Vista Alternate Media

StevenBlake

New Member
I bought Vista 32 bit quite a while ago and had it installed on my old PC. I then bought a new PC about a month ago that already had Vista 32 bit installed on it. I've just bought 4Gb of RAM for it and was hoping to upgrade to Vista 64 bit. I came across http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/1033...ia/default.mspx
which seems perfect for me. The only thing is that since i my retail version of Vista 32 bit installed on my old PC, I'm guessing the product key will be tied to my old pc right? Should i phone up the Phone Activation thing and get a new key (and if so will my new key work for the Alternate Media exchange)?

Thanks in advance

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum
 

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Hi Steven,

Welcome to Vista Forums. :party:

Yes, your copy of the retail Vista installed on your old computer will be tied to it, and you will just have to do a phone activation on the new computer with it. There is no need to get a new product key number. This tutorial wil show you how if needed.

How to Activate Vista by Phone Activation


You might have an issue with not being able to install the 64 bit Vista with 4 GB of RAM installed. If you do, just remove 1 GB to have no more than 3 GB of RAM installed. You should be able to install it then without any problems, and add the RAM back when your done.

Shawn
 

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Retail - can be transfered between machines
OEM - Lives and dies on it's original machine
 

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So what if it is retail.. but I still wanna use the old computer that had 32bit.. and when I do the above Alternate Media thing and get sent the 64bit and install it on my new Build will this old 32bit machine still work or will the key only work on one?
Basically if I get the Alternate media and use the 64 for one computer and keep the 32 on the original computer would that work? or would only one work?
 
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Hi all, pc noob here.
I just bought my new Sony Vaio Fw12G with the preloaded Vista home premium a month ago. I have 2GB RAM pre-installed and get another 2GB RAM added on then. The question is,i wish to change the 32bit OS to 64bit OS by ordering the vista alternate media as i need to ultilise all of my 4GB RAM for programming purposes and while entering the product key, the website shown that my keys were invalid. How to fix it? why this would happen?is there any alternative for me beside ordering by internet? How much it cost actually? I had bought this laptop in Malaysia,where is my home country and currently studying in UK. Is it possible the DVD is shipped to UK address instead of Malaysia?

sorry if this is not the right thread,thanks for reply. Have a great day!

best regard,
chang
 

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