Am I stuck with the 2.89 GB usable unless I load windows 7 64 bit?

Hello,


New member here hoping to get help with my new windows 7 32 bit system.

I have just switched all of my data over from windows XP to a new computer with this operating system only to realize that I will not be able to use the extra (16GB) of memory I just purchased.


Am I stuck with the 2.89 GB usable unless I load windows 7 64 bit system?


It was really dificult for me to get everything transfered over to my new computer especially all of my outlook stuff (rules, files, etc.)


Would I be able to back everything up, and just transfer it to the new windows 7 64 bit system installation?


Any help is greatly appreciated..


Steve

Hi,
You can use your system as it is in a 32 bit mode and use a bunch of the ram as a ram disk. Frankly it would be better to wipe and reinstall 64 bit windows. It will be faster, if you have huge numbers of files you can look through them quickly with 64 bit windows. Most if not all 32 bit modern programs will work fine in 64 bit. Still best to use 32 bit office and browsers for the time being as plug ins and add ons are not widely available on 64 bit. You can use the Windows easy file transfer wizard from Start Accerories to back up your existing settings.
You will read on the web about fixes so you can use the 16Gb of ram in 32 bit Windows but this is not reccomended, probably not legal and most importently not stable. Server versions of 32 bit Windows do support more than 3Gb of ram but they are not (usually) running consumer games and programs which may do some strange things and crash.