upgrade

what happens if i install windows vista as an upgrade instead of a clean install?

"kierz521" wrote in message

what happens if i install windows vista as an upgrade instead of a clean install?

This has been covered in detail in other posts.
What is this an upgrade to?
If this is an upgrade to a test system with no real user data on it, you will get an inferior installation, but it's something that needs to be tested, so do it. It is far better to do a clean install of Vista on a freshly formatted partition.
If this is an upgrade to a production system with all your data on it, don't do it. Read all the horror stories on this news group from people who upgraded their XP production systems to Vista, got their Vista systems corrupted to the point they will no longer function, and want to restore XP.
If you do an upgrade of your production XP account there is a very large chance that you will lose your data. There is no uninstall for Vista, and no path for returning to XP. The uninstall consists of reformatting the partition and doing a clean install of XP. If you want to install Vista on your production machine, create a new partition and install it there in a dual boot configuration, do not upgrade a production OS
Also keep in mind that Vista does not use boot.sys, it has it's own Vista boot manager which will be installed on your XP partition. If you remove Vista, you will have to either reconfigure the Vista boot manager to boot XP or you will have to remove the Vista boot manager, and get boot.sys working again. A number of users have been unable to find boot,sys when they wanted it, so back it up somewhere that you can find it if you need another copy.
Todd

First of all, you can upgrade from Windows XP SP2 to Vista x86, no support for upgrades to Vista x64 and no upgrade paths to Vista x64 presently. When you upgrade to Vista from XP SP2, your applications and personalized settings are preserved.
A Warning to potential Upgraders:
A lot of persons are contemplating about upgrading their one and only, production install of XP. If you are itching to do that, DON'T! DO NOT upgrade your existing install of XP if you use it for work or you use it on a daily basis. Not because Vista is at BETA 2 means its ready for prime time or production environments, it is to get feedback on what's wrong with the product in such scenarios.
I also suspect some persons think Vista has been finalized, no its not, its still in development. I know Vista looks enticing and all, but it is still not ready for prime time and the numerous post with unsuccessful, problematic clean installs, upgrades are proof of that.
If you want to try upgrade scenarios at least make sure you do it on a spare installation of XP, you have a back up image of your existing install or simply do a clean install. For those who have already upgraded their installations of XP and want to return to XP, your only option is to format that drive and reinstall it. There is no way to uninstall Vista.
Also, there are no upgrade paths from Windows XP Professional x64 to Vista x86 or x64. You cannot launch Vista x64 setup in Windows XP x86 or you will get a "invalid Win32" error. You have to boot off the DVD. -- -- Andre Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
"kierz521" wrote in message

what happens if i install windows vista as an upgrade instead of a clean install?

I'll give you my experience.
I upgraded my home system with everything on it...I had to uninstall a few programs and disable a thing or two to get it to actually go through (it won't install if there are critical conflicts). After that it was a 4 HOUR install...I'm serious...3.4ghz machine with 1GB of ram and it took that long. when it was finally done, I had issue after issue. Windows explorer (which is now SEPERATED from explorer (thank god) kept restarting 20 times on boot. I couldn't browse folder contents, or change user info, control panel, etc. It was a total mess.
So then I reinstalled, telling vista to install to a NEW location. I like how it did this. It moved all my old data to windows.old (which included my documents, program files, and the actual old windows directories) and installed into c:\windows proper. Oh, except for "my pictures" which it moved to an old copy of "pictures".
After I finished the installation (which took FAR less time), everything worked like a charm (except sound, which was fixed when realtek came out with brand new beta drivers yesterday). I DID learn that if you make Firefox your default browser, you have issues in vista...things hang and don't work right. Making IE the default broswer again and rebooting fixed the problem immediately.
So it was simply a matter of copying data from the windows.old directory to their new respective homes. the only thing I lost was my old thunderbird email and firefox bookmarks, which was my fault for not using mozbackup to back it up first. I did keep my contacts, though, as vista found those and put them in a handy "contacts" directory for me (an old one, but cut and paste worked fine).
Don't forget, you get 1 year antivirus free from CA antivirus for being a beta tester. Trend Micro has an option too, but I didn't look into it. CA caught a nasty lil polipos.a virus moving files off my laptop (gotta stop using limewire..lol!) so I'll stick with that.
Hope that helps!
-- If you want to learn how to fly, first forget how to fall. "kierz521" wrote in message

what happens if i install windows vista as an upgrade instead of a clean install?

