I
IanKR
And the result was that when I started Setup from the XP Pro SP2
desktop using a Vista Home Basic product key, Upgrade was greyed out
and only Custom was available. On a single drive system this results
in an overwrite of XP Pro SP2. The text states that it is a clean
install of Windows (which it is) and that files, settings, and
programs will not be retained. Well, guess what. That is not
entirely true. What is true is that they will not be registered. The code
is still there and I don't mean in the windows.old folder. You do have to
reinstall that stuff to actually use it again, but it
is still there.
This is how badly wrong a custom installation can really go:
I ran another test, this time on a real box. I overwrote XP Pro x64
with Vista Ultimate x86. I launched setup from my Vista x64 (C
desktop and did a Custom install to D:. D: still had an XP Pro x64
installation in good working order. Since there were no Advanced
Options and therefore format was not available I decided to do what a
trusting soul would do and pretended that I assumed Custom meant
formatting the drive too.
The Program Files and Program Files (x86) folders from XP Pro x64
were still intact! None of the programs in any of those folders were
installed, but the folders and their contents were still there. I
had not done an upgrade so that stuff had not been reinstalled.
Now, you have to know a little bit about how Windows x64 uses the
Program Files and Program Files (x86) folders to understand how
messed up this is. In x64 native 64bit programs install to the
Program Files folder. 32bit programs go into the Program Files (x86)
folder. In Windows x86 all programs go into the Program Files folder.
That means I have a Program Files folder now that has folders and
contents for both native 64bit programs and native 32bit programs. Of
course, only the 32bit programs (which I installed after the
installation of Vista x86) are registered and can work, but what a
mess. That also means I have Office 2007 folders and contents in
BOTH the Program Files and Program Files (x86) folders. Only the
Office 2007 in the Program Files folder is "real."
I can safely delete the entire Program Files (x86) folder, but the
Program Files folder is another matter. I would have to identify
which programs were bogus (unregistered) and which were real.
This is not unique to Vista. This always happens when you install
different editions of Windows into the same partition. I just wanted
to prove that a custom installation is not a classic clean
installation.
Obviously it was an experiment and I will simply format D: and
reinstall Vista x86, but it is fun to see stuff like this go really
wrong. Not that Vista x86 has any problem with it. It's running
fine this way.
Bottom line: Custom install does not format the drive.
Thanks, Colin. OK, next silly Q: What exactly do you mean by "custom
installation", and how does it differ from a non-custom installation? Or, to
put it another way, what choices are you offered in a custom installation?
(Please bear in mind that I've never even seen a Vista DVD yet, let alone
installed one!)