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My wife is going to get a new laptop for work. She is looking at a Dell that comes with "Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit preloaded" .

You think it's ok to get the 64bit now? I have no experience in the 64 bit world. Will her apps work ok with it ? Any warnings I should know about?

Here's the laptop she is looking at.

Her apps will work just fine. You may want to check to make sure you can get drivers for any printers, scanners, mp3 players, and cameras if you plan to use them.

Err wrote:Her apps will work just fine. You may want to check to make sure you can get drivers for any printers, scanners, mp3 players, and cameras if you plan to use them.

OK, sounds good, I guess if the 64bit gives me problems I could always put 32bit back on there.

And another question, how much of a performance difference can see between the 32bit and 64 bit ?

Performance? Practically nil. 64-bit does feel more responsive at the desktop, but benchmarks really don't show anything.

HP and other OEMs (except Dell for some reason) haven been pushing 64bit. Usually it works fine. The biggest issue is drivers. You will find more drivers for 32bit that 64bit. You should check for 64-bit drivers for any hardware you'll be using.

Be aware that your 64-bit license will install the 32-bit version if you have a problem.

I would be leary of Ultimate though. It's a major bloat. I've been doing some testing. The Windows folder in Ultimate is 3 times the size of Vista Home Premium or Vista Business. I personally don't like Ultimate. I prefer Vista Business (or Home Premium if you need Media Center).

From a techie perspective, you'll find 64bit a bit wierd. It creates fake folders and relocates files in order to provide compatibility with 32bit apps. Right off the bat you'll notice that all your 32bit apps are installed in the "\PROGRAM FILES (32bit)" while 64bit apps are installed in "\PROGRAM FILES". There is also a virtual SYSTEM32 folder for dealing with 32bit apps. Makes it confusing when you poke around.

If she gets this laptop, are both 32bit and 64bit both on the reinstall disk that comes with the laptop? It is a Dell btw.

I would first check to make sure there are 32bit drivers for that laptop. Some OEMs are selling PCs with 64bit and not providing 32bit drivers at all.

No, the 64bit CD installer is different than the 32bit CD. Although in theory you could pop any Vista Ultimate 32bit OEM CD in there and your key SHOULD work.

However, Dell uses a Volume License Install, and that's what they usually ship as the media so I'm not sure if a non-Dell Ultimate 32bit CD would work with your key.

The good news is that since you have a Dell, and Dells use volume license installers that are BIOS locked, you could download the Dell 32bit Ultimate CD from torrents or wherever and it would install on ANY Dell without requiring a CD key or activation.

I have the Dell 32bit Ultimate CD and have used it before, but I don't remember having an option of which version to install. Seems like it just installed the Ultimate version.

You ONLY get an option for which version to install if you DO NOT enter a COA when prompted for one. In this case you have 30 days to enter and activate a COA, but that COA has to be for the version you installed or it won't work.

The COA is for one version only. This means the Ultimate COA is ONLY good for installing Ultimate. This sucks IMO. If you pay for Ultimate, you should be allowed to install any version IMO.

BTW: That's a nice deal on that laptop. Nice find. That is one of their new laptops, so I don't know what the quality is like, but it's nicely loaded.

If you want specs on it, it's called a "Studio 1535" when you go to Dell's website, and yes there are Vista 32-bit drivers for it: http://shrunklink.com/bdch

Several of us here have the DELL Vista 32bit OEM CD if you need a copy. Perfectly legit if you're installing it on that laptop.

FlyingPenguin wrote:You ONLY get an option for which version to install if you DO NOT enter a COA when prompted for one. In this case you have 30 days to enter and activate a COA, but that COA has to be for the version you installed or it won't work.

The COA is for one version only. This means the Ultimate COA is ONLY good for installing Ultimate. This sucks IMO. If you pay for Ultimate, you should be allowed to install any version IMO.

I'm a little confused. This laptop comes with Vista Home Premium 64bit version. If I use the Dell Ultimate install disk I have, do I put in the Home Premium key from the COA on the laptop?

Hmm, now that I think about it, I see the problem. The Dell Vista Ultimate installer is an OEM volume license so it will not ask for a COA and if it doesn't ask which version you want to install then it may default to Ultimate. I'm not sure since I haven't had to install it yet.

However, although it might not be 100% legit, if you have a Dell Vista 32 Ultimate install CD that's a volume license, it WILL install Vista Ultimate on that laptop, and will not require a COA or activation, so as long as you don't mind Ultimate it'll work.

I'm also pretty sure Dell techsupport would mail you the 32bit CD if you asked them. They're very good about that.

I need to research this but I'm 99.5% sure that a Dell COA will work with a retail OR OEM Vista Installer CD. I seem to recall that, but I've never tested it. There's no seperate version of OEM and Retail like in XP.

I just haven't had to do any client Vista installs yet. My only experience is installing Vista retail on VMs and on one of my PCs.