Ms-Windows 64-Bits Vs 32-Bits

[Duindam]

MS Windows 7 as 64-bits operating system, is it a smart choice? Yesterday I compared it with MS Windows 7 32-bits.

First without starting any programs MS Windows 7/x64 uses over 1gb memory, what is about 340mb with the same installation with MS-Windows 7/x32. The memory use of MS-Windows 7/x32 is similar to how much Fedora 17-x64 is using.

The thing starts to get much different when you start to install and use software. Most Internet web browsers are still 32-bits, and 32-bits web-browsers do not work with 64-bits plugins and visa-versa. Wow, Linux had that problem 8-years ago, but now-a-day for Fedora 17 all plugins and software is 100% 64-bits, still for any old plugin Firefox can use 32-bits with the help of a wrapper.

Anyway this story is about MS-Windows so lets concentrate on that, while using software we have now, MS Office 2007, Adobe Dreamweaver CS6, web browsers and some other programs we found that the MS-Windows 7/x64 runs out of memory faster, and starts swapping to harddisk than MS-Windows 7/x32.

Microsoft Thailand explained us that the problem is that most of our software is 32-bits and therefore we are limited to 3.25mb memory, and because MS-Windows 7/x64 uses more than 3 times more memory without using any programs 64-bits MS-Windows is slower than 32-bits because with heavy usage it will start swapping memory to harddisk much faster.

We could of course upgrade MS-Office 2007 to a later version which supports 64-bits, but that would include an additional 12,000 THB per computer. Illegal software is not an option.

[RandomSand]

AFAIK... biggest benefits of W7 64bits are; increased kernel security, handling of large files and ability to utilize 192GB system RAM (Professional license). All very useful for virtualization and workstation apps.

[GarryUK]

If you upgrade Office to 64bit version you have to make sure all Office modules are 64bit. By this I mean we use Office Standard, Visio Standard and Project Standard, all must be 64bit, you cannot install 64bit Office along with 32bit Visio/Project, you'll have to remove all the 32bit versions before it'll let you install any 64bit versions. As a volume license customer when I go to download Office 2013 Microsoft actually says: "Important: Microsoft strongly recommends the use of 32-bit (x86) versions of Office 2013, Project 2013, and Visio 2013 applications as the default option for all platforms. Learn more about the deployment considerations for x64 and x86 at TechNet."

In the UK all the Windows 7 systems I buy are dual-core i3 64bit and come with 4gb ram. I would certainly recommend all systems run no less than this, but for "power users" I buy quad-core i7 64bit with 8gb ram (my workstation runs 32gb ram but then I run it as a VM server too). All the programs installed are 32bit and we've experienced no compatibility issues with this. A 4gb upgrade costs me £11 which is nothing here.

[GarryUK]

All the programs installed are 32bit and we've experienced no compatibility issues with this.

Just to clarify, one guy wanted to run Office 2010 64bit hence my experience in this matter, but in general we are still using Office 2003 32bit under Windows XP 32bit, or Office 2007 32bit under Windows 7 64bit. We are of course working towards deploying Windows 7 64bit along with Office 2010 32bit throughout the business in the near future - no plans for Office 2013 in a corporate environment as it's too new to risk.

[aarn]

You might consider using libreoffice 64-bit. It is free. It used to be, say, 10% slower then MSOffice 2007, but I haven't used either for a couple of years. AA

[Digitalbanana]

You might consider using libreoffice 64-bit. It is free. It used to be, say, 10% slower then MSOffice 2007, but I haven't used either for a couple of years. AA

I would never consider using it unless it is 100% compatible and it isn't because all of my work is shared with people who use MSOffice.

[SpaceKadet]

You don't say how much memory your PC has, but nowadays memory is dirt cheap. 4GB will cost you less than 1000 baht. 64 bit OS's just love big memory. All my PC's and Thinkpads running 64-bit OS, Win7 or Linux, have at least 8GB and some have 16GB.

[Duindam]

Our standard platform (computers) is equipped with a minimum of 8GB memory (we have systems that go up to 32GB, but that is rare). To our experience especially web designers who use MS Office 2007 (Word) and Adobe Dreamweaver CS6 extensively find that the computers are starting using the memory to file swap faster.

Just to make it clear for both MS Office 2007 and Adobe Dreamweaver CS6 are not 64-bits versions available. Upgrading to MS-Office 2010 or 2013 just cost too much. OpenOffice is an option as most web developers only use the word processor to write text or edit text for the website or web application.

We also looked at running Adobe Dreamweaver CS6 with Linux by using Wine, this seems to be the best option as every Wine session seems to be able to address 3.25GB memory (meaning that two 32-bits Windows programs can use 6.5GB memory) running the same two programs with 64-bits MS-Windows you’ re limited to 3.25GB memory.

In our office we have 3 official operating systems, first is MS-Windows, followed by Fedora Linux and as last but still very popular with the graph designers is Apple Macintosh OS X. Comparing any of the currently available 64-bits Microsoft operating systems I have to say that Microsoft is way way - yes very far behind Apple, and even Linux (the free operating system) is much better in handling memory.

[Ticketmaster]

I don't know much about OS, but I bought a Toshiba last year in the States with Win 7, 64 bit installed (Portege R835-P81). Most of my programs are 32 bit (Much to the chagrin of Bill Gates, I'm still using MS Office 2003 -- if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it). I have not experienced a single compatibility problem -- not one. This computer is the best I've ever owned. After having it a year, it is as fast today as the day I took it out of the box.

I think back over the years of computer use, all the trials and tribulations, hours on the phone to technical support, and whew! - we've finally arrived. Not a single problem with this one.