installation - Multiple versions of GDAL (32bit and 64bit) on same machine

I currently have GDAL installed on my Windows 7 64bit workstation. It is the 32bit version. I chose the 32 bit version because I wanted to use the GDAL Python bindings with a 32bit installation of Python (version 2.6 installed with ArcGIS).

Would it be possible to also install the 64bit version of GDAL on the same computer so that I can take advantage of more memory and processors when running the GDAL command line utilities?

Answer

It shouldn't be a problem to have several Python/GDAL installations on a single Windows computer.

For example, let me count how many GDAL installations are on my 64-bit work PC:

1. ArcGIS 10.0 with bundled Python 2.6 (32-bit). I only use this Python installation for Esri things


2. Python 2.7 (64-bit) with GDAL, etc. Good for using lots of RAM (and I really do use it)


3. Python 3.2 (64-bit) with GDAL, etc. Mostly for future-proof testing of stuff I make


4. OSGeo4w has GDAL, although I needed to modify the Osgeo4W.bat file to make it work


5. Some groundwater software that I use includes GDAL


6. Some geological modelling tool I've been demoing includes GDAL

Occasionally, there could be a clash between different installations, but there is usually a way to fix it.