Vista 32bit, or 64bit?

[Larry Roberts]

I'm getting ready to move to Vista as soon as I add another
2GB of RAM for a total of 4GB. Some users say only the 32bit version
is worth getting, while others say 64bit is the only stable version.
From what I understand, the DVD has both 64bit, and 32bit of all Vista
versions. You just buy the appropriate license for which version you
want. Does this apply to 32bit, and 64bit as well? I only care about
email, web surfing, and games, so Vista Home Basic Upgrade is what I'm
looking to get. I'm wanting to try 64bit, but if it proves to be to
problematic, I'd like to try 32bit. Would I have to purchase 2
separate licenses to use either 32bit, or 64bit Vista Home Basic
Upgrade?

 

[ato_zee]

I'm getting ready to move to Vista as soon as I add another
2GB of RAM for a total of 4GB.

64bit can access 4GB, 2GB is probably sufficient for most
purposes. 64bit doesn't add a lot at the moment as most apps.
are 32bit, Office2007 for instance seems to be 32bit.
Some mobos. show 4GB installed, just over 3GB available,
as reported by the BIOS screen, before the OS starts to boot.
Later mobos. may have memory mapping, allowing more than
4GB to be used.
Many users are going back to XP until Vista problems
are resolved with Service Packs.
You may have problems if you have an Aetherus based
USB wireless stick, an unsupported scanner, some Laser printers
(you may have to try many models listed to see if
one will give some printer functionality).
Just a lot of things to research and sort, when you could
be doing something more productive.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

The disk contains either 32 or 64 bit. For any version other than Ultimate,
only the 32-bit version is in the box. For the others, the 64-bit disk must
be ordered. The disks are all the same, it is your Product Key that unlocks
the version (Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate). Unless you
have a 64-bit application, there is no need to use anything other than the
32-bit version. The latter is more compatible with the current set of
programs and hardware driver software available and is recommended for most
users.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

To be safe, I recommend you go with 32 bit Windows Vista. Also note that all
retail editions of Windows Vista except for the Ultimate edition only
includes the 32 bit DVD. You will have order the 64 bit disk separately if
you want to run that version. Also, both 32 and 64 bit need separate
licenses if you want to run both concurrently.

To run 64 bit Vista successfully, you need to ensure that your existing
hardware is supported, these include device drivers and applications. All
device drivers must be 64 bit and software applications must fully 32 bit or
64 bit.

Stick with 32 bit Vista, mainly for compatibility reasons, such as device
drivers and the majority of most software you are likely to run will do just
fine with Vista 32 bit and 4 GBs of RAM. Vista 64-bit true power lies in its
ability to address large amounts of memory beyond 4 GBs, since the buck
really stops at 4 GBs for 32 Bit Vista. There have been performance test
that yes prove that Vista 64-bit performs good with 4 GBs or more RAM but
then again, there are trade offs such as compatibility which I previously
mentioned.

Some other nice features of Vista include all device drivers must be signed
before they can be installed on the system, Patch Guard which prevents the
OS kernel from be patched or altered by third party software. So, there are
some try security benefits there too.

Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=42b5ac83-c24f-4863-a389-3ffc194924f8

Order Alternate media:

Learn more here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/1033/ordermedia/default.mspx

Learn more here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/versions/default.mspx

 

[Titus Pullo]

I have a ThinkPad R61 running Vista Business 64 bit. I am extremely pleased
with it. I've had no hardware problems, or software problems. 64 bit is the
future.

 

[Vigilante]

Even with the memory, many processes are not threaded enough to use the
hardware.
I constantly see my system barely up to 40% on both processors and memory
but it hangs.

I'm getting ready to move to Vista as soon as I add another
2GB of RAM for a total of 4GB.

64bit can access 4GB, 2GB is probably sufficient for most
purposes. 64bit doesn't add a lot at the moment as most apps.
are 32bit, Office2007 for instance seems to be 32bit.
Some mobos. show 4GB installed, just over 3GB available,
as reported by the BIOS screen, before the OS starts to boot.
Later mobos. may have memory mapping, allowing more than
4GB to be used.
Many users are going back to XP until Vista problems
are resolved with Service Packs.
You may have problems if you have an Aetherus based
USB wireless stick, an unsupported scanner, some Laser printers
(you may have to try many models listed to see if
one will give some printer functionality).
Just a lot of things to research and sort, when you could
be doing something more productive.

 

[Tim Slattery]

64bit can access 4GB,

64-bit Vista can access more than 4GB. Home Basic can handle 8GB, Home
Premium 16GB, Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate can handle 128GB. All
the 32-bit versions have a 4GB address space (but won't actually be
able to use an entire 4GB of RAM, see
http://members.cox.net/slatteryt/RAM.html)

2GB is probably sufficient for most
purposes. 64bit doesn't add a lot at the moment as most apps.
are 32bit, Office2007 for instance seems to be 32bit.

Very true, also many peripherals have 32-bit but not 64 bit drivers.
When I bought a laptop a few weeks ago, there were *many* with 64-bit
hardware, but every single one of them had 32-bit Vista loaded. That
tells me something.

 

[Saucy]

I'm getting ready to move to Vista as soon as I add another
2GB of RAM for a total of 4GB. Some users say only the 32bit version
is worth getting, while others say 64bit is the only stable version.
From what I understand, the DVD has both 64bit, and 32bit of all Vista
versions. You just buy the appropriate license for which version you
want. Does this apply to 32bit, and 64bit as well? I only care about
email, web surfing, and games, so Vista Home Basic Upgrade is what I'm
looking to get. I'm wanting to try 64bit, but if it proves to be to
problematic, I'd like to try 32bit. Would I have to purchase 2
separate licenses to use either 32bit, or 64bit Vista Home Basic
Upgrade?

It doesn't matter.

x32 Vista is a good operating system. It meets computing needs usually as
well as or sometimes better than x64. Unless you have some x64
applications - which is unlikely from your description - there's really not
much point going x64 at this time.

The single DVD does not have both versions, BTW. The Home Basic/Premium and
Business pkg.s come with the x32 DVD and you can send away for the x64 DVD
for a nominal fee. Vista Utlimate retail pkg. comes with both DVDs.

Saucy