my dad has win95 and i want to upgrade it to win98SE with my win98 CD... He says that it will screw everything up... Is that true? When you do a windows upgrade, does it mess up files? (in other words, is it a clean upgrade or would it be better to delete windows and install windows 98SE?)

Thanks

You could do an upgrade to 98, however I think that everyone would agree that it is a good idea to do a clean install.

would it make the os much slower if it was upgraded and wasn't a clean fresh install?

Not slower, but it would avoid any conflicts. Which can be a major pain in the arse.

what kinds of conflicts?

It's almost impossible to tell, which is why a clean install is a much better idea.

Elaine is correct. It would be better to do a clean install of the new OS.

Even though MS also makes Windows upgrades, it strongly advises customers to do clean installs if possible to have a known working state of the new OS and also to avoid migrating problems that may have already existed in the old OS into the new OS.

What kinds of conflicts? Device conficts, software conflicts... Can't tell them all before they happen but when they happen, it's really what we call "pain in the a*$"!

Thanks for the reinforcement, Van. :) Whatever conflicts may occur they are just a pain in the arse and should be avoided if at all necessary. That is why we recommended a clean install in the first place.