Running 32 bit application on 64 bit OS

[ThinkZ61]

Are there any advantages/disadvantages of using 32 bit application on 64 bit OS like Windows Vista Ultimate?

I am wondering if it's worth to upgrade to Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit OS since I already have the install DVD.

My current system configuration is T61, 2.1GHZ (Penryn), 15.4 LCD, 4 GB RAM, 160 GB HD 5400 RPM, Intel Graphics.

[tinue]

You can use all of your 4GB RAM, which is enough reason for me to use Vista 64 on my X61s.
There are few things that don't work, in my case:

• Nikon Camera Control Pro
  Nikon NEF viewer plug-in for Vista

Everything else runs fine and I can't see any disadvantages (or advantages, apart from the memory).

Regsrds, Martin

[jdhurst]

It depends much on the 32-bit application. Stuff that runs deep into Windows (VPN, Cain and Abel, Anti-Virus, Firewalls, and such like) need to be compiled as 64-bit applications or they don't run properly. I have a 64-bit machine and the applications I mention don't work properly because they have not been made 64-bit compliant. ... JDH

[Marin85]

If you have Office 2007 and Nero 8, you may notice that they launch a tiny bit slower than with Vista 32 bit. Probabely, this applies to some other apps as well, but who knows... (it´s all up to the 32 bit emulator of Vista x64 which from time to time appears to perform not so well as it was expected...). However, as tinue has already pointed out, the great advantage of x64 is the ability to use all of your 4 GB (although I read somewhere in this forum that 32 bit apps have limitations as to the amount of memory they can utilize). Vista likes system memory and in my case with up to 768 MB hypermemory for my ATI graphic card I wish I had additional GB of RAM (since you have Intel intergrated graphics, you don´t need to worry about such things ). Hope this helps.

Cheers

Marin

[ThinkZ61]

I finally got Vista Ultimate (64) installed on the machine. Almost all the applications are running fine.

I got Office 2007 installed on this machine, can't say about the loading speed since I haven't tried Office 2007 on XP yet. Nero 8 got installed without a hitch but got error while loading the software, haven't tried uninstalling and reinstalling yet.

Firefox crashed couple of times. Any one have any experience with Firefox and Vista 64?

Couldn't get my network shared printer Samsung ML1740 due to lack of drivers. I am sharing the printer through another computer. Not sure how I can accomplish this, but I will give a shot and provide updates later.

The only thing I hate about Vista is startup is takes a while compared to XP but once everything is loaded the system is really stable. It does however takes a few second when I click Start or My Computer or My Networks, as if it's looking for something. I did disable both UAC and indexing.

By the way, are you guys usying ThinkPad power management tool or Vista built-in power management tool?

[Marin85]

Cong on your new install! Don´t worry about loading speeds, that was meant only for very performance-sensible and demanding users What kind of error did you get with Nero? No probs with Firefox here. Are you sure about the Samsung printer? I thought the same about my Brother printer, but Vista seemed to have the appropriate driver. Probabely, your issues will be solved with the next updates (btw, did you install Vista with SP1 integrated or without?) Frankly, Vista with Hitachi 7K200 boots up faster than XP with my old Toshiba 120 GB 5400 rpm 10MB/s and Vista Business 32 bit SP1 with that Toshiba did start up faster than the XP with the same HDD... go figure... As to power management I use both: ThinkPad power management (proved to be very usuful utility to me) and from time to time Vista built-in power management since the latter seems to interfer with the first one regardless of the fact if you want to or not, so one eventually has to tweak ot in order to get ThinkPad power management utility do what you want it to do (at least in my experience). Actually, there is way out, you have to create your own profiles in ThinkPad PM, particuliarly some duplicate profiles to the built-in in order to avoid any interference from Vista built-in power management.

Cheers

Marin