sequence just before the upgrade operating system step, you add a step deploy the driver packages. I will cover more about this in a separate post.

Step 5 – Deploy Windows 10 1909 SCCM Upgrade Task Sequence

The SCCM task sequence to upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10 1909 is ready. But an important note first.

First of all create a pilot device collection containing your Windows 7 machines. You should never deploy the in-place upgrade task sequence to production systems before testing it properly. Hence I always recommend to test the deployment and if it’s successful make a plan to out to enterprise systems.

Go to Software Library > Operating Systems > Task Sequences. Right click the task sequence and click Deploy.

To deploy the task sequence, click Browse and select the device collection.

On the Deployment Settings page, select the purpose as Available. Click Next.

You can schedule the deployment available time and the time when it expires. I am not going to schedule it here, so click Next.

On User Experience window, click Next.

Click Next on Alerts page.

On the Distribution Points page, ensure the deployment options are correct. Click Next.

On the Completion window, click Close.

Step 6 – Begin In-place upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10

Let’s start the Windows 7 to Windows 1909 in-place upgrade on a test Windows 7 computer. Launch the Software center and select Operating Systems. Select the task sequence and click Install.

Click Install on the upgrade confirmation box.

The upgrade operating system is now running.

Grab a cup of coffee and wait for the task sequence to complete. Expect a couple of reboots during the upgrade. Once the upgrade is over, login to the computer and check the Windows version.