CAD Forum

Hello
I am considering replacing my motherboard so I can move from Windows 7 to Windows 11. So..
a) If, I use the same HD and do an upgrade to Windows 10 or 11 will my SolidWorks 16 survive the trip?
b) Any alternate methods

Way back 1995 the company I worked for let me use a copy of, first SW 95 then yearly upgrades to eventually SW 16. Used mostly for internal use to make models associated with my needs as a dynamic balance technician. A jobbing shop where as part of our service we dynamically balanced components for the rotating equipment we repaired. The company received multiple seats and had enough to give me one for my home use.. I guess.

Fast forward.. now retired some 7 years, the subsidiary branch has been sold, and subsequently failed. So there is no help available from them or even the VAR, if they even used a local one. An international company based in Scotland and we were a mere minor branch. All legal as far as I knew as the company was well aware of pirated software and my SW models were on several occasions sent to third parties.

Now, for no real good reason I would like to upgrade my system to Windows 10 or 11 and that requires at the very least a new motherboard.. and I worry about losing my SW 16 Premium. Not the end of the world.. but I still like to tinker on home projects.. like modeling my house.

Any thoughts.. I know there is a transfer licence option.. but worry that the licencing was not fully registered and any attempt to use the feature will kill what I have. So.. hoping using the same HD will suffice with a messy upgrade (would prefer clean/new.. but).. or??

Cheers

Not really sure.

However, the website states that Solidworks 2021 is not compatible with Windows 11 64 bit. so I would doubt that SW 2016 is.

Your mileage may vary though.

Maybe someone with a similar situation can chime in.

Ouch.. I wonder if I could set up a dual boot system like i had with Windows XP and 2000. I guess it would depend on whether the licence is on the hard drive or.. imbedded somehow in the motherboard. Or.. better, leave as is and purchase new, essentially have two computers to use as required. gonna have to do some serious thinking on this.
Thanks for the information.

I highly doubt that you can do a windows upgrade and not have to do a reinstall, and if your not on maintenance they won't let you register a old version. Plus like Dan said windows 11 is not supported by SW till 2022(SP2) according to Solidworks website, no way 2016 would be. You might be able to get it to work on windows 10, but changing windows version resets the windows registry, which will force you to at minimum to re-register SW.

You could call the VAR and tell them you are upgrading the hardware and deactivate the license and reactivate after the hardware upgrade?
And/Or, "try" to upgrade your Windows 7 to Window 11 with SW 2016 installed and see what happens?
BTW, I'm pretty sure you can run SW 2016 on Windows 11 without issue. If you do experience some oddities, run 2016 in compatibility mode (RMB, choose "Troubleshoot compatibility").

Not withstanding SolidWorks, do yourself a favor and do a scorched earth installation of Win10/11. Seriously. 7 years is forever in computer years and the amount of cruft that has built up in the install is going to be significant.

Get a copy of https://www.belarc.com/products/belarc-advisor, run it and print it out. It will have all the software installed on your machine with the appropriate serial numbers, etc.

Deactivate SolidWorks before you do the next step.

Then follow the instructions here:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ins ... 3181625b08

In the event you can't relicense your solidworks, the maker edition is $99 a year. Dunno if that's in your budget or not.

Failing that there is a freebie SolidEdge version available if you go look for it. Another option is Design Space Mechanical.

Good luck.

Deactivate the license before you upgrade hardware or OS.
Or else you'll need to contact VAR to deactivate it.
It'll still fail if you've activated 999 times.
Windows 10 maybe better. Lots of program not support Window 11, yet.
You can get MB that support Win11 and upgrade in future.

I'm still using 2 gen i7 at home, so more then 7 years. Started with Win 7, upgrade to 8 and then 10.
So you could just upgrade to Win 10.
Buy a new SSD drive. Win 10 will be really slow with HDD. SATA should work with your computer. Unless your MB has PCI-E for SSD.
Clone your current Boot/OS HDD to the SSD.
Remove HDD, Boot with SSD. Make sure Solidworks still runs. Upgrade to Windows 10.
You don't need to deactivate license. You could remove SSD and boot with old HDD if something went wrong.

Assuming you're not running RAID.

Thanks.. that is probably close to the route I will attempt. Or.. clean up my current Windows 7 computer, make a virtual image on a spare SSD and put the old computer in storage, plugging in the various peripherals when I have a project to work on. Purchase a new system and play around with the SSD from the old computer to see what will work. Nothing critical here so if I lose it all.. meh.
Thanks all for your suggestions. Bottom line is that it won’t be without “some” complications.