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I've got a machine that is 64-bit, running 32-bit windows 7, which has 8GB ram.

I did the official upgrade to windows 10 that Microsoft was offering a few weeks ago, but I'm having a difficult time setting up the /pae boot option, which I have been lead to believe will allow me to use more than 3.5 GB of ram.

Is it possible to set up the /pae option to address more than 3.5GB ram on a windows 10 system?

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bakoyaro
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    Just install Windows 10 64 bit ... – DavidPostill Aug 15 '15 at 17:26
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    PAE hack is unstable and causes more problems than is solves. – Moab Aug 15 '15 at 17:32
  • We live in a 64 bit world now. Adopt it and you won't have future headaches on top of past headaches. – Fiasco Labs Aug 15 '15 at 17:59
  • According to [this guide](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366796(v=vs.85).aspx), you can use PAE to allow more than 4 GB of RAM to be used by a 32 Bit OS. But i am not sure Windows 10 still supports PAE and more than that, is does not make any sense to struggle with a 32 Bit OS in 2015, when all PCs are 64 Bit. He should go for 64 Bit. – snaks20 Aug 15 '15 at 18:15
  • @snaks20: All PCs are not 64-bit, just the newer ones. Why do you think Microsoft still releases 32-bit versions of their OS and many hardware venders still provide 32-bit drivers? – martineau Nov 22 '15 at 18:23
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    [Windows 10, 32-bit fully supports and uses PAE.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension#Microsoft_Windows) However, it is still limited to using 4GB of RAM. This limitation comes from the fact that 32-bit kernel drivers only use 32-bit pointers into kernel memory, and so can only address 4GB. Windows 10 doesn't support having kernel memory that drivers can't access. – David Schwartz Nov 23 '15 at 14:15
  • No, the limitation only [comes](https://superuser.com/questions/1539276/can-process-address-extension-pae-be-used-on-32-bit-windows-10) from Microsoft's licensing of their consumer OS (even though it may have been true once upon a time in the XP days that some drivers were particularly sensitive to it). Just see how the same kernel in Windows Server 2003 [could](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/memory/memory-limits-for-windows-releases#physical-memory-limits-windows-server-2003) magically support different maximum amounts. – mirh Jan 16 '23 at 04:22

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You can enable PAE (Physical Address Extension) by using bcdedit in command prompt to enable it.

However, as Moab said in comments: PAE hack is unstable and causes more problems than it solves

This means that a 64 Bit Windows is much more stable than a 32 Bit Windows with PAE enabled for extended memory (over 4 GB).

The choice is up to you.

Note: i recommend you to install Windows 10 64 Bit

snaks20
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