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Archive for the 'vista x64' Tag

I must admit I am really surprised by the result of this poll. Two-thirds of my readers prefer Vista x64 to Vista x86. More than 1000 of you took part in this poll. If you believe in the validity of this data, you must come to the conclusion that the transition to 64 Bit is already underway on desktops. However, it is a matter of fact that 4sysops readers are not typical computer users. Obviously, the majority of my readers are more tech savvy than the average computer user, and therefore more open to technological changes.

Do you plan to introduce application virtualization in your organization?

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Okay, this is the last post in my series about the 32-bit or 64-bit question. I don’t expect this poll to be generally valid since 4sysops readers are probably more adventurous when it comes to adopting new technologies. IT pros are used to fighting with computer-related problems all day. So they are not that much frightened of theoretical troubles that a new operating might pose.

Usually, that also applies to me. I am still a bit hesitant to make the 64-bit move, though. I will buy a new laptop soon and I am considering of equipping it with 4GB because I want to run VMware Workstation on it. So I am curious to know your view. You might have read my posts on Vista x64 or have made up your mind already. Perhaps, you even have experiences of your own. Some of you already shared your opinion in my original post about that issue.

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vista_x64_device_manager This is the third post in my series about the Vista x64 vs. Vista x86 issue. In my first article, I claimed that CPU performance is not really a good reason to jump on the 64-bit bandwagon at the moment. In my last article, I wrote that software compatibility is only a theoretical problem now, and today, I want to discuss hardware compatibility.

Availability of 64-bit device drivers

The fundamental difference between software and hardware compatibility is that most 32-bit apps work flawlessly on Vista x64, whereas 32-bit device drivers are usually useless on a 64-bit Windows. Hence unlike software vendors, hardware vendors have no other choice than to offer 32-bit drivers and 64-bit drivers for their devices. Additionally, only drivers signed by Microsoft will work on Vista x64. This certainly improves security because kernel mode drivers are an attractive target for malware.

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vista_logo In my last post in this series, I discussed the question whether the 64-bit edition of Windows Vista is faster than its 32-bit version. I came to the conclusion that working with Vista x64 only makes sense if you need more than 3GB memory. The other interesting topic is if compatibility to the 32-bit world is still an issue 16 months after Vista’s release. Today I discuss software compatibility, in my next post in this series I’ll write about hardware compatbilty.

When I wrote about this subject shortly after Vista came out, I more or less voted against installing Vista x64. My main point was that Vista will already cause enough compatibility problems. So it is certainly better to limit the number of possible culprits. At that time, I didn’t imagine that Vista adoption would be this slow, though. So I decided to wait for a year or so until most of Vista’s general problems are solved. I hoped that software and hardware vendors would start embracing Vista x64 as soon as they got the 32-bit version under control.

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athlon64 I already discussed the Vista x64 vs. Vista x86 question a year ago. Vista was just released and for the early adopters, the first decision to be made was which edition, i.e. 32-bit or 64-bit, would be the better choice. At this time, I was skeptical regarding Vista x64, mostly because the advantages didn’t outweigh the downsides. It is time now to reconsider this question since the main disadvantages of the 64-bit version (hardware and software compatibility) might not be such an issue anymore.

I was planning to do some research already for some time, but fortunately the German print magazine C’t (8/2008) just published a couple of comprehensive reports about this topic. So I will summarize some of their findings garnished with my own views. Today, I will focus on performance and in my next posts in this series, I will discuss software compatibility and hardware compatibility.

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Memory is getting cheaper every day. This is one reason why more and more people are equipping their PCs with 4GB RAM or more. Modern desktops often support up to 8GB. So it happens quite often these days that a proud owner of a new a PC wonders why Vista only reports about 3GB RAM even though he bought 4GB. I have been asked this question by several people within the last weeks. Some of them were IT pros, so I thought I should post something about it here. The things I say in this post mostly apply to Windows XP as well.

In theory, a 32-bit operating system should be able to support 232 bytes = 4GB memory. Thus the first reaction usually is that the memory chips or with the mainboard has a hardware defect. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Vista can indeed address 4GB of memory. However, the maximum amount of RAM that can be used by the system and applications is 3.12 GB.

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Update: I am working on a new series about the Vista x86 vs. Vista x64 issue. The first one covers the speed issue. The other article in this series will follow soon. You might also be interested in my post about the 3GB barrier. The discussion there is interesting. But now go ahead and read this one first.

Sometime ago, I published an article about a performance comparison between 64-bit and 32-bit editions of Windows. This post got quite a few hits, recently. Meanwhile, it has rank 8 of all posts here on 4sysops (see right sidebar). Obviously, many seem to be undecided which Vista edition they would like to use. In this post, I summarized the pros and cons of Vista x64 and Vista x86.

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