Can I install a 32bit WinXP on a 64bit hardware ?

[Steven Prasil]

Because some programs do not run on my WinXP 64bit installation I am thinking about to install
a 32 bit WinXP on my 64 bit hardware.

Is this possible in general?

How much percent will be the performance loss approx?

I would like to get an impression of how many people have done such an installation.

All the new hardware motherboards and CPUs are 64bit but there a only a few
usenet postings and sales numbers for 64 Bit WInXP.

So I assume that a lot of users must run 32 bit WinXP on 64 bit hardware.

Steven

 

[Carl Kaufmann]

Because some programs do not run on my WinXP 64bit installation I am thinking about to install
a 32 bit WinXP on my 64 bit hardware.

Is this possible in general?

Yes. Hundreds of thousands of machines are set up like this.
Probably in the millions by now. My last two have been.

How much percent will be the performance loss approx?

From most reports I've read, 0% when running 32-bit apps , and about
10-15% between a 32-bit app and it's 64-bit counterpart.

I would like to get an impression of how many people have done such an installation.

All the new hardware motherboards and CPUs are 64bit but there a only a few
usenet postings and sales numbers for 64 Bit WInXP.

So I assume that a lot of users must run 32 bit WinXP on 64 bit hardware.

Steven

I hope this helps.

Carl

 

[Malke]

Because some programs do not run on my WinXP 64bit installation I am thinking about to install
a 32 bit WinXP on my 64 bit hardware.

Is this possible in general?

How much percent will be the performance loss approx?

I would like to get an impression of how many people have done such an installation.

All the new hardware motherboards and CPUs are 64bit but there a only a few
usenet postings and sales numbers for 64 Bit WInXP.

So I assume that a lot of users must run 32 bit WinXP on 64 bit hardware.

Steven

Yes, you can run a 32-bit operating system on 64-bit hardware. This is
commonly done. You only get a significant speed increase by using a
64-bit operating system if the applications you use are 64-bit aware.
Unless you are using processor-intensive apps like Photoshop or Matlab,
you probably won't notice any difference.


Malke

 

[Bob I]

Yes, most people are running 32bit XP on 64bit capable CPU's. If the
software won't run on the 64bit OS it's pretty hard to have a
performance loss moving to 32 bit OS. Do you have ANY 64 bit programs?
They won't run at all on the 32 bit XP.

 

[John Barnes]

"> Is this possible in general?

Yes

How much percent will be the performance loss approx?

Little if any. Most likely none.

I would like to get an impression of how many people have done such an
installation.

Quite a few, especially Vista64 have changed to Vista86

All the new hardware motherboards and CPUs are 64bit but there a only a
few
usenet postings and sales numbers for 64 Bit WInXP.

So I assume that a lot of users must run 32 bit WinXP on 64 bit hardware.

Probably 99%

 

[Rock]

Because some programs do not run on my WinXP 64bit installation I am
thinking about to install
a 32 bit WinXP on my 64 bit hardware.

Is this possible in general?

How much percent will be the performance loss approx?

I would like to get an impression of how many people have done such an
installation.

All the new hardware motherboards and CPUs are 64bit but there a only a
few
usenet postings and sales numbers for 64 Bit WInXP.

So I assume that a lot of users must run 32 bit WinXP on 64 bit hardware.

Yes you can run 32bit XP Pro on 64bit hardware. It's done all the time.
Easier to find drivers. Also FYI there is an x64 newsgroup for x64
questions.
microsoft.public.windows.64bit.general

 

[Charlie Russel - MVP]

Yes, you can install 32-bit XP on x64 hardware. No problems, the hardware is
fully compatible with 32-bit Windows. You won't be able to use any 64-bit
only software, but there are still relatively few of them, so you'll be just
fine.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Yes, you can. Performance loss? Probably very little.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Because some programs do not run on my WinXP 64bit installation I am
thinking about to install a 32 bit WinXP on my 64 bit hardware.

Is this possible in general?

Yes, no problem at all. *Many* people, myself included, do this.

How much percent will be the performance loss approx?

That depends on whether you are currently running 32-bit apps or 64-bit
apps. Since you are planning on running your apps under 32-bit Windows, I
assume they are 32-bit apps. In that case, the answer to your question is
that the performance loss will hardly be any greater than 0%.

Running a 64-bit operating system has almost no benefit unless you also run
64-bit apps under it.

I would like to get an impression of how many people have done such
an installation.

Hundreds of thousands, if not millions.

All the new hardware motherboards and CPUs are 64bit but there a only
a few
usenet postings and sales numbers for 64 Bit WInXP.

So I assume that a lot of users must run 32 bit WinXP on 64 bit
hardware.

Exactly.

 

[Aaron Kelley]

A lot of computers sold today are 64-bit capable but are sold with 32-bit
OS's. There is no problem installing 32-bit Windows on a 64-bit machine
(unless it is IA64 or something).

- Aaron

 

[Ron Hardin]

What's the feature of 64 bit? 64 bit registers? 64 bit instructions?

Given instructions that work with 64 bits, what about software?

Is the convention in 64 bit code, that pointers are 64 bit, or integers,
or both?

I'd guess the need comes from addressing more than 4gb of memory, which
means people would use 64 bit pointers. What's the convention for
integers? Who decides it?

 

[peter]

I have one machine running 32bit XP on 64bit capable hardware and it works
just fine...most people have this if they have 64bit CPU.I am not sure but I
believe this might be considered a "downgrade" and as such only a NEW
installation will do.This means a HD/partition format and all else on that
HD/Partition would be lost.
I also have 64bit Vista on another Machine and everything works just fine
...64bit programs are few and far between so most of mine are 32bit and they
work just the same as on the XP machine.Used to have occassional hiccups
with the Tuner but Hauppage has new Vista drivers that corrected that.Some
Games are a problem so I removed them and play them on the XP machine.
32bit is just more mainstream .......64bit maybe 5 years from now??
peter

 

[Josh Hillman]

I've got an AMD64 based machine with the x64 version of Windows XP Pro
as my main operating system on drive C and the 32-bit version of XP
Pro on drive D. I rarely dual-boot back into the old 32 bit version,
but both editions of XP Pro I have work just fine.

Josh

 

[S.SubZero]

You can do this with absolutely no ill-effect.

The "performance loss" will be absolutely specific to every app.
There's no way to give any kind of estimate for this. Apps may run
slower, run the same speed, or run faster. Every app will be
different. I can guarantee your 64-bit apps WILL be 100% slower since
they of course won't run at all.

As far as how many people use XP32.. I'd say more than a few.

XP64 doesn't "sell" really because it's not intended for individual
sale. It's an OEM product that is supposed to be offered on new
PC's. Very few companies actually offer it, and most people using it
probably got it off a web site that sells it separate like Newegg, or
from their employer's MSDN subscriptions. Many potential users are
turned off by the unknown compatibility and driver situation. I think
some people read the initial reviews in 2005 and assume the situation
is exactly the same now. That and Vista have kind of killed any
desire for this awesome OS. I run it on my desktop and it's great.

 

[Juergen Kluth]

Hi,
YES, you can do.
IF, performance differences can only be measured by tools, not by you.
jk

 

[Guest]

As long as your 64-bit hardware is AMD 64 or Intel 64 (aka E64MT), and not
Itanium, the 32-bit versions of the Windows OSs will work perfectly.