How to safely Update to Windows 64 bit

[WackySpace]

You see my father's pc has a 64 bit cpu, he used to have windows 7 and everything ran fast enough for a 2gb ram system, however when Windows 10 came out he did the update, and only recently realised it somehow updated to a 32 bit version of Windows 10, and he has been complaining the computer ran much slower, often having to wait for things to load. Does the system not utilise its resources properly with the 32 bit Windows?

 

I want to know if there's a way to update to 64 bit without having to do a clean install and if not any way to backup some programs, he uses an old email system he kept from windows 7, Windows live mail 2013 I think, or will I just have to do a normal backup to an external and then clean install? I'm hoping to fix it and speed up his computer again.

[Applefreak]

2 minutes ago, WackySpace said:

You see my father's pc has a 64 bit cpu, he used to have windows 7 and everything ran fast enough for a 2gb ram system, however when Windows 10 came out he did the update, and only recently realised it somehow updated to a 32 bit version of Windows 10, and he has been complaining the computer ran much slower, often having to wait for things to load. Does the system not utilise its resources properly with the 32 bit Windows?

 

I want to know if there's a way to update to 64 bit without having to do a clean install and if not any way to backup some programs, he uses an old email system he kept from windows 7, Windows live mail 2013 I think, or will I just have to do a normal backup to an external and then clean install? I'm hoping to fix it and speed up his computer again.

There is no safe way of switching between Windows 32 and 64. You will have to backup and reinstall the OS. Keep in mind though, that Windows 10 does eat more ram, 64 even more. Something you can try is to disable background tasks in Windows. That should free up some RAM but in the end 2 GB is barely enough. The problem is not with Windows but the applications you run on it. Modern browsers have become very memory intensive applications. I am guessing that machine used to be quite fast when it was new, that's because applications used way less resources. Is there a chance of upgrading that computer? Can you post the system specs?

[LiamApex]

No, he would have to reinstall to go to a 64bit system, however the slowness of the system is likely to do with the storage, if its a 32bit system I'm gonna go out on a limb and say its a HDD? and likely an old one at that. an SSD & a clean install of windows 10 would be the best bet. & a ram upgrade if still running 2!

[Pasi123]

What are the specs of his PC? I highly doubt 64-bit Windows would make it any faster, it would probably get slower because of higher memory usage compared to 32-bit.

It sounds like it might have a hard drive as the boot drive. Windows 8.1 was the last one that ran decently without an SSD. Depending on the test of the specs I'd recommend getting an SSD and more RAM.

Going from 32-bit to 64-bit requires a reinstall.

[Needfuldoer]

The Windows 7 to 10 upgrade would've installed the same build that was already in place, x86 or x64. He must have been running 32-bit Windows 7.

 

I recommend getting a new SATA SSD and doing a clean install on that.

[WackySpace]

1 hour ago, Applefreak said:

There is no safe way of switching between Windows 32 and 64. You will have to backup and reinstall the OS. Keep in mind though, that Windows 10 does eat more ram, 64 even more. Something you can try is to disable background tasks in Windows. That should free up some RAM but in the end 2 GB is barely enough. The problem is not with Windows but the applications you run on it. Modern browsers have become very memory intensive applications. I am guessing that machine used to be quite fast when it was new, that's because applications used way less resources. Is there a chance of upgrading that computer? Can you post the system specs?

I'm not sure what it has, but I opened it once to see if he could use some of my spare RAM, but it is a slower 1066mhz so it wasn't compatible. It also has a 2.6 ghz cpu dual core. 2gb RAM, though not all is usable. 500gb hdd.

[Kilrah]

2GB RAM is very much insufficient for 10, and 64bit would be even worse. 

The advantage of 64bit is being able to use 4GB and more of RAM, but unless that was upgraded it'd be even worse. And no can't be changed without a clean install. 

[WackySpace]

Another reason is that he likes an old game called Empire Earth, but this version only works on 64 bit of  windows, I tested on my pc and it works fine but it refuses to open on his. Thanks for the advice, but he is not very knowledgable about computers and hates change as it might 'break' the computer, so it would be hard to convince him.

[BlackDragon1971]

On 1/16/2023 at 10:18 AM, WackySpace said:

I'm not sure what it has, but I opened it once to see if he could use some of my spare RAM, but it is a slower 1066mhz so it wasn't compatible. It also has a 2.6 ghz cpu dual core. 2gb RAM, though not all is usable. 500gb hdd.

So likely the system is running an Intel Core 2 Dou based CPU (if not a budget Celeron = worse)...You'll need about 8 GB of RAM to run Windows 10 x64 Well ish... and the HDD will need swapped for a SATA SSD... which this system you've described, is likely running on SATA II... not SATA III.... (We're on m.2 NVMe drives now)

 

Go to Canada Computers, Newegg, Microcenter, eBay... anywhere and buy some new parts... all the parts