Myths? Upgrading Windows or Clean Install

Question

During the Windows 98 / XP era there were many people affected by all kinds of weirdness after upgrading their OS to the latest version. Missing icons, strange errors etc. This has put a lot of people of upgrading their OS, instead choosing for a clean install.

I was reading a piece on upgrading to the latest Mac OSX where the author states:

Arguments that there is something mysteriously dangerous or deficient about the default upgrade procedure — and that you should do a clean install instead, followed by tedious hours manually migrating software and data and preferences from your old installation — are voodoo. Apple’s installer engineers spend a ton of time making the default upgrade procedure as convenient as possible. (Source: daringfireball.net)

This made we wonder if the upgrade experience has been sufficiently improved nowadays that it's very unlikely any artifacts are introduced after upgrading. Is it still worth it to go through the trouble of preparing a system for a clean install? I know what ZdNet says, but I'm looking for definitive information. (And I know the general opinion, but perhaps this is another myth like turning off the swapfile improves performance)

Answer 1

The upgrade process for all modern operating systems has been refined and is largely problem-free. I upgraded two Vista machines to Windows 7 recently and they were both fine (apart from the size of the icons on the desktop being reset). The same can be said about the OS X Snow Leopard upgrade. The installer will identify incompatible software and label them as such (by moving them to a separate folder). Most people so far have not experience that many problems with upgrading.

It all really comes down to what you already have installed on your system and what your existing workflow is like. If you have a lot of large programs installed and lots of little settings tweaks here and there, you would probably like to upgrade to save yourself from re-installing everything. But if you don't mind having to install everything again, then just go for it and do a clean install.

Answer 2

You will almost always be fine. How comfortable you are with my definition of "almost" is really the question.

The reality is this - if you do a clean install, then you can practically guarantee that every step of that process was tested by QA and engineering in exactly the same environment as you are in. The problem with testing "upgrade" is that there are literally an infinite number of states your machine/OS image could be in before you start the upgrade. Many, many, of these states are tested, but certainly not all. Generally, if you do not install software that messes with core OS services (TweakUI, etc. on windows, Adobe FontManager on MacOS X, to name a few) you will probably be ok. However, it's always possible that some 3rd party installed some piece of software that will hose up the upgrade process, and Microsoft/Apple didn't test that configuration.

Also, it depends on what you mean by "works". Software that was doing bad things (but workable in version X), may very well be broken in version Y - this includes likely anything that is hacking around limitations in your current OS. Also, there are always a few significant API changes in OS releases that will cause a few apps to stop working. That being said, NEITHER upgrade nor clean install will help you with either of those problems - so don't blame "upgrade" for causing you problems in a situation where the problems are that your old software doesn't work when that wasn't going to happen anyhow.

Answer 3

While for the most part, upgrading is fine, there's still things that can go wrong. I know people who've upgraded and had no problems, but other who've had nothing but. I always reinstall anyway, I figure if I'm going to get a new OS I may as well start fresh.

Answer 4

The upgrade process for all modern operating systems has been refined

quite possible.

and is largely problem-free.

define largely.

Most people so far have not experience that many problems with upgrading.

Most people can be anything between 51 and 99 percent, sorry, but that's Faux News style and not that many problems just doesn't cut it for me.

i don't really care for the hours spent by engineers to refine processes. while 'it may or may not work' might be good enough for the casual user, i prefer not to take chances. but everyone to their own ...