Win 7 32 bit or 64 bit?

[escapedturkey]

I ordered a Think Pad T500 (with the ATI 3650) on E-Bay that will come with Windows 7 32 Bit and 2 gigs of RAM. Should I purchase a copy of Windows 7 64 bit or is 32 bit good enough or better?

Thank you.

[jargoone]

Unless you plan to upgrade the RAM or wish to run 64-bit virtual machines, there is no reason to run 64-bit.

[Brian10161]

I think either way your fine. If your going to stay on 2gb of ram, 32bit is fine. IIRC the license is transferable anyway (32bit or 64bit license, same thing). You would just need to get the right disc. I know for Vista, it is.

My Windows 7 Home Premium box came with both discs and I have installed both on the same computer.

[Tony Chan]

Unless you plan to run a program that will not run on 64 bit Windows 7, I would just go with 64bit OS.

Most, if not all, 32 bit program will run on 64 bit Windows, but all 64 bit program will need to run on 64 bit OS.

Although not too many 64bit programs around right now, in couple years, that will certainly change. With 64bit OS, upgrading ram to more than 4 gb in future is as simple as swap in/out the ram sticks.

[archer6]

It really depends on what you use your computer for. I would say that if the majority of the software you use is older, and incompatible with 64 bit Windows 7 then 32 bit is the way to go. Also if your hardware drivers, for printers scanners etc, are not offered in 64 bit versions then that is another reason to stay with 32 bit. If however you find that most of your software will run on 64 bit, and you can obtain 64 bit drivers for hardware, I would suggest going that way. It's a great way to future proof, as based on the way 64 bit handles memory and is devoid of the 3GB limit there is much more you can do in the long run.

[Tony Chan]

archer6 raised a good point here. Hardware/device driver can certainly be a show stopper.

[escapedturkey]

Delete.

[Vempele]

I don't think you need to buy it - the license key should be valid for both versions. You just need to find a 64-bit install DVD.

[escapedturkey]

That part is okay. I have a ThinkPad T60 as well. I'll install the 32 bit version on it.

[LegendaryKA8]

While it is true that you'll want to make sure your current programs are compatible with an x64 OS, I've been able to switch exclusively to x64 OS's without any compatibility problems whatsoever, and this includes older applications, even older games. One of the older ones I play is Independence War 2, which was designed to be run on Win98, 2000, and XP. I've been able to play it on my T400 running Win7 Pro x64 with no problems whatsoever.

This might be a bit of a placebo effect, but I feel as if the x64 operating systems are a little more stable. One example that springs to my mind was trouble I had with a copy of Oblivion on my M1730 when it was running XP x32. The game would crash occasionally and would make me have to do a hard reboot in order to get the system running again. When I switched to Vista Ultimate x64, the game would still crash, but only to the desktop... nothing else was affected. Granted, this was only one particular situation with one particular program, but that makes me a little more confident about using an x64 OS.

[thitiv]

I don't think you need to buy it - the license key should be valid for both versions. You just need to find a 64-bit install DVD.

The key will work; but your 32-bit OEM license terms may prevent your from "legally" using the 64-bit version.

[Windows7Guy]

Hello Tony,

Just a bit of FYI to understand the issues with 32-bit and 64-bit OS upgrades and later options that may or may not be available to you later:
When upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 you must upgrade the version currently installed within Windows Vista to the corresponding version in Windows 7. I.E. Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium; Windows Vista Business to Windows 7 Professional; and Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate. You also cannot upgrade a 32-bit operating system to 64-bit -- to migrate from 32-bit to 64-bit will require a custom install.

The architecture between the two is too drastically different to allow such a change. To learn more about the differences between a 32-bit operating system and 64-bit please go to the following link: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... -questions

I hope that helps you out!

You can also find lots of information on Windows 7 here in our Springboard website:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/default.aspx

Thanks again,
John M.
Microsoft Windows Client Support