Windows 7: 64 Bit to 32 Bit

I just purchased a Gateway Desktop that came with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. Many of our companies programs will not work with the 64 Bit; is there a way to change my OS from 64 Bit to 32 Bit?

Thanks for you help!!

You would need to purchase a 32 bit copy of Windows 7 and clean install it since you cannot downgrade from 64 to 32 bit nor upgrade from 32 to 64 bit. What exactly is not running or isn't the program doing that you expect it to do? Most 32 bit applications perform quite well, and briskly, in 64 bit.

hi jwhill8, and welcome to sevenforums,

are you sure these company programs are 32 bit and not 16?

16 bit software won't run on 64bit windows, but 32 should - most software is still 32bit after all.

have you tried contacting gateway? maybe they can do you some sort of deal, saving you some money if you need to 'downgrade'.

or - the 64bit ultimate has an xp mode - that may be able to run your old progs.

it will be easy to upgrade to 64bit ultimate, more tricky to go down to 32.

Thank you for your reply. I hav c/p our company's statement on Windows 7:

The 64-bit applications available today are primarily targeted for gamers, not enterprise business users. The 64-bit environment may be incompatible with business applications and peripherals (such as printers) designed for the 32-bit environment. While some improvements have been made with Windows 64-bit, the reliability of supported applications cannot be guaranteed. XXXXXXXXX XXXXXX will continue to monitor the adoption of Windows 64-bit and initiate a certification effort once this product receives more vendor support for enterprise business use.

Many of the problems seem to be with IE 8, and we cannot dowgrad to IE 7 on the OS.

Thanks again.

Great question, many Home PC's especially laptops, have no business having the 64-bit loaded on them. There is a setting to allow any program to load on a 64-bit system regardless if it has the signatures that 64-bit requires. Give me a moment to find the tut describing what to do an I'll post back.

Otherwise the only other thing I believe one can do is if the PC came with the actual ms disc's in both forms, 32 & 64 bit and you reinstall using 32-bit, but thats a long shot as I haven't heard of the actual ms operating system disc's coming with PC's in a long time, but it does happen from time to time depending on how the system was purchased/ordered.

you will find both flavours of internet explorer on your system.

I tried the "switch" to IE 7 using the IE toolbar, however this did not work and kept changing back to IE 8.

I have found a post where a member recommends installing a virtual machine and running your programs that way. Are you familiar with Virtual machines and if so would that be satisfactory for you? You would need a copy of an XP install disc thats not in-use anymore. In the meantime I'll continue to search for what it takes to allow non 64-bit apps to install. Please feel free yourself to search the web for this as well, you might find faster than me.

do you not have (in your start menu) two separate shortcuts for internet explorer, one of them expressly saying 64bit? the other one is good old 32bit.

i can't show you a screenshot, as i've deleted my 64bit shortcut.

sorry, when i said flavours, i meant both 32bit and 64bit versions of ie8.

start up ie8 - and click on the question mark at the end of the toolbar, and click about internet explorer

You should tell your company's IT department to take their heads out of their asses and get with the game. Most reasons and benefits for going to an x64 OS, along with apps to take advantage of the x64 platform are NOT gaming related.

But, here's what I'm confused about. If this is a company system, running company software, why are you buying the system, and why isn't it running a company provided OS/image?