How to Upgrade from 32 bit Windows XP to Vista 64 Bit

Ah they said it couldn’t be done.  It is impossible they say.  They lied.  Doing an upgrade from Windows XP 32 Bit to Vista 64 bit, is not straight forward but it is in fact possible.  Why would you want to do something like that?  Well for example if you had a Asus GS1 Laptop which you didn’t like the Vista 32 Bit install on, so you rolled back to XP 32 bit, because XP 64 bit sucks, but then Vista SP2 came out and you decided that it was time to make the move to Vista and wanted to get all of that 4 gigs of RAM.

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So step One in the Upgrade From Windows XP 32 Bit to Vista 64:

Back up your files.

You are about to do something that is not supported, so that you won’t have to reinstall all of your programs doing the clean install.  So take a moment and back things up.

Step Two:  Upgrade from Windows XP 32 to Vista 32

This should be pretty straight forward.  Don’t bother with any of the security or driver updates and don’t put in your license, and uncheck the “Activate Windows when connected to the Internet” check box.  You are only going to be in Vista 32 bit for about an hour. It’s time to get acquainted with hybrid cloud architecture: what is it and why should you care.

Step Three: Running the File and settings Transfer Utility

When you insert your Vista 32 install CD it will offer the option to transfer files and settings to another computer.  Tell it this is your old computer.  Create a transfer file to a removable hard disk or to a network drive.

You might want to at this time check that you can run Vista 64…. With Securable.

Securable - Running Windows 2008 Server as the Ultimate Desktop OS, on my Asus Laptop

Step Four: Clean Install Vista 64

Hope you did step three right because we are about to make your old install go bye-bye.  Doing a Clean install of Vista 64 will get you on the latest, most stable and best performing of the Microsoft OS’s… Unless you want to run 2008 server which is what I have on my Laptop.

Step Five: Running the File and Settings Transfer Utility

Now you are going to re-run the file and settings transfer Utility.  This time you will tell the utility this is your New computer and select the file you created in step 3.

Once this is complete you are done.  You are now running Microsoft Windows Vista 64 bit your upgrade from XP 32 bits is complete and all of your files programs and settings should work as before.

This process takes about 4 hours.