When I get a new PC it'll be Windows 7, but what are the pros and cons of the two differebt bit sizes ? I've heard you can't copy stuff from XP machines to 64 bit Win 7 machines. Is that true ? I'd like to copy .jpg and .pdf files, Outlook Express folders and MS Word .doc files. Are those a problem, and if so, are there any workarounds or conversion utilities available ?
Jim Hawkins
Those will all work.
Only COMPILED programs may not copy. Data is - just data. I mean I copy those freely between a 32bit XP virtual machine and a 64 bit Linux..
Windows 7 has no email client and Outlook express won't run on it. You need to download Live Mail or Thunderbird. Most files will copy, but its the software that might need to be fiddled with. certainly more oproblems with 64 bit. If you really need that access to address space then fine, but most do not. Note that only the top of the range Win 7 will allow you to run what is in effect XP under 7. Brian
What sort of stuff? I've been using Win7 for nearly 2 years and initially had the odd problem with drivers for scanner and printers. I think one games programme refused to work, but everything else seems fine. All the work files are fine.
If you want to use more than about 3.5Gb of memory then you have to use
64-bit. Most new machines have 64-bit pre-installed.No. You can copy any file either way between the two systems. But some old programs will not run under 64-bit OS.
Some old hardware does not work with 64-bit.
Only the Outlook Express data files should present any problems as OE is not supplied with W7. There is a replacement program and I believe that it can import data from OE files.
Wasn't that due to the various anti-monolpoly regulations? I'm running Office Outlook - but that came with MS Office.
Have you looked at
Apart from that:
a. as others have said, files are just files and copy just fine; and
b some software won't run on 64 bit (mostly old stuff IME). For that I use Virtual PC 2007. It is a free download from MS. It is not "supported" for most home versions of Windows 7 but that just means MS won't help if you hit snags. It runs OK and I just pop XP into that virtual machine. But you won't need to go there for run-of-the-mill software.
I got win 7 a few months back prior to that I had xp and it was years old as well as my printer and just about everything else. The only problem I found was OE, apart from that everything transferred ok.
Install Thunderbird on the XP machine. It will offer to import all OE stuff. Copy the profile to the thunderbird installation on the win 7 machine. You will have to amend profile.ini on the win7 machine to call up the copied profile (just change the reference). Just done it for my Daughter and found that was the easiest way to do it.
+1
If there is any software you are particularly concerned about then google to see if it works with 7 64 bit. I had trouble with one very old and not very common calendar program and with an old version of alk copilot that I found a workaround for. Nokia software seemed very flaky.
Other than that all good and 64 bit dows let you use a lot more ram.
64bit gives the ability to address more physical RAM - 32 bit is limited to 4GB of which windows and things like your graphics RAM will take a slice, giving a practical maximum of around 3.5GB usable memory. 64bit code is faster for some applications, although slightly more memory hungry. 64bit was at one time slightly harder to find drivers for older peripherals - but the situation is much improved.
No, not really.
There are some compatibility problems which are mainly Win7 Vs XP rather than 32/64 bit. These mostly stem from the more stringently policed security model of Win7.
Note that the 64 bit OS can run 32 bit code in the same way as WinXP
32bit can run 16bit code. The 64 bit OS may be be slightly slower running 32 bit code than the same hardware running the 32 bit OS (depends a bit on your hardware).Nothing stopping you installing a virtual machine hypervisor and running a 32 bit OS as well should you need to.
The more expensive versions of Win7 also allow XP compatibility mode (which is basically just a thinly disguised WinXP virtual machine)
Data files in general are no problem. There is no Win7 version of outlook express however. However there are plenty of alternatives.
...snip...
That's Nokia not Windows - even on my XP machine, the Nokia upgrade often leaves the Nokia software unusable and in need of repair :-(.
Paul DS.
My thanks to all respondents for the many helpful contributions. This newsgroup shows just how good usenet can be.
Jim Hawkins
...
And no one mentioned Linux, specifically the Angle Grinder distribution....
An upgrade bricked one of my old nokias. They didn't argue. Just replaced it.
Now much happier with an android
yes I did.
I said rthat if I could transfer my xp data freely to a linux 64 bit machine even microsoft couldn't break the transfer to a windows 7 machine.
Mind you, that may well be a non sequitur and false logic.
Van de Merwe is visiting America, and sees a statue of a black man rising up abd breaking the chains of slavery.
"What do you make of that, Mr Van De Merve?" "Ach man, Kaffirs can break anything. So what?"
Microsoft can also break anything.
Pros of 64-bit Windows 7:
Cons of 64-bit Windows 7:
On balance I generally recommend the 32-bit version, but YMMV.
Richard.
recommend the 32-bit version" became the reverse about three years ago.
And compare WoW64 emulation *may* work with WINE does work, BootCamp does work, Parallels does work and when Apple changed to 64 bit the customers didn't notice. Not only that but when the changed processor family (twice) old apps written for a different processor continued to work.
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