64 bit xp compatability

[David Rogers]

Old adage.

"If it ain’t broke…don’t fix it!"

Might be worth trying as a dual boot from a second hard disk.

That way you can just fire it up as it was…nothing lost!

Can you see any significant benefit to switching to Vista as a business machine?

Won’t be installing Vista on any of the work machines – can’t risk even one bit of software going loopy!

[Adrian Yeo]

Hi David

Its not vista, is xp 64. I know what you mean about the not broke adage, just curious if it would benefit as it is a 64 bit processor that i am running.

[David Rogers]

quote Adrian Yeo:

Hi David

Its not vista, is xp 64. I know what you mean about the not broke adage, just curious if it would benefit as it is a 64 bit processor that i am running.

Ah, should’ve read it better!

If you have a 64 processor – it will probably benefit the windows side of life. Highly unlikely to be any compatibility issues…

what MS say:

quote :

The major differentiator between 32-bit and 64-bit Windows is in memory support. Currently, 32-bit Windows is capable of supporting up to 4 GB of system memory, with up to 2 GB of dedicated memory per process. Windows XP 64-Bit Edition will currently support up to 16 GB of RAM, with the potential to support up to 16 TB of virtual memory as hardware capabilities and memory sizes grow.

Customers will find some feature differences, but overall, 64-bit Windows includes a majority of the features that are included in 32-bit Windows.

[Peter Normington]

I’m lead to believe that it is of no benefit unless you are running 64 bit progams, which are few and far between at the moment, dont quote me though,

Peter

[David Rogers]

quote Peter Normington:

I’m lead to believe that it is of no benefit unless you are running 64 bit progams, which are few and far between at the moment, dont quote me though,

Peter

Quoted… 😀

I think you’re correct there. Will help with Windows itself….but your 32bit programs – well…

[Jason Xuereb]

Adobe Photoshop CS4

😀

[Steve McAdie]

Had a friend who tried it he said he had trouble getting drivers for some stuff.

Steve

[Adrian Yeo]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Its the driver part that I have heard there may be issues with too. Hmmm, might be worth a call to B & P to see what the score is with that.

Like the option of a second boot disk though just to give it a try! I will report back.

[Tobias Redig]

quote Peter Normington:

I’m lead to believe that it is of no benefit unless you are running 64 bit progams, which are few and far between at the moment, dont quote me though,

Peter

Adobe CS4 is 64-bit now. And you’ll need a 64-bit OS if you want more then 3.2 GB RAM.

Seem to remember reading somewhere that 64-bit programs running on a 64-bit OS had a 15-20% performance increase over the 32-bit versions. Not sure if it’s true or not.

[David Rowland]

agreed, you are correct… my home pc is now vista 64bit and not run into any major issues… currently looking at sbs2008 which is now 64bit only.

[Richard Urquhart]

Been running vista 64bit at work, running siglab and corel x3 and all my other work stuff with no problems what so ever Rich

[Pauly]

I was looking for performance increases….. so i bought a Mac. I highly recommend it!

But if your looking at a 64 bit OS. I would be asking myself the following.

– Does my hardware support it?
– Does my software support it?
– Do I have the processing needs for any performance gain that couldnt be sorted with a de-frag and some basic hardware upgrades?
– At the end of the day, IF it all works, was it really worth the effort for what I have gained?

Good luck with it all. I’ll be keen to see what comes of it 🙂

[Adrian Yeo]

Whilst I’ve been waiting for a B & P tech call, I have had plenty of time to read and digest! Think that Davids original pearl of wisdom ‘If it aint broke dont fix it’ may well be the case!

Too many cons and not enough pro’s to bother with. Plent of horror stories out there though 😮

Looks like xp lives to fight another day 😀

Thanks for the input all