Resolved W 10 boot problem- Avoiding a reset

Everything was fine, then two days ago Windows didn't want to boot. I let it auto repair many times with no luck. I've tried running startup repair manually, system file checker and chkdsk, but still no boot. I have a lot of programs installed and really, really don't want to have to install them over. I had an idea that probably won't work, but I'll toss it out anyhow. From my understanding, my machine now knows that Windows 10 has been on it. If I reverted back to Windows 7, then upgraded to 10 again, would that fix my problem and let my programs stay intact?

 

Thank you Evan. I'll check it out. Might do it tonight. It's already been down two days and this is my "go between" computer. It has all the storage and apps I can't use from my laptop. I'll post back soon.

 

Well, I've done it all, but no change. Unless you can pull a rabbit out of the hat, it looks like I'm going to have to do a repair install.

 

It won't refresh either. I tried 4 times. If I install in the same directory (Leaving a Windows.old folder) and skip the product key, will it apply the key from the old installation?