I've been experimenting with installing Windows XP Pro x64 edition.
This is a native 64 bit version of windows that allows the operating system programs which are specially compiled for the platform to access larger amounts of memory. A 64-bit version of Vista exsits as well.
You can read a few discussions about the pros and cons of 64bit versions on DC threads
here.
I'm not sure at this point that there is really much reason to try installing the x64 version.. It doesn't magically give you improved performance and there are still some incompatibility issues.
But there may be a few occasions when you would want to try this version, such as when working on some heavy computational software which can use more than 2gb of memory.
I installed it half out of curiosity, and half because I do occasionally do some work on machine learning stuff that can use as much memory as it can grab, and half because on a new computer I have the 32bit version of windows refuses to see my 2nd stick of ram, leaving me with less than 2gb accessible memory instead of the 4gb I have installed. Apparently this is a known problem having to do with memory addresses and a "conflict" of sorts with the graphics card. The hardware issues are beyond me and in my opinion all motherboard manufacturers should be locked up in a mental health clinic for the insane things they do.
As an aside -- I actually had to figure out how to slipstream the WinXp x64 installation cd with the service pack#2 before I could even get it to install on my computer because the motherboard (Asus P5WDH) uses a hard drive controller that the winxp 64 installation cd bluescreened on every time. The SP2 slipstream solved that problem.
Anyway, back to the issue at hand.. I thought we could use this thread to talk about any software compatibility issues, workarounds or alternate software replacements for programs we like for win 64bit.
I'll start with one software replacement report:
I'm a big fan of putting the date in the bottom right of the system tray. I've always used the free program
tclockex for this. It's old but it gets the job done simply and effectively.
However, it does not work on x64 versions of windows. So began my quest to find a replacement that did. There are many replacement tray clocks (clock tray skins, alfaclock, etc). But I only found one that works well on x64 (it comes with special x64 drivers):
1st Clock.
1st clock is quite good -- it looks nice, it's customizable, it has alarms, can show some extra stuff, etc. Worked perfectly with xp native skin, and with some customization of the font it looks perfect in classic skin too, which i prefer for the simplicity of it.
Not free (at $29 i'd say it's on the bit on pricey side for these utils), but.. still if you are using x64 and you need the date in the tray like I do, this may be just what the doctor ordered. Unless someone knows of a free equivalent for x64 or wants to try coding one?
Anyone else want to share some x64 software recommendations (or horror stories)?
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