Windows 7 - 32 or 64 Bit

[twoods]

I am hoping for real simple answers. I have Windows Vista Premium 32bit and and want to upgrade to Windows 7 with the student deal. These are my questions.

My laptop is a Dell Inspiron Core 2 with 4gb ram (I added to 2GB) and is compatible with 64bit.

1) Will 64 bit give me more speed compared to 64 bit or will it slow my computer down. Will 64 bit have any problems with software. Is 64 bit the obvious answer or 32 bit

2) can we upgrade to 64bit from 32 from downloading the upgrade package.

Thanks

[CheapScotsman]

I am hoping for real simple answers. I have Windows Vista Premium 32bit and and want to upgrade to Windows 7 with the student deal. These are my questions.

My laptop is a Dell Inspiron Core 2 with 4gb ram (I added to 2GB) and is compatible with 64bit.

1) Will 64 bit give me more speed compared to 64 bit or will it slow my computer down. I don't think you will see any effective difference in speed. Note that 32 bits allows you access to somewhere around 3.2GB of memory (some reserved for other things). 64 bits will give full access to all 4GB of memory (and more if you upgrade in the future).

Will 64 bit have any problems with software. Possibly. Some applications may not work properly and some devices may not have a 64 bit driver.

2) can we upgrade to 64bit from 32 from downloading the upgrade package.

ThanksApparently you cannot upgrade 32 bit Win7 to 64 bit Win7, you have to do a full installation ... enough reading sways me to believe it will be the same from Vista 32 to Win7 64; you will need to do a full install.

[Chocolinx]

Unless you're installing on something older then a P4, I'd go with 64 bit hands down. Why would install 32 bit if you can have 64? It limits you to 3GB.

[fastlayne]

I am hoping for real simple answers. I have Windows Vista Premium 32bit and and want to upgrade to Windows 7 with the student deal. These are my questions.

My laptop is a Dell Inspiron Core 2 with 4gb ram (I added to 2GB) and is compatible with 64bit.

1) Will 64 bit give me more speed compared to 64 bit or will it slow my computer down. Will 64 bit have any problems with software. Is 64 bit the obvious answer or 32 bit

2) can we upgrade to 64bit from 32 from downloading the upgrade package.

Thanks

If you are using any printers, scanners, etc., that do not have 64-bit drivers, then you'll likely have no choice but to stick with 32-bit.

[woof]

I don't know about Win 7 but with Vista I've been back and forth between 32 and 64 bits on the same hardware several times. Hands down 64 bit was noticeably faster. Not huge, maybe 10-15% but enough to notice.

[rageking]

The application has to be written in 64 bits and optimized before you see any speed increase. If it's running 32 bits it isnt going to be faster.

You will see the full amount of ram being used if it is 4gigs or higher.

Im still trying to find a way to get Camstudio working on Win7 64 bits. The MP3 encoding seems to be missing when I run it, yet they say it is fully compatible. Weird.

[torseller07]

Short story. You probably would not feel a performance difference between 32 or 64 bit.

Long story. If you turn on PAE on 32 bit in order to access 4GB RAM or above, in theory there would be a performance hit. 64 bit does not have this issue. The main issue with 64 bit OS is with legacy driver support. If you have some very old hardware (like my HP ScanJet), chances are the manufacturer would no longer develop 64 bit driver for it. So the only viable solution is to run 32 bit OS and attempt to force whatever 32 bit driver that is left on the OS.

Bottom line. There is no reason not to run 64 bit unless your hands are being tied up by some legacy hardware or driver support issues.

[twoods]

So, do we know if a clean and install works to upgrade from 32bit vista to 64bit windows7 with the $40 Professional version?

So many complaint in the forum that it doesn't work, do you need to order the disk or no?

[Nokialuna]

I would simply suggest not going to 64bit. It creates a lot more complications by requiring the move to 64bit for your applications and you only get a marginal difference in performance.

[twoods]

I would simply suggest not going to 64bit. It creates a lot more complications by requiring the move to 64bit for your applications and you only get a marginal difference in performance.

Great thanks, so right now I have 3gb of ram in my computer, it's a core 2, is there any benefit to increasing to 4gb with a 32 bit Windows 7?

[equalizr]

also if your gunna upgrade to windows 7, try and get the PRO version so you can install XP compatabilty mode afterwards. This means you can run all your XP software no matter what :D

I went with the 64 bit pro and no problems yet since all my stuff is no older than 2 years.

