Can you run most programs normally on the O.S or do you need to get 64 bit ready software such as photoshop and word etc

and whats the benifits of a 64 bit over the 32bit? My processor says its an AMD turion x2 64, and the laptop only came with a 32bit version of windows...

just a little confused.

thanks for your advice!

Leon

Vista 64's 32 bit compatibility is spot on really. Things have moved on a lot from the early days of XP x64. I've not had any probs with Vista 64bit. Rule of thumb is standard 32 bit apps work, but some apps are also available in a 64 bit version too.

Vista 64's 32 bit compatibility is spot on really. Things have moved on a lot from the early days of XP x64. I've not had any probs with Vista 64bit. Rule of thumb is standard 32 bit apps work, but some apps are also available in a 64 bit version too.

thats sum'ed it up nicely then!!

thanks

with 64bit you get over the 4gb memory limitation that you have with 32bit operating systems.

That's the main advantage. Higher memory addressing without the overhead of PAE. And Vista just loves memory. 4GB with Vista 64 offers a slick desktop experience.

Thinking of moving to 64bit myself. Mainly so I can use all of the 4gb of memory I have and 3.3gb!

Used XP X64 a while back and it was pants!

phil

I use xp64 at work, and it's fine- well, actually, it rocks. The only software I had problems with was our helpdesk application and Checkpoint software for administering the firewall, so I use those via an RDP session.

It does mean I've once run a busy print server in a VM on my desktop PC with no problems.

It's probably no good for gamers though.

Just check all your drivers etc are compatible, as this is the main stumbling block. Most dont cert 64bit as the cost v number of users makes it a waste for most vendors.

When Vista 64 first came out, there were so few drivers it really wasn't worth the polycarbonate it was written on. If you want to try a real 64-bit system (faster, more robust but still handes 32-bit stuff) download the Windows 7 release candidate. Works for me. Better still, you could always use Linux...

I'm using Server 2008 64bit as my desktop at the moment - a Technet evaluation copy from work.

Very stable!

I'll be moving to 64bit on Windows 7 I reckon. Played around with the release version a while back and my X-Fi Soundblaster card worked fine on it. For some reason when running in Vista 32 (as I'm running at the moment) I get crackling issues when I scroll up or down when browsing a web page. Think it's something to do with the nVidia chipset on the mobo but a 64 bit OS seems to cure this! Didn't really notice any other differences but it's a higher number so it must be better right?!