RapierFugue
Posts: 4740
Joined: 3/16/2006 From: London, England Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: flcouple2009 I have an upgrade pack for Windows 7 which has the 32 and 64 bit versions. For reasons concerning work I must use the 32 bit version. Does anyone know it if is possible to have the 32 bit and 64 bit loaded on the same computer on different partitions. That way I can use the 32 bit for work and the 64 bit for everything else. They have the same license number and I know I can't use them on different computers. I am just looking for a way to use both versions on the same computer. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=can+you+install+windows+7+upgrade+32+bit+and+64+bit+on+different+partitions ;) From which page we get: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/can-i-dual-boot-32bit-and-64bit-windows-7-and-if-i/e5099d54-3d67-48c3-a77e-8a3ca1b2c994 The problem seems to be a) the license only applies to one copy being activated at a time - this means that no, you can't have 2 versions activated at the same time using the same license key, which is a bit stinky of them IMHO. Also b) that's for the Enterprise and Premium full licenses, as best I understand it - the upgrade may not allow the same freedoms - there are different flavours of "upgrade", depending on type bought and country of use. So the answer appears to be "yes you can, but only one of them can be activated from the same root license key, coz we're cheeky". So, in practice, no you can't. Personally, unless you've got some fuck-off amounts of memory installed, and have software that specifically leverages the full 64-bit set, then I'd just run 32 bit across the board; the performance benefits of 64-bit aren't as great as many people think they are. Some trialling with a few processor-intensive (and GPU intensive) games (yes, I'm sad enough to install then re-install things just to see what happens) indicated that, for most desktop systems of reasonable power, using 64-bit Win7 doesn't make a vast amount of difference (typically 3-4 extra FPS in a high-res first person shooter, for example), unless the desktop unit was stuffed to the gills with RAM, and even then it had to be decent quality RAM. If you want to go that route I'd suggest borrowing a 32-bit license key from work, installing that, then installing a 64-bit version in a dual-boot way, and register that using the upgrade's license key you own from the upgrade pack.
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