Unusual clean install versus upgrade

Conventional wisdom says that a clean install (obviously after activation) would be considerably better than an upgrade install. My personal experience (not a recommendation) has been exactly the opposite.


Upgrade install: – before the upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7, I did a fresh install of Windows 7 including some of the key programs that I always use (Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13, Acronis 2014, Aida 64 and MS office 2007). I have followed this practice every time I have upgraded since Windows XP. I let Windows 10 install all the hardware drivers automatically.


Clean Install: – once the system was activated I replaced my SSD hard drive (Samsung 850 Pro) with an identical, partitioned hard drive and did a clean install of Windows 10 on the same PC. This time I installed all the latest drivers that were Windows 10 certified downloaded from the appropriate manufacturer sites. ( From Intel to Nvidia to Asus ROG etc.)


I could now swap boot hard drives and check both systems performance. The results were contrary to my expectations. My upgraded system is performing flawlessly. Boots are so fast that there are no 100 warnings in the event viewer and the occasional 200 warnings take less than six seconds. They are no more than two insignificant errors under Administrative Events in the event viewer. The system is blazingly fast and absolutely trouble-free.
The clean install with the latest drivers, on the other hand, is not so fast and has far more errors in event viewer with occasional glitches while operating even though it has exactly the same hardware and identical updates .I am also having issues with some of the freshly installed software that transitioned fine on my upgrade install.


Is very possible that if I had not installed the " latest" Windows 10 drivers my clean install would be as, or more efficient than my upgrade install. However, the lesson is that unless absolutely necessary, let to Windows 10 to its thing till it has reached a level of maturity. I do believe that a clean install of the previous Windows version (that one is very familiar with) can greatly reduce problems with an upgrade install.
Many of the online gurus might not agree with my results and conclusions and I welcome their input.