How to upgrade 32-bit Windows 10 to 64-bit

How to upgrade Windows 10 32 bit to 64 bit

Today we see how to upgrade a 32-bit Windows 10 installation to 64-Bit. For the past many years, computer and smartphone manufacturers have been gradually shifting their products to 64-bit architecture. This includes computers, smartphones, and even operating systems like Windows.

There are numerous reasons for this including better multitasking performance. So, if you have a PC with a 64-bit processor, you might be wondering about the process by which you can upgrade your Windows 10 32-bit to 64-bit.

The process is not that difficult and you can upgrade without having to purchase a new license. However, you need to keep in mind that this will be a clean install. It means that it will delete the old setup and install a new one. So, you might want to backup your data before you begin.

Please keep in mind that these steps won’t work if you want to upgrade Windows 7 32-bit to Windows 10 64-bit.

Table of Contents

  1. How to upgrade Windows 10 32 bit to 64 bit
    1. Creating the installation media
    2. How To Install Windows 10 64 bit
  2. Wrap Up

How to upgrade Windows 10 32 bit to 64 bit

There are two stages for doing this upgrade. The first involves creating an installation media and the second one is where you actually install the 64-bit version. Let’s start with the first one.

Creating the installation media

In this step, you will need to create a USB bootable media by using the Media Creation Tool. To do this, you have to connect an empty USB flash drive to your computer. Make sure it has at least 4 GB of free space. Then, follow the below steps:

  • Go to Microsoft’s website where you can download the media creation tool;
  • You’ll see the heading “Create Windows 10 installation media”. Under it, there’s a button labeled “Download tool now”. Click it. It will get downloaded to your PC;
  • Locate the file on your computer and double-click it to launch the tool;
  • Click on “Accept” to agree with the terms;
  • Then, select the second option as shown below and then click “Next”;
  • The next window will appear, uncheck the “Use the recommended options for this PC”. Also, make sure the language is right, the edition is “Windows 10”, and the architecture selected is “64-bit (x64)”. Then click the “Next” button;
  • Select the first option: “USB flash drive” and click “Next”;
  • Select your USB flash drive and click “Next”;
  • After the tool is done creating bootable media on your flash drive, click on “Finish”.

This concludes the first part. Now, let’s take a look at the steps involved in the second one.

How To Install Windows 10 64 bit

In this stage, you need to first figure out how to access the “Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) or Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) firmware”.

Typically this requires the pressing of specific keyboard buttons as soon as you turn on your computer. These buttons can be F1, F2, F3, F10, F12, ESC, or Delete.

It depends on the manufacturer of your computer and also the specific model. So, you’ll have to do some Google search or visit your manufacturer’s website for more details.

You can also apply the “hit and trial” method and see which of the buttons work during startup. Once you have figured it out, you can follow the below steps:

  • Turn on your computer and immediately press the right keyboard button to enter BIOS or UEFI;
  • In the interface, find the “Boot” menu so that you can start the boot order from the USB flash drive. Save the changes;
  • Restart your computer with the flash drive connected and this time, it should start from the flash drive instead of the usual process;
  • You will see a window titled “Windows Setup”. Just make sure the language selected is correct and hit “Next”;
  • On the next window, click “Install”;
  • Next, click on the “I don’t have a product key” and then on “Next”;
  • Select the edition of Windows 10 you want to install. This has to match your current 32-bit version. Then click “Next”;
  • In the following window, click on the “I accept the license terms” option and then click “Next”;
  • Click the second option titled “Custom: Install Windows only (Advanced)”;
  • Now, select the partition where your current Windows 10 is installed (this is usually “Drive 0”). Then, click the “Delete” button to remove the partition from the hard drive. This will create an empty drive called “Drive 0 Unallocated Space”;
  • Select this unallocated space and click Next.

After this process, the setup wizard will install the new, 64-bit version on your computer. Depending on your system, it can take quite some time. After that, you will be taken to the same basic initial computer set-up when you first bought the computer.

Wrap Up

64-bit architecture brings a lot of advantages. We hope this article was useful, giving you a fair understanding of how to upgrade Windows 10 from 32-bit to 64-bit.

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