I'm planning to upgrade a Win 7 32 Bit OS (Retail) with the free upgrade offer (at some point when the dust settles).
Can I then legally do a clean install of Win 10 64 Bit "over the top" of the Win 10 32 Bit upgrade OS ?
My hardware is older, Legacy BIOS only, so i don't have a BIOS key (if this matters).
In the tos I believe it's stated that you can only have one installed at a time, either 32 or 64 bit.
I don't believe the question is to have them installed at the same time but rather replace a 32 bit install with a 64 bit install by doing a clean install after doing the free upgrade with the current 32 bit version.
i.e, the OP currently has a 32 bit version installed so therefore would like to do the free upgrade of the current 32 bit install and once upgraded and activated do a clean install (which is possible) however the question is when doing a clean install will it allow a clean install of 64 bit if the machine was upgraded while a 32 bit version was installed....
Unfortunately i don't know the answer but thought i would try to clarify the question
Yes it's legal. I think Microsoft has a post about how to change from 32-bit to 64-bit on their forums.
Here what TechNet answers:
If you want to move from a 32-bit version of Windows to a 64-bit version of Windows, you'll need to back up your files and then perform a Custom installation of the 64-bit version of Windows. For more information, see Installing and reinstalling Windows.
Also Clean Install is legal.
Cluster Head
The license for Windows is not tied to the architecture (32bit, 64bit) you can install either one. You can only have one active at a time however. Remember, when you bought a retail version of Windows it came with both versions 32bit and 64bit the license worked for either one.
An interesting question.
If you install 10 as an upgrade over 7 once and activate it, you can then do a clean 10 install. (No key is necessary, or provided.) If you do the clean install on the same hardware, it'll activate.
If you did the upgrade install with a 32 bit copy, and then tried a clean 64 bit install, would it activate?
I have no idea. I believe that in previous versions of Windows that required activation (XP, Vista, 7, 8), the same key could be used with either 32 or 64 bit versions. No key is used here; I wonder whether MS has set up their activation servers to permit a switch between 32 and 64 bit OSes.
Anyone care to try the experiment? (Not me.)
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