The following question was submitted by our friends at Alexander Metals, Inc:

“I am looking at a laptop that has a 64 bit CPU, do you have to run a 64 bit OS?  [The laptop] comes w/ XP and I have Vista Ultimate I want to put on it.”

The short answer to this question is that yes, you can run a 32 bit operating system (and software) on a 64 bit PC.  Confusion comes in to play when trying to determine if an older, 32 bit system will run a 64 bit operating system.

As you can probably guess, there is a sizable performance difference between 32 bit Windows and 64 bit Windows, which is why a lot of power users eye the 64 bit grail when purchasing new systems and upgrades.  If you would like to breathe new life into your existing system with a Windows Vista 64 bit upgrade, you would have to insure that your hardware is up to the task.

Outside of consulting your system manuals to verify your hardware’s capabilities, you can easily check your system’s ability to run Vista 64 bit in Windows Vista by following these instructions:

1. Open Performance Information and Tools by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Performance Information and Tools.
2. Click View and print details.
3. In the System section, you can see what type of operating system you’re currently running under System type, and, under 64-bit capable, whether you can run a 64-bit version of Windows. (If your computer is already running a 64-bit version of Windows, you won’t see the 64-bit capable listing.)

In closing, we have two final pieces of advice when considering the switch from 32 bit Windows to 64 bit:

1. Make sure that there are 64 bit drivers available for your hardware.  We’d hate for you to waste an entire day performing this upgrade and have it fall flat because there is no network driver available for you to load.
2. Insure that your programs will run in a 64 bit operating system.  A lot of progress has been made over the past couple years in getting programs “up to speed” with the 64 bit movement, but if your business runs an older piece of software that it can’t live without, a 64 bit upgrade may not be for you.

For more information on the topic, Microsoft has a FAQ available.