upgrading to Vista Home Premium 32bit soon but a couple questions...

Okay, so I purchased the Upgrade version. I have XP service pack 3 installed right now. I know there's a work around that allows the upgrade version to be used for a clean install. I was wondering if upgrading the normal way over XP will basically be the same as a clean install. Will it wipe my drive clean or will there still be remnants left such as drivers, programs, registry keys, etc? Also, if I ever wanted to do a clean install, which shouldn't be a problem legally since I own XP, would it basically be the same as doing so with the full version?

Another question I have is about manually maintaining my system. I've read that Vista isn't like XP in that I don't need registry cleaners or spyware cleaners. Is this true? I have a habit of using these things frequently to keep my comp as speedy as possible. Not much, just Auslogics Boost Speed, AVG, and zone alarm. Those are my mainstays. I also have ad-aware and CCleaner just in case. Would AVG and zone alarm still be good programs to use? I find that they do very well in keeping my system protected.

I must admit, I was among those that talked about Vista like it was crap and I haven't even tried it much. It was mostly from what I've heard. It wasn't until I read that article at tweakguides.com, ( TweakGuides.com - Vista Annoyances Resolved ) about Vista that I decided to take the plunge and go for it. Made me feel like an idiot but it gave me the true info without the BS.

Hello Rising, welcome to Vista forums!

A clean install would be best, have a look at the link below.
As I'm sure you're aware, have the drivers available before you start.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/68767-clean-install-upgrade-vista.html?ltr=C

All the programs you list are compatible with Vista.
You will be pleased with Vista!

Keep us informed!







Later Ted

You want to do a clean install (aka format the old drive) using an upgrade of vista correct? If so, just boot from disk, format the drive, DO NOT enter your cd-key. Choose the version of vista you own. Once installed, boot again into the vista CD THROUGH Vista. This time enter your key, choose upgrade clean install and it should install everything for you. After that, go into C:\ and delete Windows.old.

Hi Rising and welcome to the forums

Ted's advice to you was spot on, apart from the link. You have got the Upgrade version of Vista, so the link you need is given below (I know Ted's link does link indirectly to this tutorial, but this is a direct link to it).
Dwarf

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/68767-clean-install-upgrade-vista.html

Thanks Dwarf, thats the one I meant to post ...
(I fixed it)
















Later Ted

Thanks for the help, everyone! I did find the tutorial for the update version btw so no worries. I should be getting Vista soon so I'll post my progress as soon as I successfully install it, hopefully without any issues. I will be getting Home Premium Service Pack 1 upgrade disk btw. Thought I might mention it in case it may change anything.

Hello again Rising.

That would be the best version to get, as you need SP1 installed.

Yes, please post back with the outcome.













Later Ted

Well I successfully upgraded and I must say, it went very well. I had a couple issues with some drivers so far but finding Vista compatible drivers was easy enough thanks to google. My computer was pretty fast on XP with 3GB of ram and a 7200 RPM hard drive with a 16MB buffer and it isn't any slower on Vista. In fact, it seems even faster. The internet seems to load up faster as well for whatever reason. My games run at about the same speed. Granted, I've only tried Devil May Cry 4 and Fable so far but they both perform well. I guess I'll see if any issues creep up but so far I'm seeing none of the issues people complain about. Some people complained that Fable wouldn't even load up in Vista and they assumed it was because the game is old so they used the compatibility option. It works perfectly fine for me though so it can't be Vista. Also, if Vista using up some extra ram is such an issue (ram that is useless unless I'm using it anyway), why is my comp even faster than it was in XP?

I disabled indexing on my C drive in XP and it did speed things up even more. I read a suggestion on another board to do the same in Vista except for the start menu so Vista boots up faster. My question is, is hard drive indexing something I should care about? Would it matter if I disabled it in Vista like I did in XP?

I'm loving the interface. Everything seems so much smoother and more polished. I have a couple issues with Vista though so far and one is the defragment program. It doesn't even show a visual anymore. What I'd like to know is if it's as good or better than XP's. I did download both Auslogics hard drive and registry defrag programs. I used auslogics defrag after running vista's defrag a couple times and it showed very few fragments so it must be doing its job. I've read that some people think Vista's defrag program is bad because a lot of fragments show up in auslogics but I'm betting it's because they only run it once every once in a while. Even in XP, running the defragment program two or three times was necessary.

The other issue I have is overclocking my GPU. I'd overclock my video card from 375/507 to 460/590 in XP and the computer would perform with no problems. I could play my games issue free and enjoy the increase in frame rate. It would heat up a bit more but not to the point of damaging anything. However, I changed to the very same clocks in Vista and near the end of one mission in DMC4 I got the good ol' blue screen of death. It said something about a memory parity error. Well after restarting with my clocks back to normal, i played the very same level in the game with no errors. I'm guessing it isn't my ram but is there some solution here or am I stuck with the stock clocks on my card? :eek: