I'm going home for a few weeks, and have at least 3 family PC's to update to Windows 7. The thing I've been stuck with, is the upgrade vs reformat. Some of the PC's have a lot of custom hard to find programs and configurations, so an upgrade would preserve them. But until now I've never considered an upgrade as its always been a rumour a fresh install is better. Anyone tried an upgrade and lived to tell the tale?
I have, I would say go with the upgrade and see how it works besides your not gonna lose anything. I done it from beta to beta and from the RC to RTM. I've found nothing different, just if you've got alot on your pc thats not good and stuff like that doing a fresh install will erase all that and you'll start clean. Though if your sure your pc is in tip top working condition I'd say go for the upgrade, if not else just try it and you wont be losing anything but time. Though I'm sure you'll be over whelmed with time with your parents.
I think that the upgrade is basically as good as a fresh install. Though the fresh install results may be slightly better I definitely didn't complain with the upgrade.