Upgrading from XP to XP x64?

[ddrueding]

There are a couple of power users around here that could use more RAM, but they have a ridiculous amount of apps and special configs on their machines. Is there a way to upgrade without losing all the apps? I assume no, since the programs need to move from "Program Files" to "Program Files (x86)", among other things.

Just hoping for something that will save ~20 hours of work.

 

[Mercutio]

You can't even "upgrade" to 64-bit Vista. Basically there's no automatic path anywhere to convert to x64-anything in Windows-land.

I'm having a hard time imagining what any normal desktop user would be doing that would cause them to bump in to the 3GB limit, too.

 

[ddrueding]

You can't even "upgrade" to 64-bit Vista. Basically there's no automatic path anywhere to convert to x64-anything in Windows-land.

I'm having a hard time imagining what any normal desktop user would be doing that would cause them to bump in to the 3GB limit, too.

Not exactly normal desktop user. AutoCAD Civil with the Carlson extensions is pretty hardcore, especially once you start importing topos based on thousands of GPS readings. Each company only has one or two people that are qualified to do this stuff, so they can have a dozen jobs open at once.

 

[sechs]

You can't upgrade because it's not "up." At best, it's sideways, and, in any case, a different platform.

It would be vaguely akin to taking a drive out of a PowerPC Macintosh, sticking it into an Intel Mac, and then expecting to be able to upgrade to the latest MacOS. Although, you might actually be able to do that....

 

[Mercutio]

Once again, the simple joy of being able to re-mount /home on a different *nix variant reminds me of how retarded Windows can be.

 

[Fushigi]

I'm not sure from a licensing perspective, but the Vista Ultimate upgrade package includes both 32 & 64 bit DVDs.