The author doesn't actually speculate that it's to make money, that was my theory.
The author does however prove that the 3gb limit on 32-bit is a licensing issue, nothing else. He mods his own kernel to disable the license check, and then proceeds to run a 32-bit XP with 8 GB of working memory.
The reason for this? Ask MS .. I have no idea why they want to create this limit, but they sure have created it, where no limit needed to exist.
Who knows,, maybe they are, maybe they aren't.
It may not be all as simple as that..... Or maybe it could
Fact is, that is the way it is,, and I am perfectly fine forcing the issue of everybody going to 64bit and 32bit going to the dino world.
4G hasn't really been an issue till recently. And as I said earlier, 7 atleast, should have been 64bit only anyway which would make this whole thing moot.
Interesting.If you really want to know why and how Windows 32-bit versions are limited to approx 3 GB ram, then read this article Geoff Chappell, Software Analyst - Viewer
It's brilliant work imo - long story short though, the limit is not an architectural one, but a covert licensing policy by MS, ostensibly to make you upgrade to 64-bit and leave some more of your cash in the MS vault.
I was aware that there are 32 bit server versions of Windows that support more than 4GB of RAM through PAE. I suppose that I shouldn't have been surprised that the feature is present in the desktop versions, although disabled.
32 bit apps can still only address a maximum of 3GB each, although large RAM would permit multiple apps to avoid competing for memory. The limitation isn't present for 64 bit apps. Too bad they're rare.
This worked for me
I recently installed Windows 7 on my computer and had everything up and running. My fried them upgraded his CPU and gave me hi sold one as it was better than mine. This forced me to buy a new motherboard and RAM. After booting with new hardware i got the BSOD. Safe mode did nothing to fix the problem. I figured I would have to do a repair install but found out that you can only run that while windows is running. I decided to try an unorthodox fix and it worked. If you backup your data before trying this then all you have to loose is the time and may have to do a clean install.
1. before changing your hardware, run the setup.exe on the Window 7 DVD while windows is running.
2. Choose an Upgrade install when you get to that option.
3. The upgrade install takes longer since it backs up your files, settings and registry.
4. ***Important Step***** Wait patiently for windows install to reboot your computer the first time during the upgrade install process. As soon as it says it is going to reboot, wait for the screen to go black and pull the plug on your computer.
5. At this point change out your motherboard and turn the computer back on. The HAL file has been overwritten at this point so Windows does not know what hardware was there. The installation will continue as normal but may hang for about 15 20 minutes before going on to the next step.
6. After that it should continue as normal and detect all your new hardware. When mine finally came up I had to load a few drivers and change a few settings but nothing major. So far everything seems to be running stable. :)
^ For some reason a clean install sounds like less of a hassle than that.I just got a new mobo, CPU, RAM. Will try to boot up normally but at first hint of trouble, will not waste time and just go for a clean install.
Microsoft personnel say that Win 7 by design is supposed to handle hardware changes (incl mobo) with little or no trouble:
How to change motherboard on Windows 7 system
Read my post earlier in this thread. I just changed the HW and I was fine. Eventually it did ask me to authenticate via the automated phone system, but that worked fine.
So, the short answer is sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't?
The advantage of a clean install is obvious and installing the OS doesn't take long, but really getting the system "personalized" as it was before takes a fair bit of time.
You might have some trouble swapping CPU and not just mobo. Good luck.
The latest is I moved the hard drive to the new motherboard/cpu. Windows 7 booted properly the first time, discovered and installed the new drivers automatically and after a reboot I was done. I don't regret all the caution and preparation I did first, but this turned out to be about the easiest upgrade I've ever done. Just color me lucky I guess...
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