How bad are upgrade installs? (win 7)

[Shark974]

I got the upgrade version (picked it up for $49 preorder, just for giggles) but I've always heard in place upgrades are crap (buggy, unstable etc), but I've never done one either. (Will be from Vista of course).

I could do a clean install but I really hate reinstalling all my progs and shit. It's pretty much upgrade or wait for me most likely.

So, how bad are upgrade installs really?

 

[safehaven]

I am interested in an answer to this as well. It was just a few days ago I was wondering this same question.

Back when XP came out, a clean install was the only way to go. I would think in 8 or 9 years, that maybe they have the upgrade thing figured out.

 

[Sovereign]

You can do a clean install with upgrade editions if what is reported @ WinSuperSite is accurate. However, there is very little difference between a Vista clean install and an XP-upgraded-to-Vista install. Microsoft worked out most of the bugs in the upgrade process in the XP->Vista transition.

From my understanding, an upgrade install from XP to Vista used an image-based install, so Vista was installed as a clean image, then your XP programs, user settings and files were migrated into it. Obviously there is a potential for error, but it is much more reliable than the ad-hoc replacement of system files that occurred under a Windows 9x to Windows XP "Upgrade" install.

I can only imagine that the Vista->7 Upgrade Installer is at least as good as XP->Vista, perhaps better...

 

[darkpaw]

The Vista to 7 or 7 to 7 upgrades I did all went flawlessly. Prior to the upgrade it will tell you if there is anything in conflict. In one of my cases there was an old ATI driver it flagged. Remove that before the transition and it works great.

I did the upgrade method on 4 of my systems because I didn't feel like clean installing them. I did clean install my main system because I was upgrading the HDD to an SSD anyways.

I used to be one of the people that said never inplace upgrade (and I'd still say that if your initial install was some OEM Dell or HP crap) but if you intalled the original OS and like the way it works now, the upgrade method works extremely well.

 

[dr.stevil]

well, can't comment on going from Vista to Win7, but I installed 7 and "upgraded" it to unlock it and it's been perfectly stable not a single issue and the free HDD space was pretty much exactly what it was before the upgrade