operating system - much confusion!

Skofab said:

Having googled around I have conflicting results to say the laptop will not take a 64 O/S system, whereas other sources say it will..

According to Acer Support the Aspire 5333 was designed for Windows 7 (32 or 64 bit) and can officially be upgraded to Windows 8 (32 or 64 bit). So yes, it can take a 64 bit OS. The requirements for W10 x64 are not that different from W8 x64.

Acer Product support - Aspire 5333

How are you starting the install from the usb? To change from a 32-bit OS to a 64-bit OS you have to do a clean install. Boot from the usb then select Custom install. Delete all existing partitions and install to the unallocated space thus created.

You might also like this article
https://www.howtogeek.com/228042/how...it-windows-10/

I also have a 64-bit capable computer with Windows 10 Pro 32-bit OS that was originally Windows 7.
--- I've been thinking of moving up to 64-bit OS so now that's going onto my official project list.

Windows 8 X64 compatibility usually implies Windows 8.1 X64 compatibility, which I think guarantees Win 10 X64 compatibility.

There are rare exceptions: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2058...windows-8.html

I'm not certain, but I believe that this does not apply to the Celeron P4600 in the Acer.

I don't suppose that you're trying something not allowed, like installing X64 as an upgrade over X86?

Time not wasted, you've demonstrated the need for a blank disk when doing a clean install. The Custom install deleting all existing partitions would almost certainly have worked too. But at least you have conclusively proved that this PC can run W10

Digital Life said:

I don't suppose that you're trying something not allowed, like installing X64 as an upgrade over X86?

This is not true you can upgrade From 32 bit to 64 and not have to get a new license. I have an old (~10 year) Compaq Presario computer that I have switched from 32 bit to 64 and also went back to 32 bit after a while.

No, it is quite true. You cannot upgrade an installed 32-bit OS to 64-bit. You don't need a new licence, the one licence is valid for both 32 and 64, but you DO have to do a clean install each time you want to change the 'bits' of the OS.

Just to be clear, if using a 32 bit OS machine, it is better to use it as so as the computations take less time. Moving to a 64bit machine is yes more reliable but the machine has to use more memory. So if your watching a lot of video the 32bit will be cooler.

Pros
32bit: Video speed, faster computational speed.
64bit: More accurate computations. Stability.

Cons:
32bit: Less accurate and takes more time to give an answer. Less stable,
64bit: Needs more memory

So if you have a 32bit you can easily watch 4k streaming TV with 2 Gigabytes of memory. With 64Bit you may actually need more than 4gigabytes to enjoy 4k streaming.