Dualboot 32bit and 64bit, is it possible?

[edmond419]

Hi all,

confirming that my processor can run 64 bit, is it possible that I install Windows 7 (my laptop is now vista 32 preinstalled)? and put it in a dual bit configuation of
Vista Home premium 32 bit and Windows 7 Professional 64 bit

or will it not work?



and also will it create the boot options automatically?

thanks






EDIT: I am confident that 32bit vista and 32bit 7 will install and run smoothly, but what about the config above?

 

[amirtaraj]

Sure you can dual-boot both of them mine is the same case as my HP came with pre-installed Windows Vista Home Basic 32 bit and I have now installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit and both are useable,just empty 1 of the drive partition and install in that empty partition(bewareo not choose upgrade option,custom install in the free partition) So you can enjoy both OS.........

 

[jitpublisher]

Sure you can do it, just not really sure why you would want, or even need to.

32 bit programs will run just fine under a 64 bit OS. Now, some people say they have problems, but when you get to the root of the problem, the problem usually lies with Win 7, or Vista itself, not that it is 64 bit though. There are older programs that will simply not run under Vista or Win7, and when people have problems they assume it is because they installed the 64 bit version of windows, but that is not the case most of the time. In other words if you are having problems running a program under Win7 64 bit, you are most likely going to have the same problems trying to run it under Win7 32 bit as well.
So I say by far and large, it is kind of pointless to run a 32/64 bit dual boot of the same version of Windows, for all but a very, very few people.

 

[edmond419]

Thanks for your feedback. Done it, works fine. The reason why I want to do this is because my vista is soooo slow and I only have a 7 64bit CD...from a Dell computer, installed it and couldn't activate it because the product key doens't work

 

[buwish]

Best answer selected by buwish.