Software Upgrades for MS Office Pro 2010 - Win7 or XP

[nickelcell]

Hi All.

I am currently upgrading my computer. Remember I am a serious novice so please go easy on me. I am have enrolled in school so i won't have to harass anyone too much here.

I would like to upgrade to MS Office Professional 2010 but not sure if I should get the Win7 Professional or WinXP Professional SP3 64-bit. I also would like to know if getting 64 bit or 32 bit for the MS Office Pro makes a difference and why. Can anyone assist? I have included the main computer specs below.

Thank you in advance.


Compaq Presario CQ62-411NR notebook PC
• 3GB DDR3 RAM
• 2.2GHz Intel Celeron processor 900
• 320GB 5400 RPM SATA hard drive
• Accelerator 4500M, up to 1309MB available memory
• Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit
• Microsoft Office 2010 Starter
• LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW drive, double-layer support
• 802.11b/g/n wireless LAN
• Three USB 2.0 ports

 

[Peter.Cort]

if you get a 64bit OS you need to get 64bit office to run. You've currently got Home Premium which should be fine.

 

[strollin]

You don't need to run 64-bit Office on a 64-bit OS, 32-bit Office will run just fine on a 64-bit OS. Running 64-bit Office on 64-bit OS may give some performance gain or allow for larger spreadsheets or other files. You can actually install both the 32-bit and 64-bit Office on the same machine if running 64-bit OS.

Personally, I would stick with 32-bit Office unless I planned to create very large, compute intensive spreadsheets.

Unless you need to be able to log in to a Domain, Home Premium is all you need, no need to upgrade to Pro.

 

[nickelcell]

Thank you for your responses. I will be using it for database building and small to medium process computing (multiple functions) excel spreadsheets for a consulting business.

 

[Yami]

You don't need to run 64-bit Office on a 64-bit OS, 32-bit Office will run just fine on a 64-bit OS.

Correct.

You can actually install both the 32-bit and 64-bit Office on the same machine if running 64-bit OS.

Didn't know that.