Upgrade or clean install with vista?

[ingeborgdot]

I know what most people think should be done but as I have read vista upgrade is completely different than the old versions of windows. It totally cleans out everything and gives you a clean install. Does anyone care to comment on this. It takes a lot longer to do the upgrade but in the long run it would save me at least 12 or more hours of reinstalling all the software on my computer.

[[email protected]]

Re: Upgrade or clean install with vista?

I just did a quick search. From what I found, it looks as though Vista will keep your old programs. The more programs you have, the longer it will take to install Vista. obviously

Just as a side note: I know of a few people who pirated Vista and installed it. Their computers were not great, ie onboard video and P4's. They could hardly boot Vista. Vista is so graphic intensive that only a really well built PC can properly run it.

[buhweet]

Re: Upgrade or clean install with vista?

I think the graphical intensity is a waste of memory and a pathetic way to try and catch up the OSX's beauty, sure OSX isnt as powerful etc as windows, but it is elegant and doesnt use very much RAM for all the pretties'. I dont know when I'll upgrade, but sometime when I've gat faster RAM and a better Mobo so I can OC enough to run vista smoothly, but I will probably tone down the visuals anyway.
P.S. I know some ppl will say im wrong and that OSX is a RAM hog, but I've grown up with macs my whole life, up til the past 2-3 yrs I never had touched a PC other than at the library. my dad had the most recent OS before panther or whatever and he had an old G3 proc +256 mb os ddr133RAM an it worked smooth with the OS.

[CColtManM]

Re: Upgrade or clean install with vista?

OS X has made some HUGE changes in the past 1-3 years so that may be where things differ.

I ALWAYS recommend installing a fresh copy of Windows, so Vista would be no exception. Who cares if you have to spend a few hours reinstalling, read a book or something while it's happening.

You should defragment your system after Vista install, after every program installs, if you are anal like me.

But I have also heard that the Vista upgrade is a fantastic update to the XP update. Of course, that is just hearsay, i haven't any proof to back it up.

[Yawgm0th]

Re: Upgrade or clean install with vista?

OSX doesn't use much RAM? That's laughable. I find it almost unbearable on 512MB. XP can handle 256MB just fine.

Regarding Vista, the upgrade will probably work, but there's definitely a risk that you could have performance loss or hardware problem from keeping XP.

Can't say I can think of a good reason to upgrade unless you have a DirectX10 video card. Even then, you've no DX10 game to go with it.

[CColtManM]

Re: Upgrade or clean install with vista?

I read that the upgrade takes a few hours versus a clean install which is just under an hour (not counting the time to reinstall stuff). But you can do a clean install with an upgrade DVD also.

[buhweet]

Re: Upgrade or clean install with vista?

OSX doesn't use much RAM? That's laughable. I find it almost unbearable on 512MB. XP can handle 256MB just fine.

I mean that the GUI works smoothly with 256MB RAM, nothing else does except word processing.