A number of users who have had successful installs of Vista Beta 2 have had their system suddenly become unusable.
Now, while you still can, would be a good time to back up your data which Vista has already saved for you in windows.old and pictures folders.
Todd
"Kaine" wrote in message

I'll give you my experience.
I upgraded my home system with everything on it...I had to uninstall a few programs and disable a thing or two to get it to actually go through (it won't install if there are critical conflicts). After that it was a 4 HOUR install...I'm serious...3.4ghz machine with 1GB of ram and it took that long. when it was finally done, I had issue after issue. Windows explorer (which is now SEPERATED from explorer (thank god) kept restarting 20 times on boot. I couldn't browse folder contents, or change user info, control panel, etc. It was a total mess.
So then I reinstalled, telling vista to install to a NEW location. I like how it did this. It moved all my old data to windows.old (which included my documents, program files, and the actual old windows directories) and installed into c:\windows proper. Oh, except for "my pictures" which it moved to an old copy of "pictures".
After I finished the installation (which took FAR less time), everything worked like a charm (except sound, which was fixed when realtek came out with brand new beta drivers yesterday). I DID learn that if you make Firefox your default browser, you have issues in vista...things hang and don't work right. Making IE the default broswer again and rebooting fixed the problem immediately.
So it was simply a matter of copying data from the windows.old directory to their new respective homes. the only thing I lost was my old thunderbird email and firefox bookmarks, which was my fault for not using mozbackup to back it up first. I did keep my contacts, though, as vista found those and put them in a handy "contacts" directory for me (an old one, but cut and paste worked fine).
Don't forget, you get 1 year antivirus free from CA antivirus for being a beta tester. Trend Micro has an option too, but I didn't look into it. CA caught a nasty lil polipos.a virus moving files off my laptop (gotta stop using limewire..lol!) so I'll stick with that.
Hope that helps!
-- If you want to learn how to fly, first forget how to fall. "kierz521" wrote in message what happens if i install windows vista as an upgrade instead of a clean install?

Hi,
I'm new into the Vista trial, so can you expand a bit on the CA virus How do I get this as I'd like to make sure all the problems are mine or Vista and not a virus
Mike
Kaine wrote:

I'll give you my experience.
I upgraded my home system with everything on it...I had to uninstall a few programs and disable a thing or two to get it to actually go through (it won't install if there are critical conflicts). After that it was a 4 HOUR install...I'm serious...3.4ghz machine with 1GB of ram and it took that long. when it was finally done, I had issue after issue. Windows explorer (which is now SEPERATED from explorer (thank god) kept restarting 20 times on boot. I couldn't browse folder contents, or change user info, control panel, etc. It was a total mess.
So then I reinstalled, telling vista to install to a NEW location. I like how it did this. It moved all my old data to windows.old (which included my documents, program files, and the actual old windows directories) and installed into c:\windows proper. Oh, except for "my pictures" which it moved to an old copy of "pictures".
After I finished the installation (which took FAR less time), everything worked like a charm (except sound, which was fixed when realtek came out with brand new beta drivers yesterday). I DID learn that if you make Firefox your default browser, you have issues in vista...things hang and don't work right. Making IE the default broswer again and rebooting fixed the problem immediately.
So it was simply a matter of copying data from the windows.old directory to their new respective homes. the only thing I lost was my old thunderbird email and firefox bookmarks, which was my fault for not using mozbackup to back it up first. I did keep my contacts, though, as vista found those and put them in a handy "contacts" directory for me (an old one, but cut and paste worked fine).
Don't forget, you get 1 year antivirus free from CA antivirus for being a beta tester. Trend Micro has an option too, but I didn't look into it. CA caught a nasty lil polipos.a virus moving files off my laptop (gotta stop using limewire..lol!) so I'll stick with that.
Hope that helps!

Why does the upgrade not work?? It shifts the old windows installion to a folder, inc all the installed programs. Its not an upgrade is it?

If all of the stuff went to the windows.old folder, then you did not perform an upgrade installation and did a clean install over top of XP (or other Windows Install) ---------- Mark Dietz PROnetworks <http://www.pro-networks.org>
Zygote wrote:

Why does the upgrade not work?? It shifts the old windows installion to a folder, inc all the installed programs. Its not an upgrade is it?

Upgrade is only available when running the setup through the XP GUI. Booting directly from the DVD will force you into a "clean" install.
If the upgrade option is unavailable in the GUI, you have another problem altogether.
"Zygote" wrote:

Why does the upgrade not work?? It shifts the old windows installion to a folder, inc all the installed programs. Its not an upgrade is it?