Just about to get a new laptop to replace my Vista ultimate machine.

Can I use any of my software, or do I need to re buy 64bit versions?

The main one I'm interested in is office 2007. Or can I use my cd key if I can get a 64bit copy?

Or am I misunderstanding 32bit and 64bit systems?

32bit s/w will run on a 64bit version of windows.

Some versions of office have both 32 and 64 bit on the CD, but default to always installing the 32 bit version (even if you have 64bit OS, you have to launch the installer from the command line with a switch, iirc).

64 bit software will not run on 32 bit windows but 32 is USUALLY fine. Including office. Java is one of the few programs that seems to have issues and no one knows why, just make sure to install the 64 bit version of java and your sorted.

No edit button functionality in Internet Explorer on wp7 it seems. Was meant to say "bit 32 bit software on 64 bit windows is usually fine"

You wont experience any problems going over to 64bit bud - Well unless you play stupidily old games etc.

My retail 32-bit Office 2010 runs on retail Windows 7 64 ultimate on my Desktop (AMD Bulldozer, 6 - core) and media server (AMD Athlon II 64, 4-core) and on Windows 7 32 Ultimate on the laptop (Intel Celeron Northwood mobile, single core)- the windows 7 box included a 32 bit disk and a 64 bit disk. 2010 runs on systems with SATA HDD (Seagate/Maxtor) and on SATA and IDE SSDs (Adata & Transcend).

The script on the box says it will run on XP service pack 3 onwards.

When I bought Office 2010 (About 18 months ago), the 64 bit version wasn't readily available so I ended-up with the 32 bit. At that time Microsoft were saying that it may be preferable to buy the 32 bit version to ensure compatibility with third-party apps. Again, with 2010, MS said that some functionality was lost going from 32 to 64, Euh ? It may well be that the retail pack for 2010 includes both 32 and 64 bit.

Apparently, there's a free download of 2007 now.

I'm only a lite user of MS Office, i.e. Mainly Word, Excel, Onenote and Outlook. Can't say I have had any problems with it - apart from Outlook, which is routed through Outlook connector to a Hotmail account and although it receives and sends mail OK, the task-bar consistently shows send/rexeive errior on completion of comms - I haven't been able to resolve that yet.

Nick

You wont experience any problems going over to 64bit bud - Well unless you play stupidily old games etc.

Same here. Moved to Win64 last year and had much fewer problems than expected.

You just catching up to 64bit???.........Jesus!!!..............

I got my desktop about 7yrs ago when the first AMD Athlon 64bit processor came out......and have run windows 64bit systems all the time no problems....

When win7 came out my mate who works in computing owed me a big favor so said he would install a proper legit copy of win7 ultimate and the full office 2007...............he forgot that my "old" computer was 64bit and installed 32bit on it........... .........when I politely said that the cpu and mobo are 64bit you should have seen his face........ ........now have full 64bit and have run them all ok for 2yrs almost..........

And as been said above watch out for the correct version of Java...get the 64bit!!!

Then i swapped the cpu for a dual core and did variuos other things...........

just like cars can't stop modding!!!!....

Had no problems with 64 bit Windows. Even old DOS games are fine if you download DOSBox.

Microsoft still recommend 32 bit office even on 64 bit systems. They say 64bit should only be used if absolutely necessary.

Thanks all.

Yup the Toshiba came with 32bit vista ultimate.

I don't even run Microsoft office. I am never paying the fees on that package when libre office does the job just as well for free. I don't even have that installed any more. Google drive all the way.

The only program I have that needs java is minecraft. For some reason the web installer automatically installed the 32 bit version. Low framerates and random crashes whenever minecraft hit 512mb ram used. Whack 64 bit on there to fix it. I now have perfect framerates and no crashes at half a gb ram used. That seemed to make quite the difference. Frame rate comparison at normal render distance, fancy graphic, max particles and advanced OpenGL on, 32 bit java: 20 fps, 64 bit java: 130 fps. Shocked me too and for the life of me I can't work out why it should be so different when usually 32 bit software runs fine on 64 bit windows.

I made that mistake with Minecraft. Installed Java without thinking then Minecraft wouldn't let me run at higher settings because it wasn't 64 bit. Took me ages to work out it was Java that was the problem. Runs fine now.

Pay for Office? Not sure if serious

I was aware of the issue, its just it never occurred to me that on 64 bit windows the 32 bit version would be installed by default. Kinda weird. Got a little more annoying when I went to root my brothers kindle fire, some reason the android SDK if installed manually will apparently work with the 64 bit JDK but googles default download only works on the 32 bit??? So I installed the 32 bit JDK anyway, accidently hit the tick box to install the 32 bit JRE at the same time... I hate tick boxes, I now know in future that if I ever need the android SDK just install it myself.

Microsoft still recommend 32 bit office even on 64 bit systems. They say 64bit should only be used if absolutely necessary.

Yep mainly because so many third party software addons are 32bit only, and haven't been updated.

At work we migrated to XenApp 6 on 2008R2 and move to Office 64bit we had no end of trouble with certain addons. Got them all resolved in the end, but what a pain in the butt.

You should have not problems as the others have said unless you run some old win16 or win32 applications. But there is always Windows XP Mode/Virtual PC/VMWare Player etc to run Windows XP etc.

Crikey.. people still faffing over 64bit?

Some printer drivers, especially networked printers, can be an issue. Also scanner drivers and software. Most new stuff is OK. I know. I have unsolvable issues and have to use a work around when using my Epson 4800 and a high end Imacon Scanner with a SCSI interface and an eldery Nikon Scanner. Most other things are not an issue but I have to run an older 32bit XP machine for these.

Well, I can honestly say I hate Win 8.

It's like sending a chef into a kitchen and wrapping all the knives in rubber cases. Microsoft have essentially hidden everything you could break your PC with.

Which is fine, but makes it a PITA to find anything when you do know what you're doing!

Well, I can honestly say I hate Win 8.

It's like sending a chef into a kitchen and wrapping all the knives in rubber cases. Microsoft have essentially hidden everything you could break your PC with.

Which is fine, but makes it a PITA to find anything when you do know what you're doing!

+10!

I'm more at home with Linux but still need to use Windows at work (fortunately in a VM) and every successive version has hidden more away in the guise of making it easier to use. I've just bought a laptop that came with Windows 8 and I've yet to find anything in it that makes it genuinely easier than Windows 7. Now I've got Ubuntu running in a VM on there (just couldn't get the two OSs to play nicely dual booting - it really was more a case of duel boot) I can hopefully ignore Windows (apart from the inevitable update & reboot cycles )

Back on topic it's good to see Windows finally make a serious effort at moving to 64bit. It's just a pity so many of the other vendors are sticking in 32bit land. I've been using 64bit Linux for the last seven or eight years, and it's seems to have been a much simpler migration. Then again I'm possibly slightly biased as I work on IBM midrange systems which have been 64bit for over 2 decades.

Oops - sorry. Rant over

PDP mid-range minicomputers (With Core store memory) were running non-GUI networked apps @ 64 bit in 1977 !

Nick

The 64bit version of Office 2010 is full of bugs and even Microsoft recommend using the 32bit version with Windows 7 64bit. We made the mistake of installing it at work and then had to roll it back and install Office 2010 32bit instead.

You are best using the 32bit version of Internet explorer in Windows 7 64 bit due to poor 64bit addin support - there are two icons on the menu by default, one says it is Internet Explorer 64bit the other just says Internet Explorer and that is the 32 bit. We delete the 64 bit link to just leave the other.

Hope that helps

Martin