Re: the usefulness of 64 bit.. well, of course if you have more than 3GB RAM
then it can probably help.
Re: 32 bit software running on a 64 bit OS gaining benefit, well, of course,
the main benefit of the RAM in a PC is mostly to cache the data that
would otherwise be read from or written (slowly) to disk. In that capacity
it speeds up the process just as a L2 cache speeds up a computer's CPU
versus having to read/write from the slower RAM all the time.
Of course SOME individual programs need to use several gigabytes of
memory BY THEMSELVES, and it's obvious that having 4GB+ memory and
a 64 bit OS can help in those cases. Photoshop, 3D rendering stuff,
large databases, whatever.
Spyware: Check out the free personal use versions of AVAST, as well as
COMODO, among others. They both do more than just basic "anti virus"
tasks, so they certainly help prevent against and detect spyware of various
kinds. They're both Vista 64 compatible AFAIK, i.e. they worked for me.
They probably do more "anti-spyware" type stuff than one would
suspect from their product descriptions, really, try and see.
The line between anti-malware / anti-spyware / anti-virus / firewall
is pretty blurry really and you have to see if individual programs
really are doing as good of a job as you expect they'll do.
Also the built in Windows Defender is probably decent enough for most
people's uses.
Let's face it if you do something really STUPID and
intentionally run a malware program on your PC, it's UNLIKELY any
Anti-Virus or Anti-Spyware program is going to save you from your own
foolishness.
If you are unlucky enough to get exploited by one of the
many malware programs out there that AV and AS tools DON'T detect,
again, you're done for.
By the time you even NEED anti-spyware
programs, that means you've ALREADY run malware code on your PC,
and whatever defenses of prudence / email protection / web protection /
whatever have ALREADY failed, and it's LIKELY you're going to get damaged
SOMEHOW by the malware even if it doesn't rootkit your whole PC, it
could cetainly already have erased all YOUR files or whatever by that time.
So IMHO Anti-Spyware is less important than having a good secure
browser / email / firewall suite, safe browsing / software installation habits,
good backups of your data, and good reduction of the amount of sensitive
data you do keep on your PC. If you're saying you really need something
much BETTER than Windows Firewall or Windows Defender to save you
on a routine basis, you're doing something very wrong to get to that point
of vulnerability.
For commercial (paid) solutions, check Kaspersky Internet Security,
and also Avast's Pro. product, for instance.
Again, I'm running 8GB RAM on Vista 64, and while I have a long list
of grievances against Vista in general, I can't complain that it's working
poorly in 64 bit, because it's working well and using my memory as
well as I'd expect it to be able to do so. Certainly better than a 32 bit OS!
Vista is using around 2GB of RAM just sitting there without much any
software loaded, just the OS and its services after the machine has been
used a bit. It's certainly not uncommon for me to be able to push 3GB or
4GB in use with a web browser, some office programs, PDF readers, and
so on in serious use. Firefox 2.x alone can use like 1GB if you have a bunch
of stuff open.
4GB of DIMMs is about $75, and not much more
expensive than buying big ReadyBoost flash drives or extra-fast hard
discs, and the memory overall is much more effective as speeding routine
workflow up than either of those other options would be.
Of course doing heavy GIMP / Photoshop / Blender / PovRay /
SQL database / etc. stuff will happily use as much memory as you
could possibly provide, the more the better.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/1033/ordermedia
That's where you can get the 64 bit install media disc from Microsoft
if you already have a retail / upgrade version of the 32 bit Vista.
IDK in what circumstances that may be useful / available for OEM
software versions.
),to be honest I'll be surprised if people still use old 16 bit software I know I don't, but yes a few people that are in the minority need to use it.....As to anti-spyware I use Spybot 1.5 and SpywareBlaster with Windows Defender disabled(I set mine to scan once a week),SuperAntiSpyware does work regardless of Event Viewer logs,end of the day anti-spyware software is not an issue since there are quite a few freebies that work with Vista x64 not to meantion paid ones in AV packages ie Kaspersky,Bitdefender etc..).
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