This article from Microsoft simply confirms what many of the Daynoters have know for a long time. When it comes time to switch from one version of Windows to another, it's best to "wipe and load." That is, it's best to format the hard drive first and then install Windows rather than doing an "upgrade."
The downside of doing this is you have to reinstall all your applications and data (which takes time and requires that you have copies of your applications and data). Of course, if you partition your drive (or use more than one drive) you can place Windows and your applications on one partition and your data on other. Thus, it's possible to reformat the Windows partition but keep your data.
In addition, for many programs, you have to have a version that has a full install as opposed to an upgrade version. Even though many so called upgrade versions actually are the same as the full install, the installation program will check of an earlier version. If it doesn't find said earlier version, it won't install.
Further, in the age of Microsoft's efforts to prohibit software stealing, you have to have the product codes to unlock the installations. No code means no installation.
Hence, make sure you have all the program disks and their codes (and your data) before you reformat the drive!
The upside is you get rid of what Microsoft calls "performance problems that occur due to normal performance degradation." Some of those problems are listed below:
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Registry size and fragmentation.
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Master File Table size and increase.
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Page file fragmentation.
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Discretionary applications.
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No longer needed or outdated device drivers.
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No longer needed networking protocols.
