should i avoid windows 7 64 bit?

**soundman98** · 11-27-2009, 11:03 AM

mods, not exactly sure where to put this, feel free to move.

ok, so i am in the market for a laptop, my requirements are mainly price-(i pland to use it mostly for web surfing, a little music, but would prefer to have a full-featured laptop instead of a netbook, so that i can use it for other programs without slowing it down, and wnat the bigger screen..)- i would like to keep it around $400, but would consider spending a little more for a little better/faster one.

at all of the black friday sales, all of the laptops that i have been looking at that were around $400 included the 64 bit version of windows 7.

last time, i was looking at getting a prebuilt type computer (i build all of my own desktops these days), i remember running into the same dillema with xp 64, because they were also super cheap, and remember the horrer stories of trying to get certain software programs to work with them.

Are 64 bit OS's still a poor overall choice for 'install-it-and-forget-it' people like me?

**SFiorito** · 11-27-2009, 11:13 AM

As long as you use the drivers supplied by the laptop manufacturer you won't have problems. Most common drivers (graphics, audio) are available as both 32 & 64-bit nowadays.

As far as software, I use a lot of development software so I don't have any problems. Pretty much all software nowadays should be built with 64-bit compatibility in mind.

**simplex** · 11-28-2009, 02:24 AM

I've got a Core2 laptop with 2GB ram and Win7 x64, with no problems
(note: I'm not using Aero, and other eyecandy).
You will have some issues with some older applications, mostly with
small ones, but because of the short-minded programmer, not because win7
(for example, some small subwoofer enclosure designer programs won't work)

Drivers are not an issue anymore, not like in vista

(when I got the laptop, the pre-installed vista has no decent drivers for the Radeon Mobility HD2400XT)

**soundman98** · 11-28-2009, 11:58 AM

Originally Posted by simplex

You will have some issues with some older applications, mostly with
small ones, but because of the short-minded programmer, not because win7
(for example, some small subwoofer enclosure designer programs won't work)

and that is what worries me...

i think it is safe to assume that winISD is safe, but i also like to use probox 5, and a couple other programs that might have been made for win98...

thanks for the help guys, i think for now i will still avoid 64 bit os's until i get chance to update some of my older software programs..

**justchat_1** · 11-28-2009, 12:24 PM

It has absolutely nothing to do with a programs age or size just how well it was designed. If a program does raw memory manipulation AND is not designed right you will get an ugly crash. If it uses one of a few api calls that have changed you will probably get an error message. For most average use there should be no problems. Drivers and audio codecs were the only big hurdles but as said above thats long since been resolved.

**Machinehead** · 11-28-2009, 12:29 PM

Originally Posted by soundman98

and that is what worries me...

i think it is safe to assume that winISD is safe, but i also like to use probox 5, and a couple other programs that might have been made for win98...

thanks for the help guys, i think for now i will still avoid 64 bit os's until i get chance to update some of my older software programs..

Just use Virtualbox or VMware and set up a XP virtual machine to cover those apps.

**soundman98** · 11-28-2009, 12:42 PM

ok, so it is not so bad after all.

i guess this means i can stop annoying so many sales people when i ask them if a laptop has the 32 or 64 bit version os... the sales staff will thank you

**trader007** · 11-28-2009, 01:48 PM

soundman, im very keen into computer trends... windows 7 is almost a disappointment that it came in 32bit at all. its nice that it can run on old winXP machines, but the move to 64bit computing started many years ago, two os's ago, and its mature enough to make 32bit seem bad.

windows 8 has already been confirmed it will ship in 64bit only. like you were saying, the only reason to use 32bit anymore is if you have old hardware or software (really old!). or you have a stupid atom cpu...

to give you an idea though, my carpc, laptop and htpc all run 64 bit. i regularly forget what machines are running 32 and what ones are 64... there just isnt any drawbacks anymore. 64bit has arrived....

**Kosti** · 11-28-2009, 06:55 PM

So would running a 64Bit OS and using 32bit app be pointless?

I'm planning my rebuild for W7 and managed to find 99% of the drivers, bith 64Bit & 32Bit, still some only had 32bit available, so I just hope that the windows update process will find it.

As I'm going SSD, Id prefer W7 64Bit with some SSD tweaks.

The other question I had is will 2G ram be enough for W7 or throw in 4G?

**Muttz** · 11-28-2009, 08:31 PM

I can say that BassBox Pro definitely works in Win 7 64 bit.

To be honest with you, I have found very little that won't run under Win 7 64 bit. There is a compatibility mode. Right click the program icon, select properties, then choose the compatibility tab. You can run in compatibility mode for any version of Windows back to Win 95. This doesn't always work, but I've had pretty good luck with it. Most laptops come with Home Premium, but if you get professional, you can download a program called virtual Pc and a special version of XP from MS. You can run your old programs in a VM.

MS decided to start pushing 64 bit last year and if anyone asks, I always advise people to go with it. The driver support is pretty good now. And, you can add more than 4 GB of memory if the laptop supports it.

I just found a cd with some DOS speaker programs from the early 90's. They definitely won't work unless you have DOSBox.