Asus U3 and others - Does it come with a full version of Windows Vista 64/32?

Hello all. When I bought my W3V a couple years back, I was happy to find that it came with an actual WinXP Pro CD, not a halfassed restore disc.

I was wondering if modern Asuses, especially the upcoming U3, will include full version of Windows Vista Ultimate? Will it be "retail" in that it has both 32 and 64 bit versions accessible? If so, I'm much more likely to purchase. Thanks!

 

Usually now they come with an Asus OEM disc that only has the 32-bit version.

 

ASUS has started using restore discs for all their notebooks now, so the U3 would not be an exception. I kinda prefer restore discs, saves quite a bit of time.

As mentioned, ASUS only has the Vista32 on their restore discs.

 

Ouch. Well thanks for the information. I'm sorry to hear they've given up on the regular OS discs - I'm not the kind who typically makes use of the "crapware", and while I can uninstall it, it I like to start with a "fresh" system, especially with Vista.

Will the CD key from the Ultimate32 also be viable for Ultimate64?

 

I doubt it, the only way to get 32 and 64 is to buy the retail 32/64 package.

 

Just got a VX2S and did a clean install.

The restore DVD is actually just a Vista 32 DVD with a modified loader i.e. it goes straight into the install routine. I'm not sure if it's accessing the recovery partition on the HDD but it effectively puts a clean install of Vista on your system then asks for the drivers cd. You don't actually have to put this in and you can avoid some of the bloatware. You do however have to then manually install things like the wireless card/webcam/turbomemory etc - but can chose what you put on. My system boots up and shuts down much quicker now.

Only other problem I had was that strangely it didn't run the user preferences setup until a couple more re-boots. This then deleted quite a bit of what I had just put on! So be careful but it should be much better.