Vista 32BIT to 64BIT

mehuk

mehuk

mehuk

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Bit of advice please

Ordered a ACER Laptop that will come with Vista Home Premium 32BIT installed.... now it has 4GB RAM and a dedicated 1GB Graphics card, so obviously 64BIT would be better for me to access all my memory.

So what is the process to upgrade to 64BIT? Do I purchase a different piece of software or is it free?
 
I would check out Windows 7 64bit first - If buying go Windows 7. Using 32 bit in your situation is retrograde step! Testing Windows 7 till 1 of March 2010 is free
 
Last edited:
marmalade said:
I would check out Windows 7 64bit first - If buying go Windows 7. Using 64 bit in your situation is retrograde step! Testing Windows 7 till 1 of March 2010 is free
Click to expand...

i couldnt agree more with this, the 7232 build of win7 64bit,,,,,to me,,,, is everything that abomination vista 64 is not,
that piece of crap is never seeing my pc again (v64)
and i paid good money for it
i will gladly pay for win7 64
finally something that 'works'
can finally have it altogether
dx10,
all that ram beyond 3.25, and more importantly it works and appears stable with everything i use,,,,,brings a tear to the eye after all this time

finally i can put xp32 to bed,,,,,,,,,,,,,,goodbye old friend
 
I bought vista 32 full retail which gives a full licence and entitled to 64 bit vista also.All i had to do was order the 64 and pay the postage for the disc which cost around £5.So if yours is full retail version you can get 64 bit for the price of postage.If yours is oem you would have to buy another copy.Vista 64 runs much smoother than the 32 on my system.If you have to pay though id wait for win7.
 
Even if yours is an OEM license it's equally valid for 32bit and 64bit versions of Vista, contrary to johny dolan's advice, you just need to get hold of the 64bit media.

Obviously Windows 7 is an option, but Vista x64 isn't a retrograde step or anything like an abomination, it's a tried, tested and solid OS.
 
OK so its a case of choosing Vista 64BIT (probably free depending on my copy -its pre-installed on a ACER laptop)

Or, download? Win 7 64BIT for free.... which then becomes obselete I assume once its on the market? (As in if I dont pay the machine wont work?)

Also in the case of going to VISTA 64BIT, am I looking at formatting the HDD and then reinstalling the OS? Or is it a simple, disc in, code in, 64bit unlocked?
 
You need to totally re-install if you're going 32 to 64bit. Vista64 is fine, but you really dont want to reboot much, specially on a slow laptop disk... Use Sleep if possible.

Win7 is MUCH better though....
 
Just get hold of 64 bit Vista Home Premium media and use the OEM key at the bottom of your laptop. Or order a 64 bit disc from MS, should not cost much and as you already have Vista I wouldn't bother "paying" for a new license of Windows (7) even if it is a much better OS.
 
Thanks for that - so its a case of formatting as soon as I get the laptop, then installing the OS again but using a 64Bit installation CD (but i can use the same key it seems?)

Bit of a pain, cant see why they dont install 64Bit as default if they are going to plug in 4GB of RAM :(
 
Apologies if this ends up breaking 'copyright' rules - so feel free to delete:

But is Vista 64BIT free to download legally on the web anywhere? Its not via the MS website... so I assume not, but you would have thought it was an option (depending on file size of course)
 
Marmalade is correct! Windows 7 RC is out and IS available for download for free! You can download the 32-bit or 64-bit and use through next year. To learn more, Microsoft does have a site with whitepapers, tutorials, walkthroughs and screen casts on all the “under the hood” features in Win 7. Check out the Springboard site for Windows 7 on TechNet
Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team
 
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