Protecting Your Investment
To give customers added incentive to purchase x64-based servers and PCs today, Microsoft will provide a technology exchange program in the first half of 2005 that will let customers deactivate their 32-bit Windows licenses in exchange for an equivalent 64-bit OS for free. However, the exchange program comes with one caveat: The x64 versions of Windows don't support upgrades, so you'll need to reinstall the system from scratch. After you install the 64-bit system, you'll be able to reinstall virtually all your 32-bit applications and take advantage of 64-bit performance and scalability benefits. One sticking point might be finding 64-bit drivers for all your hardware, but Microsoft is confident that hardware makers will address 64-bit drivers and notes that the XP x64 beta already ships with more device drivers than did the initial 32-bit version of XP.
