Windows Activation

[#1]

My girlfriend and mother In law have both bought a PC, Its coming with windows 7 64bit home premium but only has 2GB of Ram, Can I wipe the drive clean when It comes and Install 32 bit windows home premium from my DVD but use their product keys to activate It legally?

[#2]

To be honest I would just stick more memory in it

[#3]

Yeah that would be the best way Jim but I'm worried as both have used 32 bit all their PC life's and It would take some learning especially for mother In law to download things all In 64 bit.

[#4]

That just isn't a problem.
Other than a few drivers all my downloads are 32 bit.
They won't even notice it

[#5]

I'm with Jim. Stick 4GB in it.  
Most downloads are either the same or sort themselves out, can't see it being an issue really.

[#6]

You never know they might want to stick one of these in http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-gainward-gtx-580-phantom-40nm-4020mhz-gddr5-gpu-783mhz-shader-156...;

[#7]

Al-right I will leave It as 64 bit, Could I do a clean Install with my 64bit DVD but use their product key? Would save me time with all the bloat ware that's going to be In It?

[#8]

Why reinstall? Just uninstall surplus software, it won't take long.
First, I'd make sure you have a reinstall DVD - if it doesn't have one run the supplied utility to create it.
What brand is it?

[#9]

Its a COMPAQ Presario.

[#10]

That will DEFINITELY have a tool to recreate install/recovery disks - probably a seriously big set - assuming they're not supplied. Do it first.  

[#11]

You may find that you can only reinstall using the recovery discs you have to make, as some OEM serials wont activate with a normal windows 7 disc I gather.
Stick with 64bit though with some extra ram in it

[#12]

Quote from: Bud

... some OEM serials wont activate with a normal windows 7 disc I gather.

As far as I can remember, that was certainly true with earlier versions of Windows.  If you had an OEM key you needed an OEM disc to re-install, not a retail disc.   

[#13]

Thanks for the responses, I have made a repair disc of each system and also a system Image of each system.

[#14]

I know that it's a pain with all this bloatware and I can see why you think a clean install is best (it may well be).  However, having had just this 'problem' with my Sony, I still think that it is probably better to download a copy of Revo Uninstaller and go through everything one by one.  It could be less involving than a reinstall taking into account drivers.
I am now down to a reasonably basic install, just one or two things that I am not 100% sure about. Of course the problem would occur again if I reinstalled because my recovery discs were made when the system was new.  I suppose that I should do a full backup rather than just backing up documents etc. 
Anyway, I don't think that the 64-bit is a problem.  It hasn't been with me and of course stuff won't download if it is not compatible.  For instance, my favourite partitioning tool, Easeus wouldn't install because the free version is only 32-bit.