upgrade business to ulimate?

My situation is that i currently have Vista Business that was provided to me
for free through school by the MSDNAA. I would prefer to have Ultimate, and
recently got a new processor, alot more 4gb of ram etc, and Vista Business
wont address all my ram and such. It only shows that I have 3gb of ram. I'm
assuming this is because I have a 32bit operating system. So I want to go up
to Vista Ultimate 64. If I do the Anytime Upgrade to Ultimate 64, will I get
full installation media? Or every time I do a format and reinstall am I
going to have to install business, and then upgrade to Ultimate from there?
Or would I be better off trying to buy Ultimate?

Vista Business will use your 4GB RAM ("Vista sees all the memory, but those
addresses just under 4GB are assigned for OS uses that makes them invisible
to the user"*).

The OS is not 32 or 64 bit, your chip is. If you want to upgrade for other
reasons then do so (not sure about the media etc).

*http://www.sharkyforums.com/showthread.php?t=300067

"David Ferguson" <davidf@blufusion.net> wrote in message
news:12603E3F-1FB9-49C4-9434-C0050F72A117@microsoft.com...
> My situation is that i currently have Vista Business that was provided to
> me
> for free through school by the MSDNAA. I would prefer to have Ultimate,
> and
> recently got a new processor, alot more 4gb of ram etc, and Vista Business
> wont address all my ram and such. It only shows that I have 3gb of ram.
> I'm
> assuming this is because I have a 32bit operating system. So I want to go
> up
> to Vista Ultimate 64. If I do the Anytime Upgrade to Ultimate 64, will I
> get
> full installation media? Or every time I do a format and reinstall am I
> going to have to install business, and then upgrade to Ultimate from
> there?
> Or would I be better off trying to buy Ultimate?

"David Ferguson" <davidf@blufusion.net> wrote in message
news:12603E3F-1FB9-49C4-9434-C0050F72A117@microsoft.com...
> My situation is that i currently have Vista Business that was provided to
> me
> for free through school by the MSDNAA. I would prefer to have Ultimate,
> and
> recently got a new processor, alot more 4gb of ram etc, and Vista Business
> wont address all my ram and such. It only shows that I have 3gb of ram.
> I'm
> assuming this is because I have a 32bit operating system. So I want to go
> up
> to Vista Ultimate 64. If I do the Anytime Upgrade to Ultimate 64, will I
> get
> full installation media? Or every time I do a format and reinstall am I
> going to have to install business, and then upgrade to Ultimate from
> there?
> Or would I be better off trying to buy Ultimate?

You should have had a choice between 32 or 64 bit Vista Business Edition
through MSDN AA. If you selected 32 bit, have you approached your MSDN AA
Administrator about getting the 64 bit version? The RAM issue is caused by
the 32 bit OS, which can *use* all 4 Gig, but reserves the part you cannot
"see" for devices, etc.
FWIW, there are *most certainly* 32 bit and 64 bit operating systems. I'll
assume you have the necessary 64 bit hardware required to support 64 bit
Vista.
As far as "upgrading" your 32 bit Business Edition to 64 bit, that cannot be
done. You'll need a full 64 bit version of whatever edition you wish to
install.
So, your choice. Free MSDN AA 64 bit Business Edition or $$ Ultimate
Edition. The retail Ultimate comes with both 32 and 64 bit media.

Peter [MVP Visual Developer]
MSDN AA Administrator