upgrade or full edition if I own a 64bit CPU and 32bit XP?

[Guest]

I have a 32-bit edition of Windows XP running on an AMD 64 X2 cpu.

I would like to upgrade to Vista which takes advantage of the multicore
capabilities of my AMD X2 cpu. I would like to continue to have XP on a
partition on my machine. I don not want to do an in-place install over my XP
partition.

My plan was to buy an upgrade edition of vista to save some money but do a
clean install on another partition (on a new disk drive) but from what I've
read here it sounds like the upgrade edition will not allow me to install a
64bit version of Vista (even a clean install) if I'm only running 32-bit
Windows XP because the upgrade setup program must be launched from within XP,
and the 64bit setup launch program will not run if you try to launch it from
within a 32bit version of XP.

There's a lot of noise on this message board because some people are using
the word "upgrade" when to mean "replacing an installed XP partition with
vista" while others are using the word "upgrade" to mean "installing (cleanly
or in place over XP) via the ( cheaper ) upgrade DVD" I'll try to make this
clear so it's really hard to get a noisy answer:

Which of the following are true statements:

1) You cannot do a clean install of windows vista using an upgrade DVD
2) Even if you want to do a clean install of windows vista using an upgrade
DVD you have to run a vista setup program from within XP.
3) There are different vista setup programs for 64-bit and 32-bit versions
of vista
4) There is no way to run the 64-bit vista setup program from within a
32-bit version of XP
5) You cannot keep a version of XP on your disk if you use an upgrade DVD
because the upgrade DVD transfers your licence key to vista, rendering your
XP licence invalid.
6) If you want to install vista and retain your XP partition you need to buy
the full version of vista.
7) To take advantage of multicore cpus you need the 64bit edition of windows
vista

Can someone(either from Microsoft or someone who has done a clean install of
64-bit windows vista using an Upgrade DVD) tell me which of these statements
are true?

 

[Guest]

There is no upgrade path for x64, only clean installs. If you are running
Windows XP x64 you'll need to flatten and rebuild.

 

[Rock]

I have a 32-bit edition of Windows XP running on an AMD 64 X2 cpu.

I would like to upgrade to Vista which takes advantage of the multicore
capabilities of my AMD X2 cpu. I would like to continue to have XP on a
partition on my machine. I don not want to do an in-place install over my
XP
partition.

My plan was to buy an upgrade edition of vista to save some money but do a
clean install on another partition (on a new disk drive) but from what
I've
read here it sounds like the upgrade edition will not allow me to install
a
64bit version of Vista (even a clean install) if I'm only running 32-bit
Windows XP because the upgrade setup program must be launched from within
XP,
and the 64bit setup launch program will not run if you try to launch it
from
within a 32bit version of XP.

There's a lot of noise on this message board because some people are using
the word "upgrade" when to mean "replacing an installed XP partition with
vista" while others are using the word "upgrade" to mean "installing
(cleanly
or in place over XP) via the ( cheaper ) upgrade DVD" I'll try to make
this
clear so it's really hard to get a noisy answer:

Which of the following are true statements:

1) You cannot do a clean install of windows vista using an upgrade DVD

Yes and no. When upgrading from x86 XP to x64 Vista, XP must be installed,
activated and genuine. The upgrade is done by booting the DVD. It checks
to verify a qualifying OS is installed. Then you can/must do a custom
install. There is no in place upgrade option in this situation. You can
partition and format using the tools on the DVD. By the way Vista is
installed as an image, rather than a file by file copy so even in those
situations where the upgrade has to be run from the desktop, the
installation of Vista is still clean because it's laid down as an image.

Upgrading x86 XP to x86 Vista must be done from the x86 desktop.

2) Even if you want to do a clean install of windows vista using an
upgrade
DVD you have to run a vista setup program from within XP.

Not for x86 XP Pro to x64 Vista. Yes for x86 XP (or Win 2k) to x86 Vista

3) There are different vista setup programs for 64-bit and 32-bit versions
of vista

Not sure what you're asking here.

4) There is no way to run the 64-bit vista setup program from within a
32-bit version of XP
No.

5) You cannot keep a version of XP on your disk if you use an upgrade DVD
because the upgrade DVD transfers your licence key to vista, rendering
your
XP licence invalid.

Correct. The license for the qualifying OS is subsumed into the Vista
license when an upgrade edition of Vista is used. It would be at the least
a violation of the license agreement (EULA) to then install that copy of the
qualifying OS while Vista is installed.

6) If you want to install vista and retain your XP partition you need to
buy
the full version of vista.
Correct

7) To take advantage of multicore cpus you need the 64bit edition of
windows
vista

Incorrect. Two cores on a single chip are supported in all Vista versions
(as well as in XP Home and Pro).

Can someone(either from Microsoft or someone who has done a clean install
of
64-bit windows vista using an Upgrade DVD) tell me which of these
statements
are true?

All the above being said, some information has come out recently that you
can, in fact, do a clean install from an upgrade DVD without the legacy OS
being installed. See this link:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5932

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Not true. He can boot with the x64 upgrade edition and Setup will permit a
custom install, replacing his x86 XP with x64 Vista.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

XP supports your dual core processor. If you are not seeing two logical cpu
graphs in Task Manager/Performance then you have the wrong cpu driver
installed.