32 or 64 bit Vista upgrade for a Pentium D

Actually, according to intel.com some of the Pentium D processors are 64bit enabled processors. To find out whether or not your processor can support 64bits, go to: http://www.intel.com/products/processor/

Because there are many different variations of the Intel Pentium D Processor, you'll need to know the exact model of your processor. The best place to do that is by right clicking on my computer on your desktop and select properties. Windows should tell you the exact model of your processor. For Example, I my windows shows that I have the Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 Processor (the T7200 being the exact model of the core 2 duo processor that I have).

Hope this helps.
Daniel

Thanks. From what I can figure out, I have 2 processors, but a slightly earlier generation (Pentium D vs the later Core 2) which enables the processors to efficiently split tasks and perform well when multitasking, but they do not operate as one. Therefore I shouldn't load the 64 bit Vista.

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@msblue0716 wrote:

I also have a Dimension 9100 with a Pentium D and I tried to check if my processor is duo core, when I checked in the Device Manager, it had my processor listed twice, what does this mean? when I checked the Intel website, it said that my processor is Dual-core, and it is a multi core processor, does this mean that I can run the 64-bit edition of Windows Vista?

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Your processor is dual core, however that does not mean that you can run 64bit Vista.Whether or not your processor is dual core has no bearing whatsoever as to whether or not your processor can handle 64 bit processing. Your processor must be specifically built to handle 64 bit processing in order to run windows vista, plus your BIOS must be able to handle 64 bit processing. The latest BIOS for your system, which can be downloaded from the Drivers and Downloads section of the dell support website, should have 64 bit processing enabled (you'll need to update the bios if you want to run vista on it). The best place to check to see if your processor can handle 64 bit processing you should go to the dell website I listed in my post above and if the website says your processor can handle something like Intel EM64t or something just like Intel 64 bit with a check mark in the row corresponding to your processor, you can run windows vista. One more thing. According to microsoft's website, you CAN NOT do an upgrade installation of Windows Vista 64 Bit from Windows XP. You MUST do it as a clean installation (VISTA should run smoother that way anyway). You do this by putting the dvd into your computer and booting to the dvd, not the operating system. Note that only the Vista 64 bit Installation allows you to do this, so if you choose to install the 32 bit version of vista you must boot into Windows XP before trying to install vista. Hope this helps. Daniel

I installed the 32 bit version of Vista. Everything seems ok. I installed a "dual core cpu meter" as a gadget. Both cores are recognized by the meter and both register cpu use. So I am officially in the Vista business using both 32 bit cores. Although not 64 bit. Thanks for all your help

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@JohnW43 wrote:
I installed the 32 bit version of Vista. Everything seems ok. I installed a "dual core cpu meter" as a gadget. Both cores are recognized by the meter and both register cpu use. So I am officially in the Vista business using both 32 bit cores. Although not 64 bit. Thanks for all your help

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Congratulations. I am glad to hear that everything worked for you. I'll be taking my laptop up to Vista 64 bit myself in a few weeks (just as soon as I can get more memory from dell).