Personal computing discussed
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derFunkenstein wrote:Well there is the "disadvantage" of not having 16-bit application compatibility.
DancinJack wrote:derFunkenstein wrote:Well there is the "disadvantage" of not having 16-bit application compatibility.
Jerk
bdwilcox wrote:DancinJack wrote:derFunkenstein wrote:Well there is the "disadvantage" of not having 16-bit application compatibility.
Jerk
That is a legitimate concern considering some 32-bit applications use 16-bit installers. The applications would run fine but they simply refuse to install.
equivicus wrote:If 16-bit is really a concern then use Virtualbox, VMware, XP Mode, or <insert virtualization technology>.
bitcat70 wrote:This is a small advantage: some programs use the presence of a 64-bit OS to infer other characteristics of the CPU, such as some of the SSE sets. So things could be more optimized.Is there any advantage..
equivicus wrote:If 16-bit is really a concern then use Virtualbox, VMware, XP Mode, or <insert virtualization technology>. However not a good fit for old hardware devices.
axeman wrote:I'm going to play the devil's advocate here. Unless you have near future plans to get more than 2GB, don't bother with 64bit. 2GB isn't as horrible with Windows 7 as it was with Vista, but it's still not a heck of a lot, and 64 bit Windows is larger than 32 bit Windows. 64bit code does use marginally more memory AFAIK because of larger pointer sizes (? I'm not a programmer), but that's not the whole story.
For compatibility with 32bit applications, there's an enormous amount of libraries subsystems in 64 bit Windows that have to be duplicated for the 32 bit applications. So often, there's basically two instances of a lot of code running. Don't take my word for it - there is a reason Microsoft states 1GB as minimum requirements for 32 bit, and 2GB for 64 bit (I'm guessing the doubled requirement isn't really necessary, I'd wager more on 1.5 or so, but that's not something most systems would be sporting).
The disk space usage is somewhat more (several GB on a fresh install), there's more to patch - eg - there is a 64 bit Visual c++ Runtimes, and 32 bit ones, so over time, the difference in install sizes grow as well, as patches backup the old files for uninstall/rollback purposes.
axeman wrote:I think it's more than "plausible". I linked to the documentation of a major open source project that stated it behaves that way.the thing someone mentioned about using assuming certain level of SSE instructions are supported is plausible, but it would coders too lazy to detect CPU features themselves.
Sargent Duck wrote:equivicus wrote:If 16-bit is really a concern then use Virtualbox, VMware, XP Mode, or <insert virtualization technology>.
This. end thread.
Although you'd have to go back a ways to find hardware that doesn't work. Even the first USB keyboards (or even PS/2) you can just plug in and start typing. To go back before that...
Firestarter wrote:I installed Windows 7 32bit not so long ago for my sister. Before I did that, I too thought it made no sense at all, and arguable this case shouldn't be enough to change that. Anyway, it was a Centrino laptop, you know with the Pentium M. With 2ghz of single core power and just one or 2 GB RAM, it isn't going to break any speed records, but it's quite alright for basic tasks. And why buy a new computer when this one works just fine? At least with Windows 7, it's as secure as any modern PC.
bdwilcox wrote:Sargent Duck wrote:equivicus wrote:If 16-bit is really a concern then use Virtualbox, VMware, XP Mode, or <insert virtualization technology>.
This. end thread.
Although you'd have to go back a ways to find hardware that doesn't work. Even the first USB keyboards (or even PS/2) you can just plug in and start typing. To go back before that...
Yes, because buying and installing a separate OS then booting it each time you want to run that old copy of PrintShopPro you can't let go is totally convenient.
Firestarter wrote:BTW, you may also want to find a good 1 or 2GB USB-stick and dedicate it to ReadyBoost. For old, slow laptops, the little bit of solid state caching can help to reduce the load on the excruciatingly slow HDD. It had just enough impact on my older laptop to be noticable (160GB Seagate 5200rpm HDD).
Flatland_Spider wrote:VB6 programs fail miserably on Win7 64-bit, so there is that.
bitcat70 wrote:Hi!
Is there any advantage to installing Windows 7 64 bit on a machine with 2 GB RAM over the 32 bit version?
Krogoth wrote:WIndows Vista/7 32-bit never made any real sense. The only reason they exist is because of eariler generations of Atom.
Sargent Duck wrote:Although you'd have to go back a ways to find hardware that doesn't work.
Sargent Duck wrote:Even the first USB keyboards (or even PS/2) you can just plug in and start typing.