32bit PAE was supported since Windows XP and initially allowed for more than 4GB of RAM to be supported, but driver issues made Microsoft put a soft-cap in 4GB

32bit PAE was supported since Windows XP and initially allowed for more than 4GB of RAM to be supported, but driver issues made Microsoft put a soft-cap in 4GB under this mode[0]. But Win7 32 bits with PAE would've surely been able to use all of those 4GB fine. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension#Microsoft_Windows https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension#Mic...