Upgrading to Window Vista?

Question

I am going to upgrade to windows vista ultimate from windows xp pro. Would I need to reformat my computer or will it overwrite my windows xp pro and keep all my files?

Answer 1

I have never seen a successful upgrade from XP to Vista.  Every single upgrade I've seen has the user begging to return to XP because their system is to slow running the OS and applications because the hardware they used to run Vista is not strong enough to run Vista.  Windows Ultimate is actually no different that XP, except it can run Direct 10X.  XP can be easily changed to look and run like Vista-this includes the aero feature.  Windows Blinds is a good place to start for that.

I had three vista computers with SP1 that I returned because the OS had serious platform issues, driver problems, and devices still can't run on them. Many are saying you need a minimum of a 2.0 GHZ Duo Processor and 3GB RAM to properly run Vista.  That generally means purchasing a NEW PC with beefed up hardware an letting go of your old one.  Also understand this, once you upgrade, you cannot go back unless you have saved everything and all your settings with XP Pro OS so you can come back.  This is a feature MS deliberately put in.

There are brand new PCs out right now, that have Vista loaded on them and cannot run because the bloated OS is bogging down.

I personally needed a computer that would work right out of the box and ended up purchasing a MacBook Pro and using bootcamp, loaded XP Pro and now have the best of both worlds.  From school, I was given free XP Pro and Vista Ultimate and found XP worked way better.  For kicks I sometimes use windows put on the Vista look and amaze my friends with the speed and lack of problems.  XP and Vista actually work better on Macs than almost all PC that sell them pre-installed.  I would check with your local computer store before upgrading and see if they think its worth the effort.

Vista still has problems transferring information from one folder to another and then deleting the old folder-don't know why.

Still if you are driven and absolutely determined to upgrade, I have provided a link that will help you and a video taking you through it.  The bottom line is you can do it either way depending on the version you get.

Answer 2

Ultimate is a waste of money. Go for Home Premium. Its more than good enough.

Anyway, it will keep your files in a separate folder called Windows.old. It will give you the option of formatting, but if you want to keep your files then  don't choose to format

Also, if you have an Ipod or something you can use that as a USB drive so you can put your files on it and then format your PC. it won't have the Windows.old folder, but you will still have kept what you need and you will have extra space where that folder would have taken up.

Answer 3

The later is correct.