Doing a fresh installation of Windows 11 typically does a good job of fixing most issues relating to the Operating System, but sometimes it'll fix a lot of issues, but not everything. You'll notice certain Windows functions act strangely, like Windows Updates not working, or other glitches.
A way to easily fix that is to do something called an In-Place Installation of Windows. This will "upgrade" the device to the latest version of Windows 11, and it tends to repair issues (e.g., corrupted system files, apps, and incompatible drivers on the system), without deleting any files.
Step 1: Downloading Windows 11
Windows 11 is available to download here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
If the page you get to looks like the one below, you're on the right page.
In our fresh installation guide, our instructions call for you to select the middle option, "Create Windows 11 Installation Media". This will specifically allow you to set up a flash drive or DVD (aka ISO) that will be usable to install Windows 11.
While you can go through that option and create an ISO through that tool, this guide will use a different approach as an alternative to the Installation Tool.
Click on the dropdown menu, select Windows 11 (multi-edition ISO for x64 devices), and then press Download.
You'll get a prompt after that to select the product language. Select the language, and hit Confirm.
Once done, you'll see a download link that will download the ISO (this link is active for 24 hours). Click the link and it'll download the ISO (it should be a roughly 5-6 GB file).
Step 2: Prepare the In-Place Install
- Once the ISO is made, select it and it should mount to File Explorer. Open it and the directory should look similar to how it is below:
- Select the setup.exe, and if a Security Warning pops up asking if you want to run the file, select Run.
- You'll likely get a prompt from User Account Control here, as this will be access drives. Select Yes here.
- You'll then see a prompt saying that Windows 11 will go online to grab any updates, drivers, and optional features. You have the option to change how Setup downloads updates, but it's not overly necessary to change, so you can select NEXT and proceed.
- Selecting NEXT will let the application grab some initial updates, and then check your PC to see what else it needs to collect.
- The application will then present you with the license terms. Read them, and then press ACCEPT to move on.
- The app will then start finalizing and getting the updates all ready to do the installation.
- When it's ready to do the in-place upgrade for Windows 11, you'll see what you've chosen.
- You don't need to wipe things this time, so you can have "Keep personal files and apps" selected.
- Once you're ready, press INSTALL. The system will go through the install process.
- Once you see the desktop or the sign-in screen, you'll know that the in-place installation is complete!