Should I consider the 64 bit version of Windows 7?

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Leo, good plain English. Again.
You might like to mention that "...Virtual machines might actually be an answer! Windows 7 is already coming with a "Windows XP mode"..." WILL NOT WORK on ALL Intel cpus. There are some Intel cpus that can not run the MS virtual machine technology.

Ed Bott at zdnet had an article listing the affected cpus. Used it as a guide when upgrading 2 home PC's last month.

There are plenty of free, open source or otherwise, application that can replace almost any $$ app that does not support 64-bit applications. In your case Leo, you could use Sun's VirtualBox, which is not a step down from any VM software (rather a step up since it supports almost every OS/virtualization).

Unless your a corporation that uses specific software that is not frequently supported, or are sure your printers/etc do not support 64-bit OSes, then you shouldn't really worry.

I've been using 64-bit Vista since the beginning, with 0 problems at all except for a very old printer that needed to be replaced anyway. All software that was compiled for 32-bit still work with 64.

I'm running windows 7 RC build 7100 64 bit. Works great. What determines wheather you can use 64 or 32-bit? Is it on the computer or in the hard drive? I other words when my windows 7 disc comes in Oct can I load either version 32 or 64?

It depends, specifically, on your computer's CPU.

02-Sep-2009

Perhaps a commenter can answer this related question. I know that the 64-bit version of Windows is required to support and fully use RAM exceeding 3 or 4 GBytes. However, is a special class/type of CPU and motherboard required to support a 64-bit OS?

Thanks!

Having struggled with Windows 7 for a couple of weeks and seen what elementary bugs it contains (joining a domain, adding printers, etc) I recommend NOT upgrading to Windows 7 until it has been sorted. I estimate this will take until SP 2 or 3!!!!!!!
Coprorates will soon treat it the way they have Vista - ie: as JUNK!

I am running Win7 x64 RC7100 and all my old progs work no problem. Even found software for my bluetooth dongle. Most of my old games still run on it under 32bit mode.
Re the question about which version to use from Bill. You need a x64 bit cpu(core2duo or dual core) 2ghz and above for performance. With the relative motherboard of course.
That will also help to answer Tony M's question about which cpu to use.

Sorry PeterM, but I think thats a little harsh considering you only tried it for 2 weeks. I have only ever tried an x64 bit OS once, and it did not leave me with a good impression- until I got a copy of Win7 in June. It is x64 and installed as my main OS. From the first moment of start up I was very impressed. All drivers found for my board and even installed my 3 dongle for mobile broadband. It booted quicker than xp which I was using prior.
Maybe you should try it again and take your time with it. You might be pleasantly surprised.

what are the advantages of using 64 bit OS. I mainly use Adobe CS for photography and web site building.

It's only the CPU that must support the 64-bit architecture. All 64-bit means is that the CPU can access 64-bits of memory at a time. This becomes important because it means that your CPU can access a memory reference up to 64-bits wide, hence it can support a memory map of:

2^64 = 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 (16 million TB or 16 exabytes) vs
2^32 = 4,294,967,296 (4 GB only)

One problem that has not been resolved for several years now by Adobe, is that they have not, and may not, be providing a 64-bit version of Adobe Flash!!!!! So you can forget about IE * 64-bit doing what you would like for it to do!!!

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