Vista 32-bit and 4G RAM Support

[urbanra5cal]

Will (or could) Microsoft release a hotfix or update that would let their 32 bit OS recognize and use 4 physical gigs? Is it even theoretically or mathematically possible for 4 gigs to be used? Are there registry fixes for this?

 

[cprince]

I don't think that Microsoft will release patches that will allow for support of all 4GB on a 32-bit system. That's why they have Vista 64-bit out there. However, Windows Server 2003 32-bit will see 4GB of RAM. I don't know if they will continue this for Server 2008 because they are releasing 32 and 64 bit versions of the OS.

 

[pallejr]

If the hardware support is present (the same requirements when installing 64-bit) then yes.

But they whine and whine and whine about bad drivers in their KBs, so I don't think that will ever happen

 

[lopri]

It is theoretically possible, but not practically. XP SP2 and Vista has a firm limit of 3.25GB regardless of actual address usage of hardware, iirc. Besides, pushing vendors to make compliant drivers under PAE 32-bit Windows would be even harder than pushing them to provide 64-bit drivers.

 

[Nothinman]

Will (or could) Microsoft release a hotfix or update that would let their 32 bit OS recognize and use 4 physical gigs? Is it even theoretically or mathematically possible for 4 gigs to be used? Are there registry fixes for this?

Could yes, will no.

It is theoretically possible, but not practically.

Sure it is, they already have PAE support. Win2K3 Enterprise is built from a similar kernel and supports >4G of memory on 32-bit machines just fine.

XP SP2 and Vista has a firm limit of 3.25GB regardless of actual address usage of hardware, iirc.

No, the limit is 4G but part of those addresses are used by hardware.

Besides, pushing vendors to make compliant drivers under PAE 32-bit Windows would be even harder than pushing them to provide 64-bit drivers.

So the company with 90% marketshare has no power to influence hardware vendors? Right.

 

[error8]

Try this hack. In general it doesn't work, but when it does it might slow your performance, so use it at your own risk. Anyway, if it creates problems you could reset everything very easy.

http://www.thinktechno.com/200...-32-bit-windows-vista/

 

[Nothinman]

That won't do a thing. 32-bit Windows clients are artificially limited to 4G even with PAE enabled. Whoever wrote that article is an idiot, hell the article even links to a MS KB article that says "An x64 (64-bit) version of Windows Vista must be used." as a requirement for the workaround.