Will Windows 7 work[ well] on a 32 bit computer?

Parent Cafe
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<p>We have a 5 yr old PC that hubby wants to install Windows 7 on. the Windows 7 discs says is 64 bit</p>

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<p>It all depends on how patient you are. A 5 year old PC is probably about as fast as today’s netbooks… With less memory and such. </p>

<p>If the 5 year old was a prodigy system with what was then a dual core or super-fast single core, has a gigabyte of memory and a hundred gigs of empty disk, maybe. I ran Win7 quite well on a 5 year old dual core Intel D930 system (2x 3.0 GHZ). If we’re talking some e-machines AMD 1.7Ghz single core with similar antique hardware and 256mb RAM, then no…</p>

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<p>Agree with Turbo93. I was thinking upgrade to Win7 also, since my circa 2004 P4 has adequate speed and memory. If you’re lacking in those areas, your money may be better spent on a new machine with Win7 already installed. You might be able to snag a new major brand PC with all the bells and whistles for about $400. For example, several retailers offer the low-end Toshiba Satellite laptop series in that range. The performance and customer service from Toshiba is anything but low-end.</p>

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<p>Win 7 64bit will not support some older programs that runs on 32 bit OS like XP. Even if your hardware config is fast enough, you may not have all the programs ported to the new system.</p>

<p>I actually downgrade my OS to Win XP for that reason. But its a pain to find those drivers for the new hardwares for XP now. :)</p>

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<p>Unless its some sort of extreme pc with loads of gig/ram/and has an epic processer, then no :(</p>

<p>Better yet, save the money from W7 and put it towards a new computer with it.</p>

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<p>Windows7 64 bit will not work on a 32 bit machine, so if your old machine is 32 bit (likely) that is a non starter. More importantly, as others have pointed out, unless the machine in question was near the top of the curve 5 years ago, it is unlikely it will run Windows 7 well. I would recommend a minimum of 1 gig of ram with 7, and even that will probably make it slow (I would recommend as much ram as possible, these days relatively cheap machines come with 8 gig and it isn’t that expensive).</p>