Do I have to reinstall sketchup Pro 2013 when I install windows 10?

Hi I have been using sketchup off and on for about 5 years,
I am concerned that when I upgrade from 8.1 to Windows 10 I will not be able to use Sketchup Pro 2013 any more, or it will not work seamlessly. I do not want to have to pay loads of money for an up grade to 16 and am not a Techie but can find my way around a PC just about! Can you allay my concerns?

If you still have the e-mail with the serial number and license key, you should be able to reinstall SketchUp 2013 if needed. You should read this* before you do. It may impact whether or not ou want to use SU2013 going ahead.

If you don’t have the key, you can contact SketchUp Customer Support and they should be able to provide it for you. Might be worth doing that before you do the Windows 10 install.

*This was written well before the release of SU2016. So where it recommends that you use SU2015, read it as SU2016.

haha I would not suggest upgrading ( Actual down grade ) to windows 10 ! has to many glitches and problems . . Also did you save the file for installing the program I have mine in download folder . . And do a backup to a USB External Hard drive about every 2 or 3 months just incase ! . . Actually I do a drag and drop of folders saves time and troubles of what to save and not . . You must not have been on the list of people who were sent messages about the windows 10 problems and why not to start the installation of it . .
Also MAX out the amount of Ram that is installed on the mother board makes major differences . . I did that and nothing crashes any more . .

Thanks DaveR, I dont have the serial number and licence key.
I certainly could not justify buying 2016 at the moment as I don’t use it enough, and besides I am still managing to access the warehouse for plugins.
In general, when one downloads Windows 10 do you always have to reinstall? I may be willing to take a gamble!

I think it depends upon the way the installation goes. After months of nagging by Microsoft I decided to “upgrade” one of my computers. After a number of hours, it failed the upgrade and I haven’t had time to get back to it. It’ll be interesting to see what it does when if it starts.

Keep in mind that while SketchUp 2013 may run in Windows 10, it is possible you’ll have problems with it. And LayOut may not run at all. Of course they weren’t intended to run in Win10. There is a free version of SketchUp 2016 if you don’t want to spend the money to get SU2016 Pro.

Ok, I generally only do 2d drawings for my Carpentry business so maybe sketchup 2016 would be ok, I guess. I will be interested to hear if other people have managed the transition.

Another thing that is worth considering is the EULA. Since you are using SketchUp for business use, you should be using Pro. Of course that applies to SU2013 as well but you’ve already got that license. If you can get it to work on Win10, you might stick with it. Contact Customer Support to get the serial number and license key.

I did read something about compatibility modes for Windows,not sure how it works, does this apply to Windows 10?

When you hit the F1 or F2 key ( depends on the brand of computer ) does it give you a recover mode ? If so you may be lucky and get it running again with little problems

Thanks Lynne, I haven’t Upgraded yet, I am doing my homework first!

Hi @housemartin,

Upgrading an operating system is never without risks.

A little bit of research on this forum as well as a bit of googling around the internets will confirm you that there has been plenty of reports of failed upgrades, graphics drivers incompatibilites and privacy concerns with the newest version of Windows.

If your business operations depends on your Windows 8.1 machine and SketchUp 2013 installation, my best recommandation would be “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”

The free Windows 10 upgrade is valid until the end of July 2016 and Windows 8.1 end of life is planned for 2023 so you shouldn’t feel any hurry to upgrade. That leaves you with plenty of time to play with Windows 10 on a non-mission critical machine and see if the newest features are indeed needed for your business.

Personally, I’ve always had much better success doing a complete backup of my files and programs and reinstalling a fresh copy of Windows on a formatted hard drive than upgrading any version of Microsoft’s operating systems… :wink:

Good luck

Compatibility mode in still available in Windows 10

<img src=“//cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/sketchup/original/2X/e/ec27056a5b763231f73a4fb8bfa7f1d07b3599b8.jpg"height="400”>

Thanks denisroy, in layman’s terms, is compatability mode a workaround for peeps whose program will not work with a new upgrade?

