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Will my 64bit activation key work for 32bit Vista?
  1. 21 Sep 2009 #1


    ayush

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    Vista Home Premium 64bit
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    Will my 64bit activation key work for 32bit Vista?

    I bought a HP Pavilion Laptop which came with Vista Home Premium 64bit installed on it. There are however a number of 16-bit DOS applications that I need to run for college work.
    I tried using DOSBox but it seems that the HP Pavilion laptop keypad isn't compatible. I can't even get my C drive to mount because there's no key that prints the ':' character.
    So I guess the only option is to install 32 bit vista. A friend of mine has a 32 bit vista installation. If I install a copy using his activation key and then later (after installation)change it to my 64bit key, will it work?



    Thanks in advance

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  2. 21 Sep 2009 #2
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    Brink

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    Re: Will my 64bit activation key work for 32bit Vista?

    Hello Ayush, and welcome to Vista Forums.

    As long as you are installing your same Vista Home Premium edition, you can use your 64-bit product key number during the installation of the 32-bit Vista instead. 32-bit and 64-bit Vista key numbers are the same. You just have to use the same key number with the same original edition (ex: Ultimate, Home Premium) of Vista instead.

    Hope this helps,
    Shawn

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  3. 21 Sep 2009 #3


    ayush

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    Re: Will my 64bit activation key work for 32bit Vista?

    Thanks Shawn.

    On the back of my laptop, it says :
    <B>Windows Vista Home Premium OEMAct</B> and then the activation key is printed.
    What does 'OEMAct' mean?

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  4. 21 Sep 2009 #4
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    Brink

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    Re: Will my 64bit activation key work for 32bit Vista?

    Sorry Ayush,

    Since you have a OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) copy, you must contact HP to get a 32-bit OEM Vista replacement instead for your computer model.

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  5. 21 Sep 2009 #5


    Frostmourne

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    Re: Will my 64bit activation key work for 32bit Vista?

    Quote Originally Posted by ayush View Post
    I bought a HP Pavilion Laptop which came with Vista Home Premium 64bit installed on it. There are however a number of 16-bit DOS applications that I need to run for college work.
    I tried using DOSBox but it seems that the HP Pavilion laptop keypad isn't compatible. I can't even get my C drive to mount because there's no key that prints the ':' character.
    So I guess the only option is to install 32 bit vista. A friend of mine has a 32 bit vista installation. If I install a copy using his activation key and then later (after installation)change it to my 64bit key, will it work?

    Thanks in advance
    Why doesn't Dosbox work on 64-bit? It works fine on my laptop. What is wrong with the keypad?

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  6. 01 Dec 2009 #6


    CCamando

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    Re: Will my 64bit activation key work for 32bit Vista?

    Vista is nasty as far as backwards compatibility my advice is to check into Virtual operating systems the best free software I have found is from Sun Microsystems however I know Microsoft makes a free one but I dont have the experience with that software to vouch for it. To use these you must have copy's of the OS's I also recommend getting Power ISO.

    Virtual Box
    Download VirtualBox | Register for VirtualBox resources | Free VirtualBox & Open Source VirtualBox

    Power ISO
    PowerISO - Create, Edit, Compress, Encrypt, Split, Mount, Extract ISO file, ISO/BIN converter, Virtual Drive

    Microsoft VM (I haven't tryed it)
    Windows Virtual PC: Home Page

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