32 vs 64 bit

[John Ferrell]

I generally use Win 7 32bit because of the driver availability. My
laptop has 64bit installed. I find it easier for me to keep track of
things if I stick to Win 7 32 bit for both. Other than a performance
hit, are there any other problems?
John Ferrell W8CCW

 

[Jan Alter]

I generally use Win 7 32bit because of the driver availability. My
laptop has 64bit installed. I find it easier for me to keep track of
things if I stick to Win 7 32 bit for both. Other than a performance
hit, are there any other problems?
John Ferrell W8CCW

I found this worth reading, especially for having older peripheral devices
attached that may not have 64 bit drivers written for them.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-choose-between-32-bit-64-bit-windows-7-operating-systems/

 

[mick]

I generally use Win 7 32bit because of the driver availability. My

laptop has 64bit installed. I find it easier for me to keep track of
things if I stick to Win 7 32 bit for both. Other than a performance
hit, are there any other problems?
John Ferrell W8CCW

Non that I am aware of, or bother me, 32bit desktop, 32bit laptop, and
64bit desktop. I did have a few issues with the 64bit desktop and the
64bit version of Microsoft Office 2010 quite a while ago not working as
it should, so uninstalled Office and put the 32bit version of Office on
the desktop running win7 64bit and all has been fine since.

 

[Tim Slattery]

I generally use Win 7 32bit because of the driver availability. My
laptop has 64bit installed. I find it easier for me to keep track of
things if I stick to Win 7 32 bit for both. Other than a performance
hit, are there any other problems?
John Ferrell W8CCW

If you have more than 4GB RAM in your laptop, you will not be able to
use the extra after you switch to 32-bit. A 32-bit OS cannot use more
than 4GB (actually something on the order of 3.5 GB).

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I generally use Win 7 32bit because of the driver availability. My
laptop has 64bit installed. I find it easier for me to keep track of
things if I stick to Win 7 32 bit for both. Other than a performance
hit, are there any other problems?
John Ferrell W8CCW

The manufacturer obviously knows that the laptop is running 64-bit
Windows. If they don't sell a version with 32-bit Windows, they might
not have suitable 32-bit drivers for everything, especially the
motherboard hardware.

Check before you downdate...

 

[Michael Swift]

If you have more than 4GB RAM in your laptop, you will not be able to use
the extra after you switch to 32-bit. A 32-bit OS cannot use more than 4GB
(actually something on the order of 3.5 GB).

That's the main reason I went for 64 bit, I have 8 GB, other than that I
don't see any difference.

I have managed to get all my old peripherals working including an
ancient scanner and printer, even a DOS program I wrote to keep track of
my home finances, though it did need DosShell and DosBox, much better
than the XP thingy.

Mike

 

[Stan Brown]

I generally use Win 7 32bit because of the driver availability. My
laptop has 64bit installed. I find it easier for me to keep track of
things if I stick to Win 7 32 bit for both. Other than a performance
hit, are there any other problems?
John Ferrell W8CCW

I'm not even convinced that you'll take a performance hit for most
tasks. Editing really big video files or running really enormous
spreadsheets, maybe.

 

[Stan Brown]

If you have more than 4GB RAM in your laptop, you will not be able to
use the extra after you switch to 32-bit. A 32-bit OS cannot use more
than 4GB (actually something on the order of 3.5 GB).

True, but for most people probably not important.

 

[Andy Burns]

If you have more than 4GB RAM in your laptop, you will not be able to
use the extra after you switch to 32-bit. A 32-bit OS cannot use more
than 4GB (actually something on the order of 3.5 GB).

With PAE, other 32 bit OSes use up to 64GB (though an individual process
can only see 4GB and 1-2GB of that is kernel space) it is Windows that
limits you to 4GB for licensing reasons and due to buggy drivers.

 

[Ken Blake]

I'm not even convinced that you'll take a performance hit for most
tasks. Editing really big video files or running really enormous
spreadsheets, maybe.

Ditto!

On the other hand, installing 64-bit Windows instead of 32-bit Windows
makes you able to buy 64-bit software as it becomes available, instead
of the older 32-bit versions. That means that installing 64-bit
Windows--even though it may do very little for you at present--puts
you into a better position for the future.

 

[BillW50]

Ditto!

On the other hand, installing 64-bit Windows instead of 32-bit Windows
makes you able to buy 64-bit software as it becomes available, instead
of the older 32-bit versions. That means that installing 64-bit
Windows--even though it may do very little for you at present--puts
you into a better position for the future.

Really? And you think 64 bit is the future? I have news for you! The
future is 128 bit Windows. And Windows 7 and under doesn't support it.
After all, 128 bit can address up to 281,474,976,710,656 yobibytes (or
256 tebi-yobibytes) of memory. How cool is that? I am not sure, but I
think that is more than all of the CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs that
were ever produced.

http://www.windows8productkeyfree.com/download-windows-8/

Looks like 128 bit Windows 8 isn't quite ready yet. But it is just
around the corner. And I can't wait. Hopefully 256 bit Windows won't be
out anytime soon. ;-)

 

[John Ferrell]

I chose to not overdo the laptops resources in hopes of a longer
battery cycle. 2G and a modest hard drive works very good for me. Most
of the use is as a remote console to my computers in my shop. I do
like to have enough installed to entertain myself when I am away from
the Internet service.

If you have more than 4GB RAM in your laptop, you will not be able to
use the extra after you switch to 32-bit. A 32-bit OS cannot use more
than 4GB (actually something on the order of 3.5 GB).

John Ferrell W8CCW