Windows 10 - switch from 64-bit to 32-bit
 

Yes, a retrograde step but I need to do it

I have just bought a new Acer Aspire laptop preloaded with Windows 10 64-bit.

I regularly use an old DOS program that runs fine on any 32-bit machine but is very clunky if I have to run it through DOSBox or similar on a 64-bit machine.

Microsoft tells me that I need to reformat the hard drive and load Windows 10 32-bit from a back-up USB dongle that I can make but, since the laptop came with no CDs, I am concerned that I will not have any specific drivers for my machine that also came preloaded.

Is this likely to be a problem, or are the drivers that come with Windows sufficient?

Thank you

Windows 10 64 bit to 32 bit - Microsoft Community.

Thank you, OrangeBlossomBaby

I'm happy with changing my version of Windows; I'm just concerned that, since everything else that came pre-installed (especially the drivers) will be erased when I reformat the hard drive, I don't know where to find these so that I can reinstall them, too.

In the "good old days" you had an operating system disk and a drivers disk, ran them both and all was well. Now we have to find everything on-line and download it, things aren't as straightforward. Plus the companies that sell you the computer don't want to help, but rely on other users to answer any questions!

You didn't say what program you are trying to run but I suspect it was designed for both 32-bit machines running a much older OS than Win-10. Although, reinstalling with Win-10-32 is possible, it will probably cause you other issues down the road with other programs. More and more programs come now only in 64-bit. Plus, if it doesn't work, you still have your problem and you have messed up you new machine.

You might want to look into using some virtualization software such as VirtualBox, which is free. It enables you to run virtual machines on your physical computer. They can be any operating system. So you could build perhaps a win-7 VM image. Start it up, try your program and if it doesn't work, shut it down, delete the VM, and try again with a different OS. All of this does not impact the host computer.

There are probably some pre-built machine images which you could try.

Good luck.

Steve

The first thing I would do is create windows 10 bootable media with the media installation tool
here:Download Windows 10
you can install it on a CD or flash drive.

I would then make sure you're logged into a real microsoft account on that computer. This will allow your windows license to transfer when the computer is re-installed.

I would back up everything that you want to have on the new installation onto something removable.

Go to the MFG website of your device and download the NIC/network driver, put it on something removable.

Pick a 32 bit install during the installation.

Run the installation media, do not blow away the the file structure when you choose where to install it.

You will get a warning that a current installation exists and will be overwritten, accept it and continue. If this part works, all your files will still be there when it's done installing. Your programs will have to be re-installed.

When it is done, log into your microsoft account, it should recognize the hardware and activate your license.

The drivers and everything else will almost certainly install during the installation. If it does not, run the NIC driver you downloaded above. Once the network driver is installed, you can go to the MFG website and pick up any drivers that were missed.

If by chance it will not let you install without re-creating all the drive partitions, you'll have to blow it all away and start from scratch. This happens some times, not sure why. It's why you need to back up anything you wish to keep.

If your license won't activate, hopefully the key is on the device somewhere. Sometimes it is not. Most of the time you can downgrade from 64 to 32 as long as you're in the same class, like home to home or pro to pro. If you try to go from home to pro it won't activate.

Good luck.

Thank you all for your help.

I am going to risk the conversion over the weekend and hope that all of the drivers are commonplace enough to be found automatically on-line.

If I don't report back, you'll know it didn't work :-)

Another idea is to dual boot. Although I agree that testing on a Virtual machine first is easy and the first step is take. One of the issues is, however, that virtualization puts a visualized set of drivers with the install. If your program is DOS,
however, that should make no difference, but it might. It would be very helpful to know the program. By chance, have you tried to use compatibility mode?

Getting drivers should be very easy. USB stick, go to the mfg website and download then...

Back up drivers
 

Backup the existing drive before you start.

Google backup windows 10 drivers and you will see many listing including youtube videos.

Backup and Restore Device Drivers in Windows 10 | Tutorials

But be aware that 32 bit drives are needed and many companies, like printers etc, no longer make 32 bit drives

Dual Boot
 

I agree, dual boot is probably your best option. That way you keep everything that's on your 64 bit partition and can even run 64 bit if you want. You will get a prompt every time you boot asking whether you want 32bit or 64bit.

However, i would try to run the program in 64bit using "compatibility mode". It doesn't always work but many times it does. Contract me if you need help.

I did this Thursday evening. My PC went to blue screen of death. I downloaded to a USB drive from the link MULSA provided and went into the bios and had the PC boot from USB drive. Win10 installed perfectly and most all drivers were there. I went into Device manager and updated the drivers from the PC manufacturers site that were were bad. Only 5 under OTHER DEVICES. I'm on the PC right now that I reinstalled win10 from. GOOD LUCK!

The virtual machine is a lot safer and easier. I’ve messed around like your thinking before and nothing ever good came of it!!

If you want to be safe, buy another hard drive and clone it. If it ever goes bad you can swap drives.

Why not buy a really old PC that still runs for the really old DOS software ??

Or just buy somebody's old laptop to run your program and then if you have to you can transfer the files you need back and forth

You should be able to run most old 32 bit programs in Win32 mode on a 64 bit OS. Right-click the .exe file, or a shortcut to the .exe file, and select Properties. Click the Compatibility tab. Then check Run this program in compatibility mode for and select an appropriate option