Idunnobutiwastold
Gaming Acolyte
Quote from the article:
Microsoft gives you the 32-bit version of Windows 10 if you upgrade from the 32-bit version of Windows 7 or 8.1. But you can switch to the 64-bit version, assuming your hardware supports it.
— What? I suppose the principle would apply to 64-bit Linux Live-DVDs too, huh?
Link to the article:
http://www.howtogeek.com/228042/how-to-switch-from-32-bit-windows-10-to-64-bit-windows-10/
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(Resource accessed in February 2016)
ChrisS
Administrator
What? I suppose the principle would apply to 64-bit Linux Live-DVDs too, huh?
Probably. If you read Is it possible to "upgrade" from a 32bit to a 64bit installation? - Ask Ubuntu you'll find mention of
You can now do this fairly easily with recent installers (at least with 13.10 which I just used). Boot into the 64-bit image DVD (or USB drive or whatever) and choose the first option to reinstall, keeping your personal files. This works even if you don't have a separate /home partition.
This will reinstall most of the system including apps, but it takes a list of your installed packages beforehand to reinstall them from repo, so as long as a package has a 64-bit version available to it at the time, you should end up with most of your apps when you reboot. In my experience a few didn't get installed - mainly those that had been installed through 3rd party repos such as Google Chrome - but it doesn't take long to install these manually afterwards.
That particular comment is from 2013, presumably things are even better now.
mikiem2
Moderator
I'd suspect that swapping 64 bit Windows in place of 32 bit has very limited applications, simply because if the hardware was 64 bit Windows compatible, that's probably what you got from win7-10. Not all devices with a 64 bit CPU can run 64 bit Windows, e.g. small tablets &/or some lower powered laptops &/or AIO systems.
I also wouldn't put total faith in the Windows 10 setup routine when it comes to whether or not your hardware will run Windows 10 -- it can only check the basics. If you have the disk space, I'd suggest after a disk image backup adding a partition, & installing 10 to that -- it's extremely easy to undo if 10 doesn't work for you, plus it gives you a way out if a future build of 10 does not work [there are 2 coming this year].
[You might also add another drive, rather than adding a partition for 10 to your existing drive -- if your drive isn't new (or fairly new) it might not be a bad idea anyway, as it's unknown whether swapping in a new drive means you'll have to buy a Windows 10 license (policy is subject to change, it depends on whom you get when you call etc.). Or you can install & activate 10 on an external drive, or to a VHD, though you may not be able to upgrade builds -- you didn't used to be able to, but Microsoft's policies re: 10 have been changeable, so in the future, who knows? You should be able to always install a new build fresh.]
In the scenario at howtogeek you would upgrade to 10 32, then install 10 64 fresh. The only potential advantage that I can think of is that if 10 64 did not work, you could restore a backup of that 10 32 install, complete with whatever software managed the migration. It could be possible however that some people have a license to only the 32 bit version of win7 or 8/8.1 [AFAIK most retail licenses covered both]-- then it would be up to the vagaries of win10's activation process or requirements whether a 64 bit copy of 10 would activate. I don't know if the 2-step is necessary because the initial upgrade checks for a 32 [or 64] bit Only key, if the 2-step is just an invention of the author, &/or if it was policy, if it's since changed. It does require extra time regardless.
I'd advise installing 10 fresh, whether 32 bit or 64 bit -- it can be much faster & it's more trouble free. If you download the ISO [or set up a USB stick] using the Microsoft tool, download the 32 bit & 64 bit versions in this case. Also make sure that you have your existing Windows key -- Google for apps like ProduKey if you don't.
Note that the next 3 paragraphs are based on Not using another partition, but installing 10 over an existing copy of Windows.
I'd suggest that if you're installing to a partition with an existing Windows install, clear that partition, plus any recovery partition, during Windows 10 setup. If you don't it takes longer because setup will copy old files/folders to a Windows.old folder, & you could be talking 20GB+ very easily, which takes a while. You might also find yourself mucking about for quite some time getting rid of that Windows.old folder afterwards -- a bit over a third of the time I've had Windows' Disk Cleanup tool fail to remove it completely, requiring anything from taking ownership of the files to repairing corrupt files to booting to a DOS prompt to delete them. There is however *maybe* a downside...
When you run Windows 10 setup you can use your win7, 8, or 8.1 key when it asks you to enter the license key, so if you were running the 64 bit win10 setup routine, you'd know then & there that your key qualified [& then you would know to run the 32 bit setup if it didn't]. BUT, there are reports that that doesn't always work, because it doesn't always recognize the key as valid. In that case you have to click on skip or do this later [whatever the wording for the build of 10 you're installing], & enter that key after 10's installed & running.
If OTOH setup sees a qualified version of Windows already installed [on the target partition, & sometimes on another partition], if you're trying to install a version that won't activate as an upgrade, it *might* tell you that, or after 10's installed & running it may self activate, though again reports say that one or both of those doesn't always work. Adding a key during setup, and self activating after installing next to or over an existing copy of Windows have always worked for me, but not clearing a partition where Windows is installed [when you're installing win10 to that partition] *may* give you added options.
Re: how long it takes... I've had fresh installs take under 1/2 an hour, & a couple of days ago I upgraded win10 builds on my Windows tablet, having it take around 6-7 hours -- that included the setup download over wired Ethernet. Upgrading builds in a VM without much software installed usually takes a bit over an hour or so.
Idunnobutiwastold
Gaming Acolyte
Thank you Chris and Mike.
Since my last post, I had accidentally erased the BIOS off my laptop, while attempting to update it. After sending the laptop to a store for repairs, I was told by the technician some days later that he could not find a fix. Assuming I do get the computer up and running (somehow), I intend to do a fresh install of 64-bit Windows 10 and see how that goes. At one time, I had run diagnostic freeware that determined that the hardware is 64-bit compatible, so upgrading the OS could work out. If I get that far, I will finally be able to install and use those high-end production packages that run exclusively on a 64-bit OS (e.g. Blackmagic Design Fusion, etc).
Sent from an Android phone
ChrisS
Administrator
If you can get your laptop to boot from a USB drive then you should be able to flash the BIOS with the correct version.
You can use Rufus to create a bootable DOS USB drive and this article, How to Correctly Flash a BIOS, tells you how to use the drive to update the BIOS.
If you can't boot the laptop to a CD or USB drive then you'll probably have to replace the motherboard (or get a new laptop). The chip that you'd need to remove and reprogram is not user serviceable.
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