Vista - Vista Home Premium Clean install - what do I need to install 64 bit version?

I would like to install Vista Home Premium 64-bit on my home computer. I currently have Media Center Edition 2005 installed, but want to start from scratch (i.e., NOT upgrade) and install the 64-bit version of Vista Home Premium. I have two questions:

(1) If I buy the retail boxed version of Vista Home Premium, will it contain the 64-bit version in addition to the 32-bit version?

(2) When I pop the DVD into my computer and reboot, what (if anything) do I have to do to get it to install the 64-bit version? Will I be prompted to choose?

Any guidance or experiences would be greatly appreciated!

-ABD-

Oh great. I can answer this question (I think lol). I could not find a retail 64 bit version of Vista Home Premium. I had to buy the Vista Ultimate. I originally bought an OEM version of the 64 bit Home premium for $119, (I had all kinds of problems that turned out NOT to be from Vista, but that is another story). I exchanged it for the Ultimate retail version which came with Microsoft support. I have recieved better "support' from this website than the official MS support BTW. Anyways........

The Ultimate version of Vista came with 2 installation discs, one the 32 bit version and one the 64 bit version. I popped the 64 bit version disc in and it installed 64 bit Vista on my computer with no additional prompts. While I was unable to find the 64 bit RETAIL version of Home Premium, I'm sure that if you do, it will only contain the 64 bit version on the disc. While I was kind of hacked off to pay much more for the Ultimate than I was anticipating, I like the additional features. Hope this helps.

Hi ADB,

Welcome to Vista Forums.

The retail box of Vista Home Premium will only contain the 32 bit version of it, but you can order the 64 bit version DVD of it from Microsoft for just the $9.99 S&H fee. You will use the same product key number from your 32 bit version for the 64 bit one. However, you can only have one version installed at a time on any computer, not both at the same.

You can order the 64 bit DVD from here:

Windows Vista Alternate Media

Hope this helps you,
Shawn

Hi ABD,

In addition to Shawn's post, you will need to ensure that your system can indeed run a 64-bit operating system, and that you can obtain the relevant drivers for it. Not all hardware has 64-bit driver support, but the situation is improving.
Dwarf