can i give away my old copy of vista

Yes, 1bowtie, that was confusing. == I asked him twice if Win 7 came on his new PC and did not get an answer. I wonder if he and his friend are both using Vista???

I think the confusion here is caused by the word Upgrade from 32 to 64 bit, this is not technically an upgrade as the vista licence (as does the win7) covers both 32 OR 64 bit, although the x64 disk was not normally supplied except with ultimate.

The disk from MS was the way that the x64 was distributed for vista

This is a case of a now unused vista licence, (non OEM), which is transferable to another system (either 32 OR 64 Bit). within the terms of the Original EULA, as long as it is no longer installed on the original system (either 32 or 64 Bit)

Barman58 said:

I think the confusion here is caused by the word Upgrade from 32 to 64 bit, this is not technically an upgrade as the vista licence (as does the win7) covers both 32 OR 64 bit, although the x64 disk was not normally supplied except with ultimate.

The disk from MS was the way that the x64 was distributed for vista

This is a case of a now unused vista licence, (non OEM), which is transferable to another system (either 32 OR 64 Bit). within the terms of the Original EULA, as long as it is no longer installed on the original system (either 32 or 64 Bit)

Thanks Barman for the further clarification

You'll be fine. As you no longer use Vista anymore and it's a retail copy, there's no harm in giving it to your friend for him to have. Retail licenses can be transferred from one PC to another provided the original is no longer in use.

I don't know what they call it changing Architecture I suppose - or maybe "changing the 32 bit for the 64 bit"