Problems: running a 64 bit system

[Heusen77]

hey,

i was running a 64 bit version of windows xp (bought the system that way) but want to change to a 32 bit version. Do i have to change any BIOS settings or any other settings to my system so i can running the 32 bit version?

thanks

 

[AstroGuardian]

No mate. You don't have to change anything in the BIOS, but you will have to backup everything and reinstall Windows XP 32bit from scratch.

 

[Heusen77]

thanks, was just wondering as the 64bit system probably wont work with some programs

 

[AstroGuardian]

Basically all programs should work...... in theory. But so far i can't seem to catch a pattern whether the Windows fails or some programs are poorly written...

 

[sandorski]

Some Games had problems in WinXP 64, but I never had issues with other Apps.

 

[Heusen77]

i have to use statistical programs so i have some issues with them...question, is it better to run the 32bit or 64bit? i know the 64bit allows you to utilize more memory but that's it really

 

[Vette73]

I run Win7 pro 64bit and everything works great. Even my old railroad Tycoon3 works in Win7 64bit.

I think a lot of problems with Xp 64bit was it was new and most did not support it. But many oem computers come with win7 64bit.

So I would run 32bit XP or 64bit Win7.

 

[Heusen77]

so are you running the standard version of win7? I am running the xDark Deluxe version

 

[Vette73]

so are you running the standard version of win7? I am running the xDark Deluxe version

I have win7 pro 64bit.

I was worried about stuff not working right but so far everything has worked fine.
But I held off XP 64bit due to little support. Even Micorsoft did not really go out of its way to support it. I think it was a test for them to see if there was a market and get drivers setup for Vista (and now Win7).

 

[VirtualLarry]

so are you running the standard version of win7? I am running the xDark Deluxe version

Is that a torrent version? Piracy is frowned upon in these forums, just a heads-up.

XP 64-bit had some compatibility problems, but Win7 64-bit seems to run nearly everything.
i would upgrade to win7 64-bit before I downgraded to XP 32-bit.

 

[Heusen77]

i'll put back on the 64bit version i was running then.....I normally use win7 ultimate but i decided to try other versions to see the difference....from what I can see i will stick with the standard win7 ultimate and see how it works with my statistical programs.

 

[Scali]

Not much wrong with 64-bit Windows in general. I've been using Windows XP x64 since the early days. The application compatibility was very good. In general the only applications that didn't work, were applications that used some kind of low-level drivers, such as CD/DVD protection or firewall/virus scanning/defragmentation stuff. Another standard issue was software which still used a 16-bit installer.
I found that often I could run the software if I just installed it under a 32-bit OS, and then copied over the installed files to the 64-bit OS. For games, funny enough a no-CD/DVD patch would often fix the game to run 64-bit.

By the time Vista was released, most vendors had 64-bit drivers, so things went pretty smoothly from then on. And with Windows 7, 64-bit is ready for prime-time.

I would not recommend XP x64 however. Not because it's a bad OS, I've had good times with that OS, in the early 64-bit days, and still keep an installation around on one of my partitions. But it's basically 'orphaned': Microsoft does not support it. Not even things like Windows Live Messenger are supported on XP x64. The installer refuses to install it.
And although nearly all hardware comes wtih 64-bit drivers these days, XP is generally not among the supported OSes. Vista and Windows 7 can in most cases share the same drivers, as the driver model is nearly identical. And the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of these OSes use the same kernel version. XP 32-bit and XP 64-bit are not the same OS. XP 64-bit is NT 5.2, a cousin of the Windows Server branch. XP 32-bit is NT 5.1.

 

[Heusen77]

thanks for the info, it was really helpful...