[UndeadGhost]

i'd rather get 64 bit

[YouKilledMyFather]

Bottom line is if you wanna see all 4GB of RAM, you gotta go 64bits.

Sure PAE exists for 32bit systems, but it's mostly server-level hardware that actually supports it. Even tho Win2k, WinXP, and everything after that supports PAE, you motherboard has to support it to (the memory remapping feature). Chances are your typical desktop or laptop motherboard does not have the support due to cost cutting and the fact that most users don't need it (different market segment).

[betamaxman]

I'm in the 64bit camp as well. All the issues have been ironed out now anyway.

[vitrify]

Even with legacy hardware, you can take your chances as long as it's not essential. My scanner, is an HP from like, the early-mid 1990's works just fine.

[slim_shady]

I would simply suggest not going to 64bit. It creates a lot more complications by requiring the move to 64bit for your applications...

Wrong... stop misinforming if you don't know the truth!

You are not required to install 64bit applications -- 32bit apps work just fine. The only thing required to be 64bits is drivers.

I installed 64bit Windows 7 a couple of weeks ago (first 64bit OS for me) and it's been a perfectly smooth ride. No hardware or software issues for me... looks like it's ready for prime time for most people, unless of course you have some really old hardware as already discussed in this thread.

[Dave98]

I made the move from XP Pro 32-bit to Win7 Pro 64-bit and the only things I've had trouble with are two pieces of older hardware.

An old ATI TV Tuner PCI card that hasn't even had a driver update since 2005 anyway.

and a Canon scanner that didn't have 64-bit drivers but I was able to use XP Mode to do the scanning.



Otherwise, everything pretty much works the same but the OS can recognize all 6GB's of RAM now.

[JessicaD42]

Twoods,

The upgrade version of Windows 7 will require a previously installed copy of Windows XP or Windows Vista to be installed. You also cannot "upgrade" a 32-bit operating system to 64-bit; however, when proceeding forth with the install you will have two options: upgrade / custom. If you select the latter, the Windows 7 install process will then copy all of your data in "My Documents" over to a Windows.old folder within Windows 7 itself. All applications and documents stored in other locations will have to be reinstalled / transferred manually.

This procedure is essentially a "clean" install.

Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team

[xaznxplaya]

If you can handle 64 bits, go for it, it's the future.

[Toraen]

I had some trouble with Java 6 on Win 7-64 (beta - Sun has since released an Update saying better win 7 support) which did not happen on Win 7-32. So I downgraded on my last install.

There are some apps and/or drivers that may have a bit of trouble with Win 7-64 but all of the popular stuff gets updated pretty quick *if* such problems exist. I agree with most people that it's in the drivers. Most good companies already have drivers out. In the past the video drivers were some of the slower updates which was rough if you were a game player... not so much today.

I understand the RAM limit... but I don't think most users really care in practice.

What is an advantage to 64 bit other than more RAM access (if you even need it)?

While it may be much much closer, technically (due to some drivers - YMMV) it's less stable.

[majorbabu]

32-bit apps on a 64 bit OS take a noticeable hit in performance imho.
you'll notice the difference between 32-bit IE and its 64bit counterpart on a 64bit windows installation. the 32-bit one seems noticeably choppy with scrolling.
its not a huge difference, but it is there.

if you don't necessarily need 4+ gigs of ram then there's little need for a 64-bit OS. only get it if such a need exists and as a bonus only try to run 64 bit apps if you want proper performance.

[stevelam]

64-bit for sure. running windows 7 64bit with absolutely no issues thus far.

[JWL]

I made the move from XP Pro 32-bit to Win7 Pro 64-bit and the only things I've had trouble with are two pieces of older hardware.

An old ATI TV Tuner PCI card that hasn't even had a driver update since 2005 anyway.

and a Canon scanner that didn't have 64-bit drivers but I was able to use XP Mode to do the scanning.

Otherwise, everything pretty much works the same but the OS can recognize all 6GB's of RAM now.

I think these issues have to do with upgrading from XP to Windows 7, not 64-bit (probably would have had this if you upgraded to Vista 32-bit). A lot of legacy scanning hardware didn't survive the transition to Vista.

[Dave98]

Perhaps but this particular Canon scanner does have TWAIN drivers that work up to Win7 on 32-bit

no 64-bit drivers