WIndows Vista to 7 upgrade questions

HI All,

I just a purchased a brand new laptop. I have had it less than a week and qualify for the windows 7 upgrade. I would prefer to do a clean install, but not wish to lose certain programs that came default on the laptop (ex: powerDVD for playing blu ray, will cost $160 to replace).

Questions:
1.) With my Vista install as fresh as it is ,will upgrading to 7 be that much worse than a clean install?

2.) If I choose to clean install, is there a way to recover the programs without a repurchase (some way to back up an installed program on a flashdrive in a way that it can be moved or installed on the new OS)?

3.) If i have to upgrade instead of clean install, will running a registry cleaning program like "Clean My Registry" clean out the goop left behind by Vista? Or will it likely cause more issues?

Thanks in advance for all of your help

You can always probably go into the registry and just back it up and also back it up where it installed in your program files folder. and clean install is usally better as in you get rid of all that garbage out of your registry so on but its personal preference upgrade if you dont have the time to make backups etc but if you do have the time on your hands i would definitly suggest the fresh clean install