32-bit + 64-bit

[Pat Hartman]

One of my clients has decided to switch to 64-bit. I'm still using 32-bit. There is no problem with the app except for my lack of ability to create an .accde that runs under 64-bit Office so I need to do something. I no longer have a spare computer to keep the two versions of Office separate so they will need to live on the same PC.

I think creating a VM is probably the best solution but all the links seem to assume I know something I don't know, like where do I get the OS? Where do I get the VM? Can anyone give me a short task list with how to do this including what I have to buy and what is free*. Please include links to the place where I get the VM and the place where I get the OS. I'm assuming these aren't free, which is fine.

* I've been thinking about getting a new desktop so that could just solve the problem but I'm trying to downsize my office also and I'd rather just retire the old PC. It is 7.5 years old and has had a good run. Sadly, I will probably need to go to Win 11. From my experiences working with a client PC, I hate it but unless I can figure out how to make it work like Win 10, I will eventually get it to work.

Question 2 - Should I upgrade to Win 11 pro? Does that have any advantage if I am going with a VM?
Question 3 - Seems like I should spend extra money on more memory but I probably don't need a fancy graphics card or lots of cores. I don't do much real multi-processing. I don't edit videos or play powerful games. So, extra memory seems like it would be better than a more powerful processor or super dooper video card.
Question 4 - The desktops these days seem to come with only an SSD drive. I'd feel safer with a SATA for data and just use the SSD for the OS. Any comments?
Observation - CD's seem to be dead but not in my world so it looks like I have to find a "box" that has a CD slot in the front so I can install one myself.

 

[Galaxiom]

Oracle VM VirtualBox is free.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Comment on VM boxes:

1. Memory is a true requirement because (for optimization purposes) VM manager programs like to "guarantee" a certain amount of memory to each instantiated VM. Decide how many VMs you are going to want and figure about 6 GB for each plus whatever you need for the VM manager, plus another 4-8 GB as "shared" space in case both VMs are active at once.

2. While a super-fast CPU isn't necessarily a massive requirement, having a few processor cores handy is helpful because VM managers like to declare "affinity" for VM instances. That is one way of dedicating CPU resources to a VM instance that means it can begin processing immediately when (for example) an I/O wait state is satisfied.

3. If you get an ATA or SATA hard drive, they are usually multi-channel capable such that you could add an SATA CD-ROM. When I put an SSD on my system, I had four SATA channels, which is currently assigned as one for the SATA SSD drive, one for the SATA HDD, and one for the SATA CD-ROM plus one blank. My local PC repair & service shop usually has these kinds of parts hanging around looking for people who are doing minor upgrades. Since the controller includes DMA capability, I rarely have a usage "collision" between the HDD and SSD, and the CD-ROM is not in use that often, so it isn't a serious problem.

Can't address Win11 effects on anything because none of my machines are eligible for that upgrade, and from what I'm hearing, I maybe don't really want to do that yet anyway.

 

[Gasman]

3. This laptop came with 12GB and I have upgraded it to 16GB. Now it is maxed out.. More memory cannot hurt.
4. I put an SSD in this laptop and was amazed how much it speeded up. I still have a SATA disk for my backups.
I have installed win11 from USB stick on all 3 PCs (1 laptop and2 desktops). All have CD drives, but saves burning to CD.

VM https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
Win 11 https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11

I suppose you could buy a new PC and use that as a server in your house as well? I have two NAS boxes for that purpose, but I bought the old server from my last workplace and that is upstairs and yet to be used as such.

 

[Josef P.]

I use Hyper-V on my server. A VM with Office 64bit is running there. (Hyper-V should also be able to be activated on a PC with Win10/11.)
I create the 64-bit accde directly from my developer PC using a PowerShell script (New-PSSession).

 

[Gasman]

Enable Hyper-V on Windows

Install Hyper-V on Windows 10 or Windows 11 either using the Windows control panel, PowerShell or DISM.

learn.microsoft.com

Create a Virtual Machine with Hyper-V on Windows 10 Creators Update

Create a new virtual machine with Hyper-V on Windows 10 Creators Update

learn.microsoft.com

 

[sonic8]

where do I get the OS?

At any place that sells Windows licenses.
Maybe you got a MSDN subscription, which includes Windows licenses?

Where do I get the VM?

You create the VM yourself using the virtualization software of your choice.
Microsoft Hyper-V is included with Windows Pro, you just need to install/activate it explicitly as it is an optional feature.
This can be done in: Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows features on or off

Virtual Box would also be a good and free solution.

For your requirements the choice of the virtualization software is of minor importance. It becomes a more important factor, if you need to map special USB and other external devices into the VM.

Question 2 - Should I upgrade to Win 11 pro? Does that have any advantage if I am going with a VM?

I don't think that this is relevant in the context of VMs.

Question 3 - Seems like I should spend extra money on more memory but I probably don't need a fancy graphics card or lots of cores. I don't do much real multi-processing.

Memory is of primary importance. But also keep in mind that when running one or multiple VMs, your hardware has to power multiple OS at the same time. Quite a bit of multi-processing. I usually assign at least 4 cores to any Windows VM. The host OS should still have a sensible amount of cores available while running all VMs, you plan to run side-by-side.

