Vista OEM Licenses tied to 32-bit or 64-bit, not both?

Hi. I just purchased a Thinkpad T61 thinking that sometime in the future I would try x64 since you know the retail Vistas license for both versions. Well, Lenovo is telling me that I purchased only a 32-bit license for Vista...has anyone heard this or experienced this? Like I know I could probably get an Anytime Upgrade DVD and it would work, but would it? Like are product keys tied to one or the other? Is this a Lenovo-only policy? Or have people with PCs from other manufacturers having this experience too? I do not see anytime in my EULA that indicates this to be the case, quite the contrary it indicates that you may use one or other at the time if the manufacturer provides it...thoughts? This is coming as quite a shocker if this is the case...especially if this is only applicable to Lenovo. Has anyone tried, for example, to obtain from their manufacturer a 64-bit DVD of Vista for their PC that came with 32-bit? Thanks

 

Lenovo use to ship out an anytime upgrade disk. Now it is on your hard drive in the swtools folder. Unfortunately you can only use the anytime update utility from this location to do a Vista update. There is no method that I am aware of to make a bootable disk out of the file located in the swtools folder.

The anytime upgrade disk is basically just an installation disk. It can be used to do a clean install of Vista. It comes in a 32-bit disk or 64-bit disk. If you want to go from 32-bit Vista to 64-bit Vista it can easily be done using the 64-bit anytime upgrade disk. Just follow the guide located in my sig. Links to order the anytime upgrade disk are also located in the guide.

 

It's not just Lenovo... I don't know of any vendor that officially allows you to switch between 32 and 64-bit for the OEM Windows. The idea with OEM software is that it's treated as a component of the computer -- like the CPU or DVD drive on the computer, or the firmware on a cellphone -- and the manufacturer only supports what the computer ships with.

However, there are workarounds as described above. The key should work as long as it's the same edition but in 64-bit (i.e. going from 32-bit Premium to 64-bit Premium). I doubt if Microsoft really cares; I think they just don't want to force the manufacturers to support 64-bit or to deal with the customer service issues around upgrading. I say go for the upgrade if you want it, but just don't expect Lenovo to support the OS if you do.

 

Can I upgrade my 32-bit Vista to the 64-bit Vista using the anytime upgrade disk from Compusa WITHOUT doing a clean install? I.e., I want to keep all the thinkvantage stuff. Can I?

 

why can't you just download the thinkvantage stuff again?

 

If it's an OEM then it's only a single license. The retail version of Ultimate has both discs and has the same license. You should be able to activate the x64 version from the x86 version since it is an upgrade. I updated mines using the retail version. It asks if I wanted to "clean install" or "upgrade".

 

This thread has the answer I think... no way to upgrade, must do a clean install. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=183421

 

NO.

I'm not sure what you are saying. Bottom line is... you can go from 32-bit to 64-bit by doing a clean install using the "anytime upgrade" disk, retail or OEM disk at no charge by following the guide in my sig or by following orev's guide.

 

Will a laptop with a 32bit OEM license used to install Vista 64bit in the same laptop pass WGA validation?

Has anyone tried? any info on the subject?

 

Yes, it will pass WGA. It is the same license on the same system, only the architecture is different. The licensing is not bound to the architecture.

 

Thanks orev.

 

I have both 32 and 64 bit windows upgrade anytime disks, and they both work with the same oem numbers

 

Obviously they do. It's a very cheap solution instead of getting the disks from Microsoft (with the retail program) or sticking with the x86.

 

Sure is cheaper, I didnt want to drop $300 or what ever MS want for ultimate but I almost did drop for a retail version, I was desperate, HP just packed my new laptop with bloat, crap and wonderWTF ware.

 

Stallen ! I have used your tutorial several times and have converted Lenovo
Vista Business 32 to 64bit with NO issues whatsoever. It works and is NOT a problem, just follow Stallen's guide.

ps. Just converted my wifes HP same way. Interesting, rtemoved the HP recovery partition, clean install and ( just for the heck ) entered ther code from the sticky - not using the ABR and it worked!

 

According to the EULA, the OEM keys are bound to the architecture. When you buy a computer, since it wasn't installed with the key on the stickers, you can still activate without any problems. Otherwise you should be able through phone activtion