From 7 Home Premium to 10 Pro

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1. I have a retail Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade DVD with a license to upgrade 3 PC’s (so-called Family Pack bought in 2010). (even though it’s an upgrade DVD, it still allowed a clean install with the double install method, both 32bit and 64bit versions)

2. I recently bought a new portable PC (without OS) with 32 GB RAM. But the Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit I temporarily installed can address at most 16 GB.

3. I assume that to upgrade and address all 32 GB RAM, I’ll need Windows 10 PRO 64bit.

4. But I’m afraid that, in my case, that upgrade from 7 Home to 10 PRO version will NOT be free. I will have to buy a retail Win10 Pro Upgrade disk to again do a clean 64bit install with the double install method.

5. Is my paragraph 4 correct? :confused:

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Depending upon what MS will be charging for Win 10 Pro, it could be cheaper to upgrade to Win 7 Pro and then you will get the free upgrade to Win 10 Pro, but you are correct in that you will not be able to go from 7 Home Premium to 10 Pro without incurring some charge.

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The first question is, how much memory Windows 10 Home can access. I have been looking online, and Microsoft says Windows 8 can access 128GB of memory, and Windows 8 Professional and Enterprise can access 512GB.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778%28v=vs.85%29.aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_8

I poked around the Microsoft sites, and didn’t find a spec for Windows 10, but a couple of non-Microsoft sites said it will be the same as Windows 8. I certainly wouldn’t expect it to be less.

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It is very unusual for a retail PC to have that much RAM. Are you sure that the machine has 32GB of RAM and not a 32GB SSD?

Joe

--Joe

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It is very unusual for a retail PC to have that much RAM. Are you sure that the machine has 32GB of RAM and not a 32GB SSD?

Joe

With 30 years DIY hard- and software experience, I know better than that. Still, one can appreciate and applaud your concern. Thank you.

Actually my portable has 16 GB RAM at present, but with two slots still free, I plan to add another 16 GB, before or maybe after transiting to Win 10 Pro, but certainly this summer.

40950-WEI

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2. I recently bought a new portable PC (without OS) with 32 GB RAM. But the Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit I temporarily installed can address at most 16 GB.

What exactly is a “portable PC”?
All in one PC, MicroATX motherboard PC, Laptop?

check your motherboard specs. If says it can support 32GB, then it should very well support 32GB RAM,
if so, you may have an issue with one or more of your RAM modules.
If not, then you’ve got 16GB more than you can actually use irregardless of 64 bit OS version.

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What exactly is a “portable PC”?
All in one PC, MicroATX motherboard PC, Laptop?

It’s actually sold as a notebook or laptop or what-have-you.

BUT … It now has several external devices permanently connected to it:

1 eSATA 1TB Lacie HDD
2 USB 2.0 1TB Lacie HDD
1 USB 2.0 400MB Maxtor HDD
1 USB 3.0 2TB Lacie HDD
1 USB 2.0 256MB stick
1 USB 2.0 smart card reader
1 USB 2.0 DVD player/burner
1 USB 2.0 flatbed scanner
1 USB 2.0 Logitech mouse transceiver
1 USB 2.0 inkjet printer
1 USB 2.0 cable ready for a Tomtom GPS navigator
1 USB 2.0 cable ready for a Garmin GPS navigator
(with 4 powered USB 3.0 hubs)
1 transceiver for a wireless headphone
1 ethernet cable for internet connection

One can hardly call this a notebook. It’s a home office system.

Disconnected from all externals, the machine becomes portable, but still no laptop because its cooling air intake is on the underside.

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Have you used Crucial’s Scanner to determine the max memory the motherboard and slots can support. http://eu.crucial.com/eur/en

Both my Toshiba laptops have their air intake on the underside.

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It’s probably a SFF PC (small form factor), based around a mATX (micro-ATX) motherboard.
Depending upon how old it is, it may not support a full 32GB RAM, newer ones of enthusiast grade probably do though quite easily.

Check RAM type; DDR2 vs DDR3, DDR4, speed at which it’s running, individual RAM module size, and
how many RAM slots are on the motherboard. CPUID will likely have a tool for this on their website.

1. Get the make and modle number of the motherboard and search for a whitesheet or manufacturer’s spec.
It’ll tell you whether it supports 32GB or not. I can’t imagine anyone being overzelous enough to install
considerably more RAM than the machine can actually use.

2. To find out what you have installed, boot down to BIOS or EUFI and check.
Either that or you can physically open op the case and check too.

After all is said and done, exersize your warranty, if any.

You can also remove ALL memory and test by replacing one at a time.
To be thorough; Remove all memory, replace with one module, boot to BIOS and look for recognition, then remove
and repeat for all. The one you can’t boot with will be the bad module.

If all is good, and you still can’t get 100% recognition, and your motherboard is newer and supports a full 32GB , look for a EUFI/BIOS update.

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See What are the editions of Windows 10 available? for many details about Windows 10 in one place.

Joe

--Joe

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See ”What are the editions of Windows 10 available?” for many details about Windows 10 in one place.
Joe

I made a wrong assumption. The Microsoft Community article What are the editions of Windows 10 available? states that Windows 10 Home 64 bit can address up to 128 GB RAM. (Thanks Joe)

How much RAM does each edition of Windows 10 support?

Windows 10 Home 32 bit 4 GBs
Windows 10 Home 64 bit 128 GBs
Windows 10 Pro 32 bit 4 GBs
Windows 10 Pro 64 bit 512 GBs

As I’m not in a tearing hurry, I’ll delay my upgrade until a Windows 10 Home ISO, or equivalent, is actually available and not just predicted/announced.

Thank you, guys, for your thoughts and remarks.

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What the OS can support is not relevant, it’s your hardware that’ll be the primary determining factor.

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What the OS can support is not relevant, it’s your hardware that’ll be the primary determining factor.

That’s why I advised running Crucial’s scanner in Post #10.

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