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Accepted
Matt Beckman
Asked: 2011-03-19 10:27:56 +0800 CST

Upgrade Windows XP 32-bit to 64-bit using repair (e.g. in-place upgrade)

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I have a user with a Mac + VMware Fusion with a 32-bit Windows XP virtual machine. He needs a 64-bit OS for a project he is working on with the development team. It appears that the upgrade process to Windows 7 will most likely result in a clean install. I would like to avoid that as much as possible because he required a couple days worth of hand holding to get his current environment up and running, and that leads me to my question.

Can I use a Windows XP Pro 64-bit installation disk to run a repair install on his Windows XP Pro 32-bit VM, so that all settings are mostly retained? I know it's a long shot, but I'm hoping someone has a good answer for me. :)

windows-xp 32bit-64bit

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You can't upgrade from a 32bit Windows OS to a 64bit Windows OS.

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  2. In short: No.

    None of the current 32 bit applications would work correctly, because Windows secludes most of them in SysWOW64 at installation time.

    It's theoretically possible, but not without a massive amount of time investment.

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