Upgrading from 32 to 64 Bit Windows 7, without losing program installations/games

Question

I recently built a new computer and put the wrong installation of Windows on (32 bit), meaning I cannot use all of my RAM. I would like to upgrade to the 64 bit version, though I already have downloaded many programs and games which would total to around 30 GB give or take. I don't have the kind of data usage with my ISP to re-download this much data again, until next month (total GB will be higher as time goes on).

I know there is Windows Easy Transfer, but it is not so much my data itself I'm worried about, it is more having to re-download and install a bunch of games and applications. Is it possible to perform an upgrade from 32 bit to 64 bit without this loss?

Solution

Is it possible to perform an upgrade from 32 bit to 64 bit without this loss?

No. You can not upgrade from windows 7 32 bit to windows 7 64 bit.
You will need to reinstall the whole OS.

However you do not need to wipe all the old data. Move the downloaded installers (or the steamapps folder) to another drive (e.g. to D: or to an external drive), then reinstall windows on C: and reinstall the games from the previously downloaded files.

Comments

[100rabh]

`%appdata% folder is another folder you can keep a backup of and transfer over once reinstall is done