Should I run x64 or x86 Windows 7?

I'm not a 64-bit expert, but 32-bit Windows can only address up to 4 GB of RAM. If you have more than 4 GB of physical RAM then you should probably run 64-bit.

I'm running Windows 7 64-bit. It can run a lot of 32-bit applications just fine. As long as your hardware drivers have 64-bit support you should be fine.

 

I have been running 7 x64 since beta, and can tell you unequivocally that it is faster than x86. You can install most if not all 32bit programs and they will run with little or no issue, Depending on how old the software is you may have to have it run as an older os. The only issues I have had with software are secondlife doesn't yet run reliably on the 64bit version, I believe this is due to the video drivers not being officially released for my chipset and windows 7. I also can not get an older bluetooth dongle to work, but I can and likely will just buy a new one.

My suggestion would be to go 64bit and never look back. If there are older programs or drivers that you need, you can always use vbox, vmware or virtualpc to run xp.

 

x64 all the way. No problem running 99% of stuff out there. faster and more secure.

 

I was running 32 bit on all my machines, but with all the Betas and RC refreshes of Windows 7, I was installing the 64bit versions to test. I have had NO problem with 64 bit, with the exception of this one irritating thing.

My printers I have insalled to my x64 machine run 64 bit drivers. My older machines in the house that are 32 bit wont print to a shared 64bit printer through a network. And when you try to install "additional drivers" 32 bit version. Nothing but hell broke lose for me.

(The work around would be download the 32 bit driver and have it ready when the machine asks for them).

Other than this PITA (pain-in-the-@$$), 64 bit is fine.

 

And like drivers and such ? I hear it can be a pain in the ** to find suitable drivers ? I'm thinking of going to 64bit, cause of the 2.8Gb i can now only use out of the 4 installed...

 

I can remember the time, when WindowsXP x64 came out ...

Nothing worked, no videocarddrivers, no printer, no scanner, no programs

But now, the most drivers (common hardware) are avaible in 64bit and Software too ...

The advantage of 64 Bits are not only that it can adress more RAM, various programms running faster under 64bit. Like WinRAR, Photoshop and some Games.

I think it will become a problem, when you use old or exotic hardware, like old PCI Card or something else

 

So you're saying go for it ? I do have a printer/scanner installed over my home network, and i read that it can cause problems when other pc's trie to address it ? 4 different pc's need this printer here...

 

mhm, i don´t think thats a problem with 64bit (more with the fun of windows itself)
I have 3 PCs in my network and all can access the printer with no problems.



With printers and Windows7 ... do yourself a favour and disable the Windows Firewall not before you share the printer ;-)

 

Firewall won't be an issue here, 2 hardware firewalls and a software firewall on every system, all 100% under my conrtrol and all doing their part...as long as drivers aren't gonna spoil the fun, it'll be ok i guess...

EDIT: btw i hate that cheap windows firewall thingy, only works one way and won't do it for me...

 

I mean the firewall it the problem itself, when it is disabled, you cannot share a printer, Windows will given me an error ... when enabled, the sharing works and you can disable them ... only need to enable when you creating the sharedprinter.

 

had the windows firewall disabled since it existed, and allways been able to share files, printers, you name it.
That's weird, bro

 

mhm, strange ...

maybe a problem with the printer itself ... its a Canon Pixma ...

All the time, i though that the problem was, that the new config couldn´t written in the firewallrules of windows (wich was disabled).

Do you use Homegroup or Oldskool Network?

 

This is the first time i have ever run a 64 bit OS ..... i have a fairly hi spec pc here and expected a big difference ..... in all honesty i have noticed no difference at all .... ok maybe i dont use 64bit programs or the pc for anything other than gaming and browsing so maybe i wont notice any difference anyway ..... can be frustrating when a program you used before wont work though ... doesnt happen too often though ..... over all if your memory allows it go 64 bit but dont be suprised if you notice no difference

 

I got 5 pc's and 2 laptops and a DC running AD with a fileserver/mailserver and printserver now, connected through an accesspoint and two routers that each have their own hardware firewall set up.

But before i was running a homegroup network with only 3 pc's, and never had problems. U know, when a firewall is disabled, firewall rules just aren't applied anymore, so no new rules need to be written.

 

yepp, i know that

The problem were maybe that the sharing"process" wanted to write a new rule, but it couldn´t because the firewall was disabled, this caused the error i think

 

sounds to me like when your firewall was disabled, so was "file-and printersharing in your tcp/ip settings. When that box isn't checked, you cannot share a printer. maybe the issue lied there, cause your firewall shouldn't have anything to do with being able to share a printer or not when it's disabled.

 

Same results here.

I know this goes against the grain, but the memory reason is way overblown.
95% of PC users will never use more than 2 gig, (past and near future), and many never use more than 1 gig even in a system that has 2 or 3 gig installed.

Do a quick google search of "how much memory do I need", and look at some sites that did a lot of benchmarking, such as Tom's. Yes, in a few games, going "up to" 2 gigs helped, but most games were fine with 1 gig.

Check out XP's task manager before going to Win7 to see what you now use. It will show peak memory used since last reboot. You might be surprised to see that you are still under 1 gig.

If you use specific memory hog programs, mainly in photo or video apps, then 64 bits memory advantage makes sense. But for the majority, Win 32 bit 3.25gig memory limit is overkill. 64bit for most is simply another unneeded way to extract money by forcing you to upgrade older software and hardware that was still working great (and just as fast) in 32bit.

 

newsflash bro, A LOT of recent games require huge amounts of memory, from 2gb to 4 or even 6gb. Trust me pall, we've been there. A lot of friends of mine are running vista or win7 64bit ONLY FOR THIS REASON. And i HAVE SEEN games eat up to 6Gb of memory. So yes, gaming does require that much memory...i kid u not

 

But...as I am not that much of a game freak... 64bit isn't that appealing to me right now, because YES, besides certain games, the only thing that could require that much mem would indeed be memory hogz like certain graphic applications, which i also don't use that exentricly. So if your neather of those, yes, 64bit can wait for you...