TSGL: Win 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?

[Tilman Brandl]

Russ,

thanks for your answer ... that sums it all up appropriately, I guess. And your experience with 32-bit programs quitting doesn't call for an encore on my side  ;-)
I just wasn't (and actually still am not) really clear about how the xx-bit properties of hardware (CPU) + system (Windows) and software I use *really* go together. But sofar my test with 32-bit Win 7 on my 64-bit machine looks quite promising, so I'll continue for the time being.

Thanks again
Tilman

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Russell W. Coover" <coover at fastmail.fm>
To: "'Tech Support Guy Mailing List'" <list at tsgserver.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 10:21 AM
Subject: Re: TSGL: Win 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?


> Tilman, 
> 
> About a year ago, I decided to reformat the main hard drive on my Vista
> Ultimate computer. Having a copy of the Vista 64 bit OS (which I had never
> used until then) and since the computer had a 64 bit CPU, I decided to load
> the 64 bit OS onto the machine. I did with no problems with installation ...
> and then I started loading software I use all the time, including several
> freeware applications. Most of it worked properly. But everytime I tried to
> use certain programs, the computer would crash (in the Vista Style - the
> program would close), but I'd then find that I would actually lose access to
> those programs and to several others, too. It was very frustrating. I assume
> it was because the freeware was incompatible with 64 bit. I then reinstalled
> the original 32 bit OS, and have not contemplated going back to 64 bit.
> Besides, the only real advantage I could see for the 64 bit Vista OS was
> that it gave me access to 4 GB of memory rather than the approximately 3.3
> GB that is allowed by Vista 32 bit. 
> 
> By the way ... I see where Win 7 32 bit will support 4 GB memory or more,
> depending upon the version of Win 7. 
> 
> I suppose 64 bit will someday be more useful than 32 bit for most folks, but
> it isn't now (though it should theoretically be 4 times faster). There
> simply isn't much software around that can take advantage of its power. Of
> course, if you use Photoshop ... that is a different story.
> 
> Russ Coover 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: list-bounces at tsgserver.com [mailto:list-bounces at tsgserver.com] On
> Behalf Of Tilman Brandl
> Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 5:37 AM
> To: Tech Support Guy Mailing List
> Subject: TSGL: Win 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I bought a 64-bit bargain PC with quadcore processor, 4 GB of Ram + Vista
> 32-bit lately. Main idea is to use it as a new backup machine. 
> 
> On a second partition I'm trying out 32-bit Windows 7. The download was
> before I bought this machine, so it never occurred to me to dl a 64-bit
> version. Would it make sense to use the 32-bit Win 7, or should I swap it
> for the 64-bit thing? Of course all other software that I'm going to run in
> that setup is 32-bit - Winword, OpenOffice, PaintShopPro etc. ...
> 
> ???
> 
> Tilman