Windows 7: Does Windows 7 Ultimate Edition support both 32 and 64?

Hello

I would like to ask this straightforward question: does Windows 7 Ultimate Edition support both 32 and 64 bits? I have a legal copy of it and installed it on my Vista Business PC, but it seems to be running at 32 bits only. Is it because of this Vista only supporting 32 bits? How do you tell the bits your OS is running at? I have not been able to find an answer anywhere else, so your help would be appreciated.

Best regards,

Dee

Here's how to tell which version you're running. Ultimate is available in both 32 and 64-bit editions. A single product key will not work with both editions.

Hi dee and welcome to sevenforums

Win 7 ultimate comes in 2 flavors 32bit, and 64. If you upgrade from 32 bit you have to upgrade to win 7 32. If your Machine supports 64 bit (thats the determining factor) and you want to go from vista 32 to win 7 64 it has to be done via a "clean" install.

Do you know which version of vista you had?


hope this helps

Ken

Many thanks, I have verified that my PC has a 32-bit version of Windows Vista Business installed. As I cannot uninstall this OS, I will consider purchasing a few new 1 TB HDs to have Windows 7 installed on RAID 3 or RAID 5. Well actually the first thing to do will be to get a paid IT job to purchase them .

Thank you,

Dee

At the same time, I hope that is what you mean. A CD key will activate either the 32bit or the 64bit version. However, you can only pick one to use that CD key, you must deactivate the first install before using that key on another.

To the best of my knowledge, the initial set-up did not ask which version to install. That's why I got lost as to the version I was running. When you already have 32-bit OS installed on your machine, is the 32-bit version of Win 7 installed with no option given ?

I am using Technet downloads, so perhaps circumstances are different. But the DVD,s I have (&4Bit or 32Bit) are seperate. Therefore, according to the DVD you boot, that is the version which will be installed. On my installs, I am not asked for a product key until near the end of the install,so I cannot see how this would influence the choice of version.

If you want to install 64 bit version, you insert the 64 bit media (iso, DVD). If you want to install 32 bit version, you use the 32 bit media. Both versions are not on one DVD.

Ultimate retail comes with BOTH 32-bit and 64-bit DVD's. OEM only comes with one or the other. The upgrade only comes with the 32-bit but you can order the 64-bit from Microsoft for $10 after Oct. 22nd 2009. The License key will work for either 32-bit or 64-bit but only one of them. You don't need a new drive you can just do a clean install to upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit. You will need to reinstall your apps after you do this.

OR

I'm not sure (and I'm sure that someone will correct me if I am wrong) but I believe that you could use "Windows Easy Transfer" to export your profiles, software, and security to an external drive and then restore it all back after upgrading to get your system back the way it was before you upgraded except you would be on Windows 7 64-bit.

I used this process to move me from my Vista partition to my Windows 7 RC partition to prep for a "Clean" install of Windows 7 ultimate RTM 64-bit on my Vista partition, Once I get the RTM installed and activated then I will migrate my full Windows 7 RC partition to my RTM partition using this process and finally delete the RC partition and add the space recovered to the Windows 7 RTM partition.

Thank you for the reply. I have three OSs running on my PC on seperate partitions which are Windows Vista Business, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. If I were to use Windows Easy Transfer, I would have to tranfer all the data and many programs from the first two OSs to Windows 7 64 bits. Is this dooable? Would I have my important program files transferred?