Hi @housemartin,

While I’m not sure if compatibility mode would apply or make any difference for SketchUp, it is designed to act as an middleman between old applications and new system libraries.

In layman terms, if a very old program was designed to make use of the function “DoThis” that was available in the DoStuff.dll library of Windows XP and that the DoStuff.dll library has changed in Windows 7 and the way “DoThis” function works is also a bit different, the compatibility mode will make the application believe nothing has changed and make sure DoStuff.dll and “DoThis” behaves like the old application expects it to.

I will try to express my experience with the Windows10 upgrade in layman’s terms. Like you, I was reluctant to install Win10 until other users were able to confirm that no major issues would occur when I did. There were a number of posters here and on other forums who initially denigrated the Win10 OS, but over the past few months there appear to have been many more favorable reviews from users.

I use SketchUp professionally and it is the most frequently accessed software of those currently installed on my systems, so I can’t afford to be without access to it. I decided to bite the bullet just over 60 days ago (around the beginning of November 2015) and installed Win10 on one laptop. I have encountered no significant problems with the installation. I elected to not perform a clean install but simply performed an “upgrade” from Win8.1 to Win10.

The system with Win10 now boots up somewhat faster and the system seems to be more responsive when handling larger skp files. I tend to work on a variety of software packages at the same time to perform daily tasks, so other than SU, additional windows may be devoted to Word, Acrobat, Powerpoint, Photoshop, and Excel among others. I noticed that when I have multiple skp files open or when I have accessed a number of different programs, the system does not experience the “Not Responding” dialog that popped up from time to time before the upgrade. (I have seen this on just a few occasions with Win10, but hardly to the extent that it happened before.)

There were some initial glitches with the upgrade installation. Several attempts were required to successfully complete the upgrade but once the OS completed the installation process, no major issues have been observed over the last two months.

Because of the relatively positive experience with the laptop, several other computers are being upgraded as well now. These have not been in use long enough under the new OS to offer a reliable evaluation on the performance of those machines at this time, however. If any problems arise, I will report back.

Oh…and to answer your original question. I did not have to reinstall SU or any other software once the new OS was installed. All programs appear to be operating as expected. You may want to use a bit of care when migrating any SketchUp extensions to the new OS. Most addons will work under Win 10 but remember that many of these were developed before Win10 so some older addons may experience problems.

1 Like

Much like @jvleearchitects, I personally have had very little technical issues so far as well with Windows 10 and SketchUp PRO 2015/2016. I do not have access to 2013 binaries so cannot test and share my experience with this version though.

Do keep in mind that by upgrading/installing Windows 10, you will have telemetry, distributed and forced updates and Cortana/OneDrive/XBox/Skype/Metro Apps and other phone-oriented bloatware features forced down your throat pre-installed for you… with no easy way to uninstall them :wink:

If you can, have an image of your hard drive taken before the upgrade process, that way if you encounter problems, you can always come back to a working state by restoring the image which takes a few minutes instead of a few hours of reformating/reinstalling everything. Many programs will do this for you, my preference goes to the free and open-source swiss-knife that is Clonezilla but there definitely are some more user-friendly options out there.

1 Like

And remember, no matter what you read, good or bad, your system is unique and as such can go either way.
For me the upgrade experience was bad, my specific class of graphic card didn’t work well with it.
Having gone back to win7 I have lost a few favourite old programs whose origins and reg codes are lost in the mists of time.
I have Win 10 on a newer machine and it’s not significantly better, just different.
So, all in all it’s up to you but do it with your eyes wide open.

1 Like

Thank you so much for all the info guys.
I feel I have got a much better idea now, and although haven’t come to a final decision, I don’t feel that it is so urgent now I know 8.1 will be around until 2023.
Please feel free to put down any other nuggets though.

1 Like