Vista Express upgrade - 64 bit

[Mark]

I got XP MCE with some new PCs, with a voucher to upgrade to Vista Home
premium.

However, I bought 64 bit PCs, and am somewhat surprised to find that my
only upgrade path is 32 Bit vista.

If I'd opted for the cheaper XP home with my PCs, I'd have the option to
get Vista 64 bit - so how come I'm stuck with 32 bit for the premium
edition?

Surely, it's the premium edition that benefits most from the 64-bit tech
(specifically, the ability to play HD video, something greatly
publicised as being disabled in 32-bit editions)?

Is Home Premium offered in 64 bits, and if so, will it ever be offered
as an upgrade? Or are my upgrade vouchers worthless, forcing me to pay
full retail price for vista?

Regards,

M

 

[Richard Urban]

When you spoke to the sales people prior to making your purchase, what did
they have to say about this. It "is" between you and the sales organization.
They are the ones who offer the upgrades.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Mark,

However, I bought 64 bit PCs, and am somewhat surprised to find that my
only upgrade path is 32 Bit vista.

If the existing OS is 32-bit, then the only upgrade path is 32-bit. One
cannot upgrade a 32-bit OS to a 64-bit OS.

If I'd opted for the cheaper XP home with my PCs, I'd have the option to
get Vista 64 bit - so how come I'm stuck with 32 bit for the premium
edition?

Quite possibly some of the hardware on the system does not have 64-bit
signed drivers available. Without them, you will lose some functionality.
The proper place for this question of whether or not they have drivers
available is the manufacturer of the system.

Surely, it's the premium edition that benefits most from the 64-bit tech
(specifically, the ability to play HD video, something greatly publicised
as being disabled in 32-bit editions)?

Possibly, but again this is a question for the manufacturer.

Is Home Premium offered in 64 bits, and if so, will it ever be offered as
an upgrade?

Again, no, as there is no such upgrade path. If you want to run x64, you
will need to purchase a full version and do a clean installation of it.

Or are my upgrade vouchers worthless, forcing me to pay full retail price
for vista?

Not worthless, they will give you the 32-bit version of Vista on the machine
that was sold to you with the 32-bit version of XP MCE. The facts are that
most new systems, regardless of whether the hardware is 64-bit capable, come
with the 32-bit software as that is currently more compatible with most of
the available after-market hardware and software that uses device drivers.
Until support for x64 becomes more widespread, this trend will continue.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Saucy]

I wonder if Microsoft should have designed a universal policiy and universal
price structure for this voucher thing. As it seems to be now, it's a mess.
Perhaps I will note it and put it on a some future Microsoft wishlist list
for some future Microsoft OS.

 

[Mark]

When you spoke to the sales people prior to making your purchase, what
did they have to say about this. It "is" between you and the sales
organization. They are the ones who offer the upgrades.

They're just a local builder, so don't deal with the upgrades
themselves. They just said that Microsoft are offering an upgrade to
Windows Vista Home Premium. They didn't know about 32/64 bit, but
thought that Vista would be supplied with both versions on a single
disc, or that you'd be able to choose when ordering the upgrade.

Anyway, the upgrade is nothing to do with them. They've given me a
voucher which I have to send to 'moduslink' after going to their web
site and ordering the upgrade.

If I go to the moduslink site, and I order an upgrade from XP media
center, I'm only offered Vista HP 32. However, if I pretend I have XP
home, then I'm offered Vista Home 64 as well as 32.

It's a bit of a shame, because all the components in the PC are fully
64-bit ready, the builder has 64 bit XP drivers for all the components,
and, even now, I can easily download Vista 64 bit drivers from the
various manufacturers of the components.

I'm just a bit upset that I won't be able to get the maximum performance
and future-proofing from my new PC, unless I buy a 2nd (full price) copy
of Windows.

M

 

[Rick Rogers]

Correct.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Just be aware that the Custom Install option does not by itself result in a
clean installation in the sense of formatting the drive and starting over.

The supporting tools for a clean installation are not available from within
Setup when Setup is launched from the desktop. They are under the Advanced
Options, which only appear in Vista Setup when booting from the dvd and
launching Setup there. Just a word of warning. This one is going to catch
a lot of us veterans off guard.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

If the boot drive is disconnected where will Vista find the bcd store?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

You will have two system drives, one of which is the boot drive. Check
whether the bcd store is not written to the root of the boot drive. If so
you will need to do some repair work when the boot drive is removed since
the mbr goes with it. You might want to try this in a virtual machine with
two .vhd's. It would be the simplest way to see what you will need to plan
for.