Buying a Latitude E6400, and have a question about operating systems

Some of the latitudes come with windows vista home basic...is this 32 or 64bit? also, some of them come with xp and a license for windows vista business...is THIS 64 or 32?

The reason i ask is because i really want vista 64bit, but my school only sells vista ultimate 32bit for $20. id gladly pay more for the 64bit version but they wont sell it

 

vista basic is only available in 32 bit.

with all other versions of vista, you can use the license key for both 32 and 64 bit versions at no extra cost. (although if you want vista business 64 on a latitude i think dell charges an administration charge of $3, but you dont need to pay this if you can just borrow a disk from a friend and use your key)

so you can just buy vista ultimate from your school, download or borrow a vista disk, and use your license key for it.

its legal. the license key will work for either version.


oh, and you should have posted this in the OS subforum..

 

ah, sorry, i didnt know! Now...where to find a disc for 64 bit windows vista ultimate?

 

you can download it from the microsoft website if im not mistaken.

OEM copies only have one version on them, the retail versions not only have all the versions of vista on them, but also the 32 and 64 bit versions.

so i think downloading frm the MS website mite work. for me, i managed to convince dell to send me both the 32 and 64 bit media

 

what did you tell them? I want the 64-bit version.

 

i like my sales rep, he'll give me whatever he can without any nonsense. if it cant be done he'll tell me straight. so basically i asked him if he can send me the 64 bit media and he said no problem.

he also sent me all the displayport adaptors

 

is there anyway i can get this moved to the OS section so i can get a definite answer? because it's kind of important that i get it. i can just ask them for vista ultimate 64bit as long as i have 32 bit?

 

have you even tried calling up dell and asking for vista 64?

 

For those that do call Dell for the 64-bit version, be ready to jump through their script and be told after running msinfo32 that your processor doesn't support 64-bit because it clearly states on the system type that it's an x86 based pc and not x64 based... ludicrous. I was able to convince the tech that I would take the fall and not call support if it didn't work, so a DVD is on the way. I've read of others having a similar issue with Dell Support telling them their CPU didn't support 64-bit but couldn't believe it when the tech started going down that path.

 

i called MS and they said since my school does volume licensing and not retail, i cant go through the aftermarket upgrade and get the 64bit disc for ultimate. So im not quite sure what to do. crap!

is windows business vista 64 bit the same as windows vista home premium? or will i be stuck with buying another OS? or waiting for windows 7.