Help with Dual boot Vista Ultimate 64bit & 32 bit

Patferr

Member
I have an HP laptop with two 200GB HD. It came with Vista Ultimate 64bit edition. I am not happy with this version because I can't find many applications that will operate with this version. It is very frustrating. Adobe flash doesn't work, even Windows Home Server connector software won't work with it, and you would think they would allow it to work with their own da^* software, but nope.
So, I have decided to try to try to install a 32bit version of Vista Ultimate onto my D:\ drive. Will this cause any foreseeable problems that I need to think about before I do this? I have backed up both drives just in case, and I can actually blow away both drives and start fresh if I have to, but I dont want to. I just want to be able to boot to both versions because my laptop does have have an HD DVD drive that only works with the 64bit version, and I have quite a few movies that I can still watch on it if I want to. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks:brows::brows::brows::brows:

Patrick
 
Hi Patrick, welcome to NST.
I have Vista 64 bit Home (which doesn't have all the Ultimate stuff but is a subset of it), and I can assure you that Adobe Flash works fine with it.
I know there can be a problem if you have an earlier Flash, getting the appropriate level to update properly. The best thing to do (which I think is advised on the Adobe site), is to uninstall Flash completely, and use something like the free Revo Uninstaller to clean out any residue, then install Flash directly from the Adobe site as a clean new install, and it should work fine.
As to Dual-booting the 2 Vistas, it should be a piece of cake.
Just run setup from the V64 system and tell it to install V32 to a new empty partition on your other disk and it should do the whole dual boot automatically, adding an entry for your new system to the existing BCD. (see this guide if you want to know how it all works)
Luckily you're doing it the right way round. It's not so easy to install 64 from an existing 32 because the 64 bit setup won't run from within the old system.
 
Hi Patrick, welcome to NST.
I have Vista 64 bit Home (which doesn't have all the Ultimate stuff but is a subset of it), and I can assure you that Adobe Flash works fine with it.
I know there can be a problem if you have an earlier Flash, getting the appropriate level to update properly. The best thing to do (which I think is advised on the Adobe site), is to uninstall Flash completely, and use something like the free Revo Uninstaller to clean out any residue, then install Flash directly from the Adobe site as a clean new install, and it should work fine.

Terry,
Thanks for the reply. I didn't really investigate the Adobe website that closely. I just know that when I clicked to install the Flash application, it told me that it was not supported on that version of Windows. I will have to check it out and try to find it. Thanks for the info. Also, thanks for the info on the Dual Boot. I will bite the bullet on that as well and go for it

One more thing. You didn't mention it, but does ANYBODY (maybe not you) know why Microsoft doesn't support Windows Home Server with my 64bit Vista. It's baffling to me.

Thanks again Terry
:grinning::grinning::grinning::grinning:
 
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It is because 64 Bit is still not the normal. 32 Bit is. 32 Bit is still the most commonly used OS out there. Vista 64 Bit is growing but still has a fraction of the amount of users compared to Vista 32 Bit.

Until more developers start to accept 64 Bit you wont see much more wide support for it. I am sure that Microsoft has a fix out there that will allow support. Have you bothered to try and contact them?

Do you have all the updates for Home Server? Power Pack 1 supplied 64 Bit support.

Ed Botts Microsoft Report mobile edition

That was released back in Jan 08. Sorry to say but you are running a unpatched Home Server. Get the updated and it will be supported just fine.
 
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