Win 10 Anniversary Update - Update normally or Clean Install?

[Ransome]

Any reason to go with a clean install (redownload media creation tool, prepare iso USB, format and install Win 10 again)?

Both my PCs (Gaming one and old one) have been recently clean installed - with full format. (less than a month ago!).

*I've updated my old PC by downloading the Windows 10 Anniversary udpdate manually from their site -since the update disappeared from Win UP.
(Upgrade asistent tool). Haven't updated my main gaming rig yet.

 

[orlbuckeye]

Well i did the update and performance is way better. I've done upgrades since the beginning on Alienware. Surface book came with WIndows 10 and did the update.

 

[Colif]

It puts a new image of win 10 on PC so it feels like a brand new install. Everyone with an SSD seems to report it is faster which is a bonus. Upgrade and fresh install are about same result. Upgrade has added benefit of being able to roll back to previous version of win 10 if anything goes wrong. I would make an ISO as insurance and then run upgrade. If it fails, you can then do a fresh install if need be.

Mine worked fine though.

 

[Ransome]

Well i did the update and performance is way better. I've done upgrades since the beginning on Alienware. Surface book came with WIndows 10 and did the update.

It puts a new image of win 10 on PC so it feels like a brand new install. Everyone with an SSD seems to report it is faster which is a bonus. Upgrade and fresh install are about same result. Upgrade has added benefit of being able to roll back to previous version of win 10 if anything goes wrong. I would make an ISO as insurance and then run upgrade. If it fails, you can then do a fresh install if need be.

Mine worked fine though.

Thank you both for your help!
I have updated both PCs to Windows 10 Anniversary 1607 now. Doing a few tweaks.

Few quick questions:
Do you think it's necessary to re-install anything like: Nvidia Driver? Games, STEAM/GOG, stuff like that?
It seems Windows 10 kept the latest Nvidia driver after the Anniversary Update, as well as every app and game I had installed.

Secondly, do you think it's necessary to disable Windows Defender Notification Icon from startup? (the "PC Status😛rotected" Shield icon in the taskbar).

Finally, would you recommend deleting the "Window.old" yet, or wait with it? I assume it is required to roll back. It just takes big extra space on my SSD drive.
(There's also a "Previous Windows Installation" in Disk Cleanup - which, if I am not mistaken, does the same thing. I'd like to remove it).

 

[Colif]

No need to reinstall anything as its just an update.

I don't use defender so don't have the icon showing. If you don't want icon, there is likely a setting in defender that hides it.

You can use disk cleanup to remove win.old if you don't intend to roll back. It will disappear in a month anyway. It used 17gb on my ssd but i have 153gb free anyway so I just ignored it.

 

[Ransome]

No need to reinstall anything as its just an update.

I don't use defender so don't have the icon showing. If you don't want icon, there is likely a setting in defender that hides it.

You can use disk cleanup to remove win.old if you don't intend to roll back. It will disappear in a month anyway. It used 17gb on my ssd but i have 153gb free anyway so I just ignored it.

Thank you very much! My SSD has a bit less space to spare, since I installed two big games on it (MGSV and TW3). I install most games on the HD though.
I will give it a few days, make sure Windows 10 is working properly, then clean everything up using disk-cleanup 9including the temporary installation and previous installtion file).
Take care friend.