Upgrading a PC from XP to Vista is actually something to consider?

Shell Blog - Welcome to the Upgrade: A Sneak Peek into Windows Vista's Upgrade Architecture

"A long, long time ago, before Windows Vista, techies preferred clean installing the latest release of Windows to upgrading. They knew that there was a lingering problem specific to upgrades that never really went away, long after application compatibility and driver issues had been resolved. This frustrating problem was simple: upgrades left behind tracks of the old OS. After upgrading, you would see binaries from the old operating system left around in the Windows installation directory and the registry was tatooed with keys that would never be used again. Some friends of mine just did a clean install even though they had to back up and restore files and reinstall applications because their PCs performed better this way.

This has all changed with Windows Vista...

Upgrades are super-charged Clean Installs

Upgrade to Windows Vista are no longer a 'merge' with the old OS. First, Windows Vista's setup gathers old OS settings and user settings and data and stores them. Then it wipes away the old OS and applies the new operating system image (which is really fast thanks to Image Based Setup). Next, setup applies stored settings and data to this clean install based on per-component logic in manifests and plug-ins, which magically brings back your applications and data in a brand new OS. Your registry and file system are free of goo that is no longer needed by Windows Vista.

..."

Now that's interesting... Like those mentioned above, for me a new OS = new clean install. Having been burned in the past when upgrading, I gave up trying and would always install each new OS fresh... No stinking upgrading for me!

Which is why the upgrading of more of my home machines to Vista is on hold, pending new HD's and/or ghosting of my XP installs...

But this post has given me a little hope. Enough hope that it might work that I might actually try an upgrade from XP to Vista (on my wife's machine... ;)

(via AddressOf.com - Concerning Windows Vista "Upgrades")