Upgraded fine but now want to do a clean install

[Bill Clark]

I upgraded to Vista Premium over XP weeks ago with almost no problems or
issues. What I've found now however is that there is a lot of junk on my 2
year old Dell system (3Ghz, 1GB, 80 GB) that I don't want - I need to clean
house a little. An example, all those powertoys for XP, well they still
show up on my installed programs list but I can't uninstall them or get rid
of them. Not to mention various other little freeware programs that have
their tentacles all over the place. So, my questions are - if I do a clean
install, will I have to activate Vista again and if so will I have to do
phone activation since I've already activated the upgrade version? Should I
even bother doing a clean install if my upgrade install is running fine just
to tidy things up a bit?

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Adam Albright]

I upgraded to Vista Premium over XP weeks ago with almost no problems or
issues. What I've found now however is that there is a lot of junk on my 2
year old Dell system (3Ghz, 1GB, 80 GB) that I don't want - I need to clean
house a little. An example, all those powertoys for XP, well they still
show up on my installed programs list but I can't uninstall them or get rid
of them. Not to mention various other little freeware programs that have
their tentacles all over the place. So, my questions are - if I do a clean
install, will I have to activate Vista again and if so will I have to do
phone activation since I've already activated the upgrade version? Should I
even bother doing a clean install if my upgrade install is running fine just
to tidy things up a bit?

Thanks,
Bill

Why tempt fate? I would only do a clean install as a last resort and
only then if something wasn't working.

While early, doubt if there is any good ones out yet, soon there
should be Vista capable Registry Cleaners that will clean up for you.
They've gotten a lot smarter over the years.

If you're the riverboat gambler type you can delete orphanded files
and junk from the Registry manually using that applet's build-in
search feature to locate the entires one at a time. Then just delete
the entire sub folder from the Programs folder for the application
you're trying to get rid of if it won't go away from add/remove in
Control Panel. A long drawn out process I only do it if some
application is acting up otherwise aside from the space they take up
they shouldn't cause any problems.

 

[Guest]

If you have the legal license why you should be afraid of activating your
vista copy?
furthermore you was in your luck if your vista does not request activation
after a clean install but i guess it won't happened.
I suggested you to install the clean vista and activates it when the OS
request you.
that will be more complicated but i think it was a good practice.
Cheer. ".)

 

[Guest]

Otherwise, you shoud follow this link and gather the information to uninstall
XP powertoys.

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article08-500