I'm sure this is on the mind of anyone thinking about upgrading to Windows 8, or doing a fresh install of their current OS. I know it's going to be on my mind when I (hopefully) buy a new DAW sometime this year. 

Lifehacker has a pretty comprehensive guide on doing a fresh Windows install while retaining your files, settings and system tweaks. It's worth reading not only the article but the comments as well, because other people are chiming in with their own points and ideas. Worth bookmarking this one:

http://lifehacker.com/598...es-settings-and-tweaks

Well interesting. The idea if backing up to .reg files is dangerous and a little silly  though. App settings should mostly be destroyed and recreated from scratch (that's the point). I would bother with windows settings either.

You can upgrade in place from Windows 7 to Windows 8. You don't have to do a clean install. 

Yes you can do that. This though is NOT a clean install. For me I never do upgrades. Wiping and installing from scratch is much clearer installation.

    I did a Windows 8 upgrade and discovered a built in function called "refresh". 
 It does a clean install of Window 8 and saves all of your personal files .
   You do need to reload all of your apps though.