Not all upgrades to Windows 10 run as smoothly as they should.  Sometimes the upgrades fail, leaving you no choice but to roll back to a previous version of Windows.  If you have experienced a failed upgrade, here are some things you need to do to ensure you successfully upgrade to Windows 10 the next time.

Disconnect all non-essential devices from your computer

The first thing you need to do is to only keep the bare essentials like the keyboard and the mouse attached to the computer. If you have a printer, scanner, card reader or any other non-essential device connected, just disconnect them before you start the upgrade process.

Whenever you upgrade to Windows 10, the installation setup tries to find compatible Drivers and install any device that is attached to computer. If the device is not compatible, the installation setup gets stuck up, resulting in a failure to complete the upgrade process.

Disable startup programs, anti-virus and non-essential programs

You need to disable startup programs, anti-virus programs and all non-essential programs before starting the Windows 10 upgrade. It would be better if you uninstall any antivirus or anti-spyware utility and install the ones that are compatible with Windows 10. This also applies to non-essential programs. Background programs can cause problems during the upgrade.  To disable startup programs follow the steps set out below

Steps to disable Startup programs in Windows 7

1. Click Start > Run
2. Type msconfig
3. In the System Configuration window, click the Startup tab
4. Uncheck the boxes for programs that you don’t want to run

Steps to disable Startup programs in Windows 8

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to open the Task Manager
2. Go to the Startup tab
3. You can see which programs are enabled in startup and their Startup impact
4. If you are not sure about which programs to disable, you can disable the programs which have Startup impact value as None
5. Right-click on the program in the list and select Disable

Disconnect multiple hard disks

IT experts advise to keep only one hard disk (on which you want to install Windows 10) and remove all other hard disks until you finish the upgrade process.  You need to also remove USB hard drives if any and disable them in the Device Manager. To disable additional hard drives from the Device Manager, do the following:

1. Click Start
2. Type Device Manager in the Search box
3. Click on Device Manager in the list of results
4. Expand Drives entry in Device Manager
5. Look for General USB devices
6. Right-click on the device entry you want to disable and select Disable

Your upgrade to Windows 10 should now run smoothly. If you do still come across issues, or have solutions to upgrade problems, please post below to share with our community.