The Tenuous Link

Why? (I've already decided I want some consumer version of Microsoft Windows on this computer!) Like installing any version of Vista (rather than XP or Windows Server), the reasons are mainly "worthy" items that include

• Even better security, although this includes the limitation of only allowing signed drivers to be installed, which might become painful.
• Much more memory can be used by both the whole computer and by individual applications - up to 128GB is supported by Windows Vista Ultimate x64, although 8GB is currently a common motherboard restriction. I would like to be able to put a lot of memory in my computer so that I can run several Virtual Machines at the same time. 32 bit PC have a practical useful limit of 3GB (not 4GB) because some of the memory address space can't be used by RAM. Typically almost 1GB of memory addresses (but not actual memory) are reserved for hardware that might not even be installed!
• Probably the most decisive reason for me is that 64 bit computing is new and shiney.

Reasons why that are not very good:

• Speed: Although some specialized applications that have been compiled specially for Vista x64 can run a lot faster than an equivalent 32 bit version of the application, in general I will be running 32 bit applications on the 64 bit OS so there may be a small performance penalty. And anyway the machine is quite fast enough for my uses already.

Reasons not to install a 64 bit version of Windows:

• No DOS or 16-bit application support. That includes 16 bit installers!
• Difficulty getting drivers for some hardware or video codecs (actually, I think this might be a myth - all my hardware has been supported, 32-bit video codecs run fine, and even the AnyDVD driver works without issue).

Finally, here are a list of random x64 facts:

• x64 is a synonym for AMD64, Intel 64, EM64T, EMT64, x86-64 and x86_64.
• Older 32 bit applications install by default to the "Program Files x86" folder. Programs compiled specially for a 64 bit version of Windows install to "Program Files".
• A 32 bit application can only load other 32 bit libraries, and a 64 bit applications can only load other 64 bit libraries.
• Windows Vista x64 provides 32 bit and 64 bit versions of most libraries and applications when it is installed, so for example there is a version of Windows Media Player in Program Files and in Program Files x86.
• Because Media Player often relies on third party extensions provided as libraries, and those third parties may not have made a (reliable) 64 bit version of their library available, the default version of Windows Media Player is the 32 bit version.
• If the 64 bit version is used (perhaps accidentally) the error messages can be very unhelpful. I don't know any reason why it would be helpful to use a 64 bit player application, but I suppose the app is needed in case a decoder library is supplied only as a 64 bit dll.
• The FFDShow codec will allow Media Player to play lots of common video or sound format, and is currently experimentally available as a 64 bit install, and can be installed side by side with the 32 bit version. However, I still can't play mp4 files because Haali Media Splitter is not available compiled as a 64 bit version.

// posted by Steven @ 1:31 PM