Interesting question

General Topics
1

Hello

Alright so, I have a friend who works with a friend who apparently has a severely infected windows vista machine who wants me to clean it for him, no problem im up to the fun of cleaning a infected machine, well he just recently approached me with a question, he was wondering if it was possible if he upgraded from windows vista to windows 7 would it clear any infection on the said machine, I honestly do not know the answer to this, is this possible?

thanks

2

OK the question was worth being asked: normally yes, as the new OS will be installed after the old one has been deleted. But it’s just the Windows folder. So in fact NO: because many folders will be kept in the new install, ie all users’ folders containing personal data and settings. Program files folders, restore points might be preserved too from Vista, so it’s hundred of places that will still be infected after the upgrade :wink: >>> tell your friend to tell his friend not to do that ;D

3

Alright, thank you Logos I will, thanks for the quick reply :slight_smile:

4

Justin, tell yor friend’s friend that the best way to clean a severely infected system is still with the format command. ;D

5

Yeah Ive talked to him about that, about just formatting it and well he completely rejected the idea no matter how many times i told him it would be the easiest way, then he approached me with the upgrade idea and I just got the answer for that, so I guess im doing this one “by hand” ;D

6

Well if he is considering an upgrade from windows Vista to Windows 7, then starting from scratch would be no bad thing and get rid of some of the detritus built up over the years.

7

Awesomely interesting!
Well at least I learned something!

Upgrading doesn’t delete all the files but some of the files!
Settings and other things are saved!

8

Depends on what you are talking about:

  1. Upgrading only changes operating system related files, data files are left intact. However, if you format before installation, which I believe is an option when the new OS detects the existing one.

  2. Some Settings relating to your existing OS may not be retained.

But when installing a new OS it really is the ideal opportunity to do some serious housekeeping especially in the registry when you do a clean install after a format.

9

Hello all

My umm “Client” really is quite unsure as to what he wants, now he wants to completely remove Windows Vista and Install Windows 7.

Just a update :slight_smile:

Thanks