That is the problem. If MS continued to allow in place installs over old OS’s the systems get bloated and contain gremlins, eventually they have to do a Apple and say enough is enough let’s start from scratch. The importance is educating the public about this. Make sure that those who don’t want to start from scratch or to take the time to back up and reinstall applications that this is not for them.
Otherwise go find a Vista Upgrade for XP, install that(no need to register) and then install 7 over that. But that is too much bloat IMO or you can install on a new partition or just bit the bullet and start from scratch.
What I would LOVE to see is a backup utility that copies the files to a CD or DVD blank, so they can be easily restored after Win7 is loaded.
I think a person who wrote code to do this, would make a fortune selling it. Just stuff the software into some .zip file, and then write software to extract and deposit it in the proper Win7 folder. I’d pay $40 for that utility.
You are talking about clean installs, and I totally agree. My XP machines, if/when they get re-done with Win7, would be fresh installs by choice anyway.
But IMO this is only painting over the dirt. A REAL "start from scratch" is an architectural change, not just a clean install.
What Microsoft REALLY needs to do, that Apple did a decade ago, is declare their existing OS architecture dead, take the generally excellent Windows XP Explorer-based GUI, and place it over an operating system that isn't riddled with holes and patched together with spit and baling wire.
NT died (architecturally speaking) a few years ago, and it fell over with Vista, but they're doing a "Weekend at Bernie's", propping the cadaver up and flogging it yet again. Apple was doing the same thing with the old MacOS by version 9. End of the road.
Apple made the right choice, by using NextStep and relying on the solid Unix underneath for security. Virtually all of the Mac's security issues since then have been in the GUI/application layers (no surprise). By contrast, the NT model has the GUI and apps with their fingers in the kernel nearly as badly as when Windows was WIN-over-DOS.
While everybody gets excited about Win7, I'm planning to wait for the REAL change, when Microsoft wises up and ditches NT for a real operating system architecture. Yes, I think that's Unix (among the currently available practical choices), but I don't expect MS would agree.
The Win-XP GUI over BSD Unix would be heaven for me. I use OS-X and Linux too, and prefer OS-X for the BSD underneath. But I dislike their GUIs relative to Win-2K. And I generally brain-damage my XP boxes back to Win 2K Classic -- but I realize this isn't everybody's cup of tea. ;-)