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64 Bit OS - When to Switch ?

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MilesAhead:
For an existing machine I'd take a look on Best Buy for the package closest to what you have.  If it comes with Windows 64 bit then it's likely you'll be able to drive all your hardware.

My quad came with 8 GB ram and Vista64 SP1.  About the only stuff that absolutely won't run is old 16 bit programs.  But I don't have any Dos left overs.  Really the main difference I noticed was the booting is a bit slower. The registry is more complicated plus it has Wow or Windows On Windows to run 32 bit apps.  Once it's booted you can't tell any difference.  Native 64 bit code is nice though.  Newsbin Pro 64 bit is way smooth.

I'd just try to avoid getting burned on hardware if you have an unpopular device.  Prompted by your post I took a quick look on Best Buy.  The Intel I7 machine desktop packages are coming with 10 GB ram, BDROM, 1.5 TB HD and 2 free PCI Express slots for $1300.  They still stick you with USB 2.0 but you can use one of the PCI Express slots to put in a USB 3.0 card with 2 ports.

Wish I had $1500 to splurge!! :)

Eóin:
I'd say the time to switch was about 5 years ago when WinXP x64 came :D That's when I switched.

Seriously though, since day 1 of processors supporting 64bit, they have been powerful enough, so that's not the issue. It's only a question of driver support, and if your hardware supplies Win7 drivers they have to supply 64bit version to pass MS driver testing, so pretty much all manufacturers do so. Indeed that condition may have applied for Vista too.

Stoic Joker:
I have been using Vista x64 and Win 7 x64 for years now.-Cloq (July 07, 2011, 07:16 PM)
--- End quote ---

Same here, performance, compatibility, all good.

justice:
If you run Windows 7 then there is no reason not to run 64bit. If you run Vista this is most likely the same, if you want to stick to XP then I'm not going to help :P.

vlastimil:
I think the right time to switch will be when 64-bit Windows becomes the more compatible flavor. When developers actually focus on the 64-bit editions of their software and when hardware manufacturers do the same with 64-bit drivers. We are not there yet and installing 64-bit OS will cause compatibility issues than sticking with 32-bit. I would still recommend 32-bit to my mother, because most people do not care about fancy 64-bit address space - they care about their favority applications.

Let me mention one incompatibility that affects my software on 64-bit Windows. Here is some context...
Windows (I mean the mostly rectangular regions on screen) form a hierarchy: imagine an application with a tabbed top-level window (like Firefox). The actual tabs may be implemented as standalone child windows. These tabs may have other child windows like edit boxes, bookmark panels, etc. A complex application may have a complex hierarchy of windows.
Unfortunately, there is an unofficial limitation on the depth of this window hierarchy. While the application may create child windows as it sees fit, the messages sent between these windows stop working at certain level. This is due to internal stack overflow in the message routing component in Windows kernel.

Here is the catch: the amount of memory available for the stack is the same in 32-bit and 64-bit Windows, but the stack entries are twice as long on 64-bit Windows. Hence the usable window hierarchy depth is halved. And if you think that you can avoid the problem by using 32-bit edition of the affected application on 64-bit Windows, that is not the case. The problem is in the 64-bit kernel. The worst thing is that Microsoft refuses to consider this a bug and fix it (unless they changed their mind since the last time I checked).

So...if you do not want unexpected problems, switch to 64-bit Windows when you HAVE A REASON to, not when there seem not to be a reason not to.

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