64bit Questions..

[army]

Hi all


I finally got my new comp, currently have Vista Ultimate 64bit installed.. just released it took the supplier over 12 hours to get all the drivers working correctly, since it's a 64bit OS.



Questions
1. Would my supplier supply me with the 32bit OS of Vista, for free, even if the copy he sold me was an OEM version?
2. Would dual booting work? Since I read somewhere you must install XP before Vista if you wish to dual boot.
3. I'm considering either reformatting with a 32bit Vista or dual boot Windows XP 32bit.. is this even worth it just for a 32bit OS?
4. I'm pretty much a noob at computers.. so please explain anything fully if you do reply.

thanks!

 

[JVC]

1. no, oems are final.
2. yes
3. yes it is worth. xp is faster than vista in games.

 

[Rebel44]

1. No but you key will work with 32bit and 64bit Vista so you can get 32bit DVD from friend or download it from internet......
2. Yes - you have to install older OS first (for example: 1. Win98 2. Win XP 3. Vista)
3. No - difference is less then 2FPS (most games have same FPS in Vista and XP). 64bit is future because if you have 32bit OS you cant use more then 3GB RAM (depending on your HW it could be more or less)

 

[XboxodX]

1. No, but your key will work with 32bit and 64bit Vista so if you can get 32bit DVD you can use your key.
2. Yes, but you have to do some fiddling to get it to work if you have already installed vista. If you have vista first, than install XP, XP's bootmanager won't recognize Vista because it is newer. You would have to boot from your Vista DVD and run a repair in order to reinstall Vista's bootloader and bootmanager.
3. If you don't have any other problems with Vista, then no.

 

[BinarySynapse]

You do know that most programs work just fine with Vista 64 (and the ones that won't are either have some 16-bit code somewhere or won't on Vista 32 either). And the 12 hours to tweak drivers because it's 64 bit? that's bullshit. I've installed Vista x64 on 5 different systems in the last month and it didn't take me any longer to install drivers on them than it would have a 32bit system.

 

[SuperSubZero]

For the record, my Sager 5793 laptop comes from the OEM fully assuming it will be running Vista 64. Full Vista 64 drivers for everything, and it's all your typical setup.exe affairs.

Whoever told you it took 12 hours to get drivers working was charging you by the hour obviously, or you have a REALLY wacky machine. Heck, people can get Vista 64 running on freakin' Macs with less effort.

 

[Mithent]

It's possible that you might not be able to get 64-bit drivers if you have some fairly obscure/old hardware, but then you just wouldn't have the drivers. If they're available, though (and they are for pretty much all modern hardware), there's no reason why they shouldn't work just like any other driver.

 

[yossarian]

Hi all


I finally got my new comp, currently have Vista Ultimate 64bit installed.. just released it took the supplier over 12 hours to get all the drivers working correctly, since it's a 64bit OS.



Questions
1. Would my supplier supply me with the 32bit OS of Vista, for free, even if the copy he sold me was an OEM version?
2. Would dual booting work? Since I read somewhere you must install XP before Vista if you wish to dual boot.
3. I'm considering either reformatting with a 32bit Vista or dual boot Windows XP 32bit.. is this even worth it just for a 32bit OS?
4. I'm pretty much a noob at computers.. so please explain anything fully if you do reply.

thanks!

You've had the individual questions answered by others, but I'd ask you (about all of them) Why?

If you have the computer up and running stable, why do you want a 32-bit OS? Obviously all your hardware is OK since it's a new machine and it took the builder half a day to get it all working properly. So, unless you have software that won't work in 64-bit I don't know why you'd want to waste time, effort, and money installing a 32-bit OS. And no, game performance is not a reason to dump Vista 64 at this point. There have been many postings recently that show identical performance or within 5%, and I doubt anyone can truly feel a 5% difference in fps.

For the record, I use XP Pro in MS Virtual Machine (on Vista Business 64) for a few older games that won't run in Vista. It's simple and free. I've seen many postings about people dumping their dual-boot setups for a single OS to simplify their startups and presumably because it just wasn't worth the hassle to deal with it.