Full hardware upgrade with Vista

[Cluelessoldtimer]

I'm doing a mostly new build for my brother-in-law. He already has Vista (32-bit) on his current machine and would prefer not to reformat his HD. New CPU, MB, and video card.

Can I get alway with that? I've always done completely clean installs since some bad windows 95 issues. Has the OS become better at upgrades?


Thanks!