{"id":2590,"date":"2016-02-13T15:00:33","date_gmt":"2016-02-13T23:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/it\/?p=2590"},"modified":"2018-02-28T18:03:17","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T02:03:17","slug":"downgrading-windows-7-to-32bit-from-64bit-can-be-done-fairly-cleanly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/it\/downgrading-windows-7-to-32bit-from-64bit-can-be-done-fairly-cleanly\/","title":{"rendered":"Downgrading Windows 7 to 32bit from 64bit can be done fairly cleanly"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Downgrade

Downgrade 50%<\/p><\/div>\n

Yes, you can downgrade a Windows 7 system<\/a> from 64 bit<\/strong> to 32 bit<\/strong> with only a little bit of inconvenience and cost in time while<\/strong> (contrary to most web advice) you \u00a0get to keep all your documents and folders AND your 32 bit programs and their settings !<\/strong><\/p>\n

Recently I obtained a laptop with Windows 7 (Ultimate) 64bit with only 2 gigabytes of ram memory.<\/p>\n

After a bit of use, the laptop turned annoying to use because it was constantly running out of memory with only a browser running a few Tabs<\/strong>. It didn’t actually crash (permanently lock up or BSOD) that I can recall, but it would regularly slow to a crawl and give warnings to close programs because all memory was used up.<\/p>\n

Since the laptop RAM was full, we couldn’t add any more memory, I decided to downgrade the 64bit system to 32bit to free some RAM memory up.<\/p>\n

Oddly, I could find nothing on the web to tell me how much less memory the 32bit version would use. The best I could find was some articles with vague indications 32bit would use less ram, but nothing quantitative (other than MS<\/strong> which tells you to have 1Gb RAM for a 32 bit<\/strong> install and 2Gb for a 64 bit<\/strong> install), so I was relying in small measure on hope.<\/p>\n

One of the difficulties in measuring memory use is the new and probably better way Windows 7 does memory management<\/a> which now takes into account virtual memory, though how is not yet clear enough for me.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless , after having (mostly) successfully done the downgrade I can now report that —<\/p>\n

It can be done, AND you can keep all your files, documents and folder structure<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Even better, contrary to essentially all pundits’ warnings, you can even keep your 32bit programs and their settings<\/em> without reinstalling<\/strong> (the programs) — IF you have desktop links to the programs and you have backed up the desktop links.<\/p>\n

Your 64bit programs simply won’t work. You will need to get 32bit versions of your 64 bit<\/strong> programs – if they exist.<\/p>\n

A couple of Caveats \/ Cautions:<\/p>\n