Upgrade Windows 10 from 32 to 64 bit?

[Frank Madison]

Hi,
I have a 32 bit Windows VM that I've been using for more than five years. It was originally a Windows 7 VM that I upgraded, during the time that Microsoft allowed you to do this for free.
I need to update it to 64 bit Windows, but there doesn't seem to be a way to do this short of reinstalling. I don't know how to do that. The only physical media I have is an old Windows 7 DVD. I don't want to reinstall that and then try to upgrade it.
Is there any other way?

 

[Tony Carreon]

no. you have to do a clean install.
what is requiring you to move from 32 to 64 bit?

 

[Frank Madison]

no. you have to do a clean install.
what is requiring you to move from 32 to 64 bit?

A lot of things. For example, I tried to install Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio this week and found that they haven't made a 32-bit version since 2014.
I also have some .NET web applications that I can't debug in Visual Studio because the server won't launch.

 

[RogerH6]

Well, I'm afraid you are stuck.
You have to do a fresh install.
Look at this:
<https://m.windowscentral.com/how-upgrade-32-bit-64-bit-version-windows-10>

This is free (your license number will work), but a clean install is the only way to do it. As the site tells you, you can download
the media to do this from Microsoft. You don't have to do the checks outlined here, since your machine will be 64bit capable.

You need to backup everything, and then do a clean install. Preferably then re-install the software you are using, since
many packages will have 64bit versions and you will get better performance from these rather than using the 32bit versions.

 

[OlsenH]

If you need to switch from a 32-bit version of Windows to a 64-bit version of Windows or vice versa, you should back up the files and select the full installation of Windows. Then you need to restore the files and reinstall the program. For more information about performing a full installation, see Installing and reinstalling Windows 7.

Notes
To install the 64-bit version of Windows 7 on a computer running the 32-bit version of Windows, you will need to boot the computer using the installation disk or the 64-bit version of Windows 7. You can download new 64-bit version of Windows 7 from Pirate Bay.

If the computer being booted using the installation disc or the files of the 64-bit version of Windows 7 does not support working with this version of Windows, an error message about the Windows boot manager will be displayed. Instead, you will need to use the installation disk or the 32-bit version of Windows 7.

Windows Easy Transfer does not move files from a 64-bit version of Windows to a 32-bit version of Windows. If your computer is running a 64-bit version of Windows Vista, but you plan to install a 32-bit version of Windows 7, you can transfer the files to external media manually or use the backup and restore feature of Windows Vista to do this. For more information, see the Vista articles "href =" http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=179111 "> File Archiving and Restore a backup created in a previous version of Windows on the Windows website. (If you are using a 64-bit version of Windows XP, you will need to manually transfer the files to external media.)