Can I go from Win7 64bit to 10 32bit via upgrade?

[severus]

Long story short, at work we have machinery that only operates on a 32bit OS. The company that produces the machinery has no driver coding that works on 64bit OS's. As hard as this may be to believe, I've tried installing our laser printers on the Windows 7 machine we have to no avail. Since we want to have all the printers run off one machine (so we can get rid of our Athlon XP 3200 machine), would we be able to download the Windows 10 upgrade and install it as a 32 bit OS, or would my boss have to buy a new copy of Windows and do a fresh install. I know you can go from 32 to 64 bit, but I'm not sure if it's reversible?

 

[tcsenter]

Keys from Vista onward to 10 are not specific to 32-bit or 64-bit they work with either. But will be clean install since you can't "upgrade" between 32-bit and 64-bit, anyway. Any prior installations of Windows will get dumped into a "Windows.old" folder, your programs and custom settings will be lost and require installation again, but any user data/files should be found in that folder.

 

[Ketchup]

The first thing you do is download an evaluation copy of Windows 10 32-bit and make sure that it does, in fact, operate the machinery.

It is a free download here:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-10-enterprise

As to your question, you cannot switch between 32-and 64-bit instructions of the OS withou doing a fresh install, but if the version is not changing (64- to 32-bit only) the same key can be used.

 

[tcsenter]

Also, I don't know what you mean that your printers aren't working with Windows 7 but you are going to try with Window 10? I assumed you were referring to older hardware and drivers, which aren't any more likely to function fully in Window 10.

 

[severus]

It's not the operating system that's the issue. It's the fact that I'm using a 64bit OS. Older Epilog Laser machines only work on 32bit OS's. I have a newer Epilog Mini 30 laser engraver that works fine on 7 64 bit, however the older 24EX machine will only work on a 32bit OS. There simply is no way to install it on a 64 bit system.

 

[deustroop]

It appears you have a Windows 7/64 machine and simply want to know whether you can install Win 10/32 ? Yes that should not be a problem so use the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool. D/L it from
https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10
and choose to install Windows 10 on a PC. Download the Tool and choose to install Windows 10 on another machine. Then you will have the option to download the 32 bit version.
The acquisition may still be free ( the free install period may not have expired) but even if you have to purchase a new license it will apply to either version of Windows 10.

 

[tcsenter]

Are these computers prebuilt that came with Windows 7 preloaded? If so, you can backup the activation files, obtain (i.e. download) a copy of Windows 7 32-bit (x86) and install, then restore the activation after complete. If you want further info on doing that send me PM

 

[severus]

Are these computers prebuilt that came with Windows 7 preloaded? If so, you can backup the activation files, obtain (i.e. download) a copy of Windows 7 32-bit (x86) and install, then restore the activation after complete. If you want further info on doing that send me PM

I have one of those Win 7 CD's that are for builders and don't require activation or a CD key, so I'm not sure. The machine originally came preloaded with Vista but the HDD died and I've since swapped it out for a 1tb Hitachi

 

[tcsenter]

I have one of those Win 7 CD's that are for builders and don't require activation or a CD key, so I'm not sure. The machine originally came preloaded with Vista but the HDD died and I've since swapped it out for a 1tb Hitachi

The system builder copies of W7 still require activation (and product key). Did you mean OEM branded install media from Dell, HP, Lenovo, et. al.? If the computer shipped with Vista it likely has the BIOS marker for Vista activation not for W7 (i.e. needs a product key for W7).

At any rate, whatever product key is being used for W7 currently installed can be used to install and activate 32-bit W7, too. If you need download source for W7 32-bit lemme know.

 

[Chaotic42]

Could you run it on a VM?

 

[XiandreX]

Could you run it on a VM?

I was thinking the same thing...

 

[severus]

How exactly would I do that? At the present moment I've been considering saving all the .cdr files to a secondary SATA drive then reinstalling the OS as a 32bit variant so I can hook all the machinery to one PC, if I could bypass the need to do that it would be great. I don't understand why they don't make drivers for legacy hardware, but perhaps the printer itself is incapable of working with 64 bit.|

http://support.epiloglaser.com/article/8205/27365/64-Bit-Drivers-for-older-Epilog-Laser-Systems

 

[tcsenter]

Only supported on Professional, Ultimate, or Enterprise Editions:

Install Windows XP Mode from here
Install Virtual PC (select 64-bit version) from here

Restart then launch XP Mode from within the Virtual PC program group/folder. Best to have at least 4GB RAM on the host PC since you'll probably want to give a good 2GB to XP Mode. It's pretty easy to figure out but you'll have to download a ton of updates/patches for Windows XP. And XP is not exactly secure so maybe not have it connected to the internet all the time or at least behind a good firewall/NAT.