I recently bought a new laptop (ASUS F81Se), but for some reason it came with a 32 bit version of vista home premium even though it had 4GB of RAM. Is driver, etc. support good enough for vista 64 bit to make this a worthwhile upgrade? (ASUS website does have 64 bit drivers) and if so, is it possible to upgrade without having to buy a new license? (tried the Vista Alternate Media site, but it said no offer found) I bought it after the win7 upgrade period started, so will I be able to do the same when I get win7? (it wont let me select 64 bit on the upgrade page) I also have XP 32 bit on my desktop, what would be the best way to get win7 64 bit for it?
OEM editions of Vista come without the 32/64 bit choice. What you get is what you keep, unless you buy a new edition of Windows. AFAIK, this also applies to the Win7 upgrade. To answer your question: Yes, Driver support for 64 bit is good enough for most things. Just make sure that Asus has drivers for Win7 x64 and wait another few months before buying Win7. That'd be my recommendation, really.
You can't upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit, you'll have to do a reinstall. Just borrow your mate's 64-bit disc (doesn't matter what edition) and use YOUR product key. It'll install and activate fine.
+1 to mm vr. If ASUS has like Dell a special pre-activated and pre-product key entered key in the setup (no Image, but Microsoft special disk build), then the product key under your laptop is deactivated, so you will need to call Microsoft to activate your Windows Vista (this is free process). Alternatively, you can call ASUS and complain that your system is broken because you can't use your 4GB of RAM (even thus we know it's because of the OS and that system is not broken in reality) they should send you Vista 64-bit disk. If you call and just ask for the 64-bit disk, they will/expected to transfer you to the sales department and act like if you want a new Vista, and you will need to pay. See where I am going?
again i'm getting conflicting answers. will any oem key work with both 32 and 64 bit versions? is there anywhere else I can get a copy of the disk? all my friends still use XP unless they bought a laptop with vista. I might give calling support a try like GoodBytes said, not sure how well that would go
I'm not sure.. on technet one of the employees said if you have a 32 bit oem key- then your stuck with 32 bit and it won't work on a 64-bit disk.. but goodbytes is saying tell asus you can't access all 4 gb of ram and need the vista 64-bit disk for the weasel
I don't think so.. well nothing about it mentioned, not even in the fine prints. I think you will have to wait for the Win7 upgrade offer.
after more research: which makes it sound like it might I sent an email asking about it, hopefully i'll get a reply tomorrow. If it doesnt qualify, i might just wait for win7 to be offered edit: emailed microsoft