Question 4 - The desktops these days seem to come with only an SSD drive. I'd feel safer with a SATA for data and just use the SSD for the OS. Any comments?

I feel exactly the same. - However, in practice in recent years HDDs failed at about twice the rate of SSDs for me.
I love to mirror my disks, regardless whether HDD or SSD, in a simple RAID 1 configuration. This makes it fairly easy to replace failing disks without much hassle.

 

[Pat Hartman]

I don't expect to have something running in a VM with me doing other stuff in the main PC or even another VM. The only point of the VM for my purposes is to have both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Office installed and isolated.

In the past, I have installed multiple Office versions on a single PC but they were always 32-bit. It is largely a PITA so once I got additional PC's I stopped doing it. Now I'm down to one PC and I don't want to buy a second. I'm trying to downsize my office.

I've been out of the development loop for a while and I don't think both bits can be installed on the same PC. Do you know if that is correct?

The install instructions for the VM say I need an OS image file. That is what I was asking how to get.

 

[amorosik]

https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11
https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows10

 

[Gasman]

I posted link to windows download.

 

[sonic8]

The install instructions for the VM say I need an OS image file. That is what I was asking how to get.

If you have an existing OS image file for the virtualization software of your choice you can of course use that one. - But from your questions it's fairly obvious that you don't.

If you don't have an existing OS image file, you must create it.
Create a new VM with a new virtual disk file in your virtualization software. Add a virtual DVD drive to the VM and select an ISO file with a Windows installation medium as current, inserted DVD.
The run the VM booting from that virtual DVD drive. Install Windows into the VM.
Once the installation is complete, the virtual disk file of this VM is your OS image file.

PS: You can download a ready-made Windows 11 development evaluation VM for Hyper-V from Microsoft:

Download a Windows virtual machine - Windows app development

Start building Windows applications quickly by using a virtual machine with the latest versions of Windows, the developer tools, SDKs, and samples ready to go.

developer.microsoft.com

 

[isladogs]

I don't think both bits can be installed on the same PC. Do you know if that is correct?

The standard advice is that you cannot have both 32-bit & 64-bit Office installed on the same machine unless you use a VM.

However in certain cases, it can be done.
For example, my laptop has been running a dual install of 365 64-bit and 2010 32-bit for several years without problems
Both versions work perfectly

For more details, see my article:

Installing Multiple Office Versions

This article explains how you can successfully install more than one version of Office on the same workstation including Access runtime and mixed bitness installations

isladogs.co.uk

However, you may find using a VM is easier to setup

 

[amorosik]

If you have an existing OS image file for the virtualization software of your choice you can of course use that one. - But from your questions it's fairly obvious that you don't.

If you don't have an existing OS image file, you must create it.
Create a new VM with a new virtual disk file in your virtualization software. Add a virtual DVD drive to the VM and select an ISO file with a Windows installation medium as current, inserted DVD.
The run the VM booting from that virtual DVD drive. Install Windows into the VM.
Once the installation is complete, the virtual disk file of this VM is your OS image file.

PS: You can download a ready-made Windows 11 development evaluation VM for Hyper-V from Microsoft:

Download a Windows virtual machine - Windows app development

Start building Windows applications quickly by using a virtual machine with the latest versions of Windows, the developer tools, SDKs, and samples ready to go.

developer.microsoft.com

For those who have actually used one of these ready-made virtual machines, do you know if they have an 'expiration date' or in any case a time limit beyond which they can no longer be used correctly?

 

[sonic8]

do you know if they have an 'expiration date' or in any case a time limit beyond which they can no longer be used correctly?

Yes. I believe every three months a new evaluation image will be released with an expiration date 6 months in the future.
Once expiration date is reached, you can still use the VM, but it will then automatically shut down after one hour of use.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Yes. I believe every three months a new evaluation image will be released with an expiration date 6 months in the future.
Once expiration date is reached, you can still use the VM, but it will then automatically shut down after one hour of use.

Including the URL where these are located would have been helpful.

 

[Gasman]

Post #11 Pat?

 

[Pat Hartman]

Post #11 Pat?

Thanks. I was looking in Sonic's original response and didn't notice this later one.

I was hoping for a Win Pro version so I could give it a license to make it permanent. It also looks like the downloads are expiring on the 24th.

 

[AHeyne]

Yes. I believe every three months a new evaluation image will be released with an expiration date 6 months in the future.
Once expiration date is reached, you can still use the VM, but it will then automatically shut down after one hour of use.

@Pat Hartman : If it is like @sonic8 writes, that the VM will still run for one hour after expiration date is reached, this should still be enough for your build process.
Or do you plan to use these VMs for more than one hour continously?

Edit: So you wouldn't need to give the VMs a Windows license at all.

 

[Gasman]

I would forget about the evaluation version and just use a permanent VM with a windows licence.

 

[Pat Hartman]

My current need is to use the VM only to make the .accde so I can distribute to either 32 or 64 bit systems. So, we're looking at maybe 10 minutes a couple times each year. But I prefer to not be hassled by it should I find another use for the VM. If the VM were available as Win Pro, I would use it since someone gave me a link to inexpensive licenses.