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

ayush

New Member
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
 

My Computer

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
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
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?
 

My Computer

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. :(
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
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?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Sony Vaio Z46GDU
    CPU
    [email protected] w/6MB L2 cache 1066MHz FSB
    Memory
    6GB DDR3 1066MHz SDRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    9300M GS 256MB + Intel Integrated 4500MHD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    13.1" WXGA True Colour Tough
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900
    Hard Drives
    320GB SATA 7200RPM
    Internet Speed
    1MB/s
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
 

My Computer

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