Clean install or upgrade?

ColmOT [MSFT]

Hi All, I stumbled across this document on the microsoft.com website today. It outlines the pros and cons of upgrading and clean installing your OSs when you wanna move up an OS.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/upwpload.mspx

Hope it's helpful to some of you!

Colm.

Stephen

From experience only: upgrading always seems to lead to an unstable system. Backing up my stuff and doing a clean install is usually better.

ChipZilla

I'd go with nuking the OS as well. I've never had anything but trouble with 'upgrades' - incompatible drivers, etc etc. Bad enough on a home machine, but trouble on a work machine after an upgrade is going to cost you money...

ColmOT [MSFT]

I agree with you guys as well....an upgrade always introduces some element of ramdomness in stability!!

ChipZilla

Originally posted by ColmOT [MSFT]
ramdomness in stability

lol I must remember that one.

Yeah, that's one way of describing it...

Capt'n Midnight

upgrading means inheriting problems.

NB. it is well nigh impossible to rollback from an upgrade to the previous system - so don't let that option sway you.

[review your licenses before reading further - terms and conditions apply]

Best is dual boot - choose to install the OS in a different folder. - You will have to reinstall ALL apps again. ( used to love the way windows 3.x could find apps and you'd be fairly sure they would work - but that's progress )

one trick on older versions on office was to copy the CD to a folder and then run setup from there and choose the option to from CD (the folder on the HDD)

ando

we try to avoid upgrades aswell with the servers if their small networks... upgrading usually means you just upgrade the problems