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I ordered a new computer with 8GB RAM with the plan to run Windows 7, 64Bit. Turns out now, that I need to run a 32Bit OS (XP or 7) due to some software which does not run on 64Bit yet (not even with any of the available compatibility settings / modes).

Is there anything I can do with the memory above 4GB in this scenario? I'm willing to consider creative solutions like running a hypervisor under XP that offers the memory as a RAM-Disk for swapping etc. ?

The software that does not run on 64Bit is CISCO VPN (there seems to be a half-working solution for that) and CISCO IP phone / webcam integration "CISCO Unified Video Advantage" (there is apparently no solution for that).

user12889
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6 Answers6

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I'd recommend going ahead and installing Windows 7 64-bit, and running your Cisco software in a VM.

Edit: I just noticed joeqwerty pointed out that Windows XP Mode might not work very well for VPN software. I'm not familiar enough with Windows XP Mode to know why this would be a problem, but you could still use a different virtualization platform, such as VMware or VirtualBox.

For example, you could use VMware Server to install a 32-bit Windows XP virtual machine, and configure that VM to start up every time your computer boots up. As long as you configure the network adapter as a bridged network adapter, the VPN software should be able to route traffic between the local network and remote hosts, just as it would if it was installed on a physical machine.

rob
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Install Windows 7 x64. Use Shrew to connect to your VPN. Use Windows XP Mode for your communicator software.

ta.speot.is
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If you have the licenses to support it, I highly recommend that you run windows 7 x64 or Linux x64, install virtualbox, and run your 32 bit OS as a guest. Once the software becomes 64 bit compatible you can ditch the guest and just install it on the main host.

If you are dead set on making this work, and you are a badass, you can hexedit the windows 32 bit kernel to enable "physical address extensions". This will allow you to use all of your RAM. Yes, it's that easy.

There is a very detailed guide here at the evga forums.

Hex editing is not hard. The guide looks like it takes 45 mins. Someone also claims you can create a ramdisk with the additional ram and put the page file on it, in effect giving the additional ram use through the paging layer.

MattPark
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Unfortunately neither Windows XP SP2 32-bit nor Windows 7 32-bit support more than 4GB of physical memory. You'll need to switch to non-trivial variants of Windows Server 2003 or 2008 (or something non-Windows) in order to use all physical memory.

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
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You could use the remaining memory as a RAM Disk: http://www.superspeed.com/ramdisk.php

Sathyajith Bhat
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This question was asked before and Microsoft decided that 4GB is enough for 32bit XP:

Is there way to enable more than 4 GB RAM in 32-bit Windows OS?

You could run XP 32bit in a VM, but I don't know if that would be a good solution for you. Although, you can always dual-boot. This way you can get the best of both worlds.

Community
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Natalie Adams
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