Hi, i just ordered my copy of windows 7 and im wondering should i do the upgrade where it keeps all my files and such from vista or should i just do a complete install??
Clean install every time.. It will give you a fresh start.. plus it takes forever Just make sure you do a good backup. Game saves as well - they hide in the most odd places.
Upgrade seesm to work well... Well I went from Vista 64bit home premium to 7 home premium a few days ago via an update. Took about an hour. The only thing I did after-wards was install catalyst 9.10 and a few things from Windows Live. All apps and games work fine (except Far Cry 2 will not download custom maps). However, a friend of mine tried and got right to the end and the upgrade failed due to some driver not being found - so ended up doing a clean install. When it failed it did restore Vista. Assuming you don't have anything weird on you PC the upgrade seems to work really well - saved me loads of time and hassle.
iam thinking UPGRADE too...i dont want to give up my current installed stuff. but a FRESH INSTALL is always RECOMMEND.
In case you're in a hurry or don't have the time or patience to perform a clean install I'd say upgrade is an option for sure, but otherwise I'd definitely prefer the clean install, too.
I tried the upgrade path and found that the system was very sluggish with many freezes when accessing Control Panel functions. IE8 also was very erratic in performance. Just to much unstability so I save all my recent "must keep" data and did a fresh install. Upgrade took about 2 1/2 hours; fresh install was 4 hours (including downloading and installing all (Win7) drivers needed. Both Upgrade & Fresh installs were on a 128 GB Patriot Warp V2 SSD. Windows 7 installed is 64bit HP Old Windows was Vista 64 bit HP
So how would i go about backing up game files and such? don't a lot of games refuse to run without the .dll files in the system???
I did an upgrade from Vista SP2 x64 and it took about two hours altogether but I do have a lot of stuff, including over 50 games, installed on my PC. I know I should have done a fresh install but I just couldn't be bothered with all the reinstallation. Out of curiousity, since I have everything that is non-Windows (i.e. applications and games) installed to my D: and E: partitions, could I use Windows Easy Transfer to backup all my current settings, which includes game registry entires (to save me having to reinstall), do a fresh install then restore all the settings via Windows Easy Transfer? I ask because although I'm running 99.999% of stuff absolutely fine and my machine is fast and responsive and everything, I do have issues with some of my games. 1. Need for Speed SHIFT constantly crashes when trying to start a race just as it did in Vista for me. However, it *did* run perfectly under Windows 7 RC x64 so I've obviously got something installed that is conflicting with the game and it's carried over from Vista. 2. Crysis hangs during the loading screen yet Crysis War and Crysis Warhead both run as before. 3. Viva Pinata will load and play but doesn't sign into Games for Windows LIVE so there's no way for me to continue my saved garden or even save a new one because I can't create a profile without being signed in. I can't even bring up the Games for Windows LIVE window; it's as if it is running at all. Other Games for Windows LIVE games such as Red Faction Guerilla, Batman: Arkham Asylum and GTA IV work as they should though and sign in automatically.
Usually creating a new shortcut is all that's needed. A necessary requirement is that you have your games on a different partition or HDD/SSD, too, of course. Usually you can backup savegames and game profiles by googling the location of the files and then after the installation of the OS copying them back into place. You might also want to have a look at PCMover: http://laplink.com/pcmover I never tried the above app myself, but I haven't heard anything negative about it so far either.
Your Vista install was damaged then. Upgrade on my 2.0ghz Celeron 550 laptop only took about 1.5hrs, and runs perfectly smooth.
I upgraded first from Vista Business x64 to W7 Pro x64, but it wasn't as smooth a transition as they make it sound. After playing with it for a few hours I decided to wipe it clean and install and the performance increase was obvious from the upgrade. However fully installing the Upgrade is a little tricky, you have to use 2 different software from Microsoft. The first will convert a .exe into a .iso then the next will make it a bootable DVD. I tried booting from the .iso after burning with Nero, but only when I used the Windows DVD tool would the machine actually boot from the CD. http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/how_burn_your_student_copy_windows_7_dvd the Windows tool is called something like Windows 7 USB/DVD Tool.
I once did upgrade vs clean install benchmarks using PC vantage and a couple others and saw no unusual differences in performance or use. no compatability issues either. However like most others here, i always do clean install anyway, probably cause it makes me feel cleansed as well, upgrades just feel dirty...ick
Did the upgrade route from Vista Ultimate to 7 Ultimate , took about an hour and a half, no problems at all , system running fast and smooth....All programs, hardware and games run perfectly.....