I have XP Pro, do i have do fresh install Vista?

[buffbiff21]

OK I read somewhere that you can just "upgrade" if you have XP pro or sumthin. And not have to do a fresh re format and stuff.

Could someone fil me in here?
Id appreciate it.

[Q]

Technically you can upgrade most versions of Windows to the newer releases. In this case, you can perform an upgrade from XP to Vista.

But it is NEVER, EVER, EVER!!! a good idea. Always do fresh installs if you care anything about performance, stability, and good hygiene.

[rewt]

Agreed.

Get in the habit of not storing important stuff on your Windows partition (for example, put My Documents on D: drive, and change the start menu shortcut to point there instead). Then, when it comes time to upgrade or reinstall, you don't have to think twice about it. Another plus, if Windows crashes and won't boot up you can reinstall without having to worry about losing your data.

[einstein_314]

Agreed.

Get in the habit of not storing important stuff on your Windows partition (for example, put My Documents on D: drive, and change the start menu shortcut to point there instead). Then, when it comes time to upgrade or reinstall, you don't have to think twice about it. Another plus, if Windows crashes and won't boot up you can reinstall without having to worry about losing your data.
QFT.

Storing your documents and stuff on a separate drive from your main boot drive is the way to go. You no longer have to worry about backing up everything when you format the boot drive to reinstall windows.

Vista is a little dumb with moving your documents though. It has a new file structure for your documents (no more my documents folder). It is similar, but different. I think there are 9 different main folders (Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos, Contacts, Desktop, and a couple more...) and you have to move each of them separately. Or at least I haven't been able to do it any other way. It's not really that big of a deal...but it's annoying. There should be an option somewhere to move your entire profile to a different drive. That would be the smart way.

Anyways, definately do a complete reinstall of windows vista rather than upgrading. I've had nothing but problems with doing upgrades. And you can do a full install of windows with the upgrade copy by the way. You just need the cd of the version your upgrading from.

[AngelGraves13]

I've heard people had a problem with the upgrade and were forced to do a fresh install. I did a fresh install off the bat, and everything is fine. AnyDVD is giving me a headache in x64 Vista, but I'll have to wait until they have a signed driver version out soon.

[Bearclaw]

.

[Mr Bigman]

Will Vista Upgrade follow the upgrade path like previous OS's where you just run the setup and it tells you to have a previous version of windows placed in the cd drive? win98 upgrade worked with 95 full withough installing 95 as does Xp upgrade installed over 2000 or 98 withough installing them first.

[einstein_314]

Will Vista Upgrade follow the upgrade path like previous OS's where you just run the setup and it tells you to have a previous version of windows placed in the cd drive? win98 upgrade worked with 95 full withough installing 95 as does Xp upgrade installed over 2000 or 98 withough installing them first.
From what I've heard, yes. You may have to put in the cd key for the previous version too. But you don't have to have the previous version installed when you go to upgrade.

[theultimo]

From what I've heard, yes. You may have to put in the cd key for the previous version too. But you don't have to have the previous version installed when you go to upgrade.

From what I've got on MSDN (Home Premium upgrade key, using Ultimate on my development rig), if you do not have a previous version installed, you just need the old cd from XP. If it is installed, you can install it from XP itself.