Will a 32-bit key work with 64-bit media?

Zepher said:

I don't see why they don't just make 1 DVD with 32bit and 64bit on it, would make life easier.

MS licensing schemes do seem overly complicated but for them its a marketing strategy, with different SKUs aimed at different target markets (Ultimate for the enthusiast, home for the staid home user, pro for the networker and power user and so on) and advertised in that fashion.

With a single universal disk, you'd probably have users selecting the wrong edition, calling MS for support and other headaches. Locking the dvd to a single SKU probably makes things easier to understand for the packagers, distributers etc. also. I suspect MS also thinks, this would cut down on casual piracy.

Since the Vista days, it has been requested that MSDN and TechNet subscribers have access to an official all-in-one DVD, considering they'd know what to do with it, but so far, we haven't been so lucky. Thankfully, the guides here make up for that.