Upgradeing XP to Vista

[Carl G]

Hi Guys
Well i am ready to make the big jump from xp to vista.
I understand the only way to install vista is to upgrade fromnXP.
Won't that creat a mess like upgradeing from 98 to xp.
I always found and heard that upgradeing was not a desired way to install a
fresh copy of windows.
When upgradeing from xp to vista does it use some xp file or are they just
stored away so i can delete them later?
Why can't we just fresh install Vista. (talking about Vista Home Premium)
That sounds like if i am still running Windows 98 or ME ,that i would have
to go out and buy XP and Vista just to install Vista. Is this true?
Microsoft must REALLY be hard up for more of my cash hu?
Apprieciate some info on this.
Thanks

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Inline:

I understand the only way to install vista is to upgrade fromnXP.

You can purchase a full edition which does not require XP at all.

Won't that creat a mess like upgradeing from 98 to xp.

No. All installations of Vista are clean installations of the OS. Vista
does not use the old file copying methodology to install the OS. The
methodology did leave snippets of code and data. Vista uses a block copying
method (image copy) that eliminates that.

I always found and heard that upgradeing was not a desired way to install
a fresh copy of windows.

Same answer. No longer true.

When upgradeing from xp to vista does it use some xp file or are they just
stored away so i can delete them later?

Nothing is used from XP in the installation of Vista. Freely delete the
windows.old file.

Why can't we just fresh install Vista. (talking about Vista Home Premium)

You can. But not with an upgrade edition.

That sounds like if i am still running Windows 98 or ME ,that i would have
to go out and buy XP and Vista just to install Vista. Is this true?

If your copy of XP is an upgrade edition that required Win98 or ME and you
needed to rebuild the system from scratch, then you would still have to use
the old Win98/ME cd to install the XP upgrade edtion before installing the
Vista upgrade edtion. Vista will not inspect your XP cd during installation
so you need XP installed. I advise against such a three-tiered installation
because in the long run something like a cd may fail. It may be a good time
to buy a full edition of Vista.

Microsoft must REALLY be hard up for more of my cash hu?

Microsoft is tired of folks misusing legacy system cd's in a number of ways.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi Guys
Well i am ready to make the big jump from xp to vista.
I understand the only way to install vista is to upgrade fromnXP.

Nope. You will be able to buy either a Full version or an Upgrade version.

Won't that creat a mess like upgradeing from 98 to xp.

Two points:

1. I did an upgrade from XP to Vista over two months ago, and it's been
running very stably without any problems.

2. Upgrading from 98 to XP seldom created a mess either. Only if you were
upgrading from a problem-ridden Windows 98 installation was there likely to
be a problem.

I always found and heard that upgradeing was not a desired way to
install a fresh copy of windows.

As far as I'm concerned, that was never true. And over the years, doing
upgrades with newer versions of Windows can gotten better all the time.
Especially starting with an upgrade to Windows XP, it has almost always gone
very well.