Vista Upgrade VS Clean Install

Nymins

Nymins

Nymins

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Ok so im getting a copy of Vista in a few days for a cheap price (not sure what version it is since my dad is picking it up of a friend). Now XP is working fine for me, but i've always liked Vista and with the recent performance updates it looks like the margin between the two OS's is fairly small.

However, i dont really want to go through the whole process of installing all my programs and games again, so i was wondering if there is much of a difference perfomance wise between an Upgrade install or a Clean install? XP has been on my system for about 4 months now and is fairly clean. No viruses, adware or anything like that.

So considering the specs of my computer in my sig, what is the best route for me? I have heard something about Windows File Transfer or something that you can do before the Vista install that puts everything onto another hard drive and then puts in on again afterwards. Is this a better option?


Thanks for any help.
 
Im not sure if it is OEM. I think its the full retail version. Does the full version allow upgrades?
 
Would personally advise against doing any kind of in-place upgrades. It'll be messy. You're far better off just installing the OS clean, and then manually copying over your files and installing whatever programs you need. Takes longer, but it's far cleaner and safer.
 
TheVoice said:
Would personally advise against doing any kind of in-place upgrades. It'll be messy. You're far better off just installing the OS clean, and then manually copying over your files and installing whatever programs you need. Takes longer, but it's far cleaner and safer.
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I agree, only upgrade and full retail (FPP) products have upgrade options.

Burnsy
 
Did we ever work out if the Upgrade boxes could be used to do a full install? I'd much rather buy a Business upgrade and throw it clean on my Dell box and then just type in the XP Pro serial from the sticker when prompted.
 
Caged said:
Did we ever work out if the Upgrade boxes could be used to do a full install? I'd much rather buy a Business upgrade and throw it clean on my Dell box and then just type in the XP Pro serial from the sticker when prompted.
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I have the full upgrade, vista ultimate.

And you can install on another drive/partition.

As long as it can find windows xp on your machine.
 
Well i've decided just to partition of some of my hard drive just to try Vista out for a bit. If i like it then ill probably just do a full clean install. Thanks for the help.
 
Caged said:
Did we ever work out if the Upgrade boxes could be used to do a full install? I'd much rather buy a Business upgrade and throw it clean on my Dell box and then just type in the XP Pro serial from the sticker when prompted.
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You need to install it twice to do a clean install.

You first install it without a serial number, and then once it's finished you preform a custom upgrade with serial from within the freshly installed Vista. It takes twice as long, but it works.
 
Cob said:
You need to install it twice to do a clean install.

You first install it without a serial number, and then once it's finished you preform a custom upgrade with serial from within the freshly installed Vista. It takes twice as long, but it works.
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How does that work. As when I tried it needed XP installed on the computer before it would do anything.
 
Do not enter the serial number, just bypass that screen and register your serial once windows loads.
 
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