Compatibility between 64bit and 32bit OS

X

XHair

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 27, 2008
Messages
181
I am planning on updating to a 64bit OS to accommodate more than 4GB of RAM. I have heard that there are compatibility issures between a 32bit and 64bit platform. For example, the rumor goes that if you create a file on Word in a 64bit OS it will be incompatible with a 32bit OS. I transfer projects between home and work and this would be problematic if true.

Can someone give me some real information? I am unfamiliar with 64 bit operating systems besides what I've found on the intarwebbing.
 
It will make no difference. In your example, Word is 32 bit only, and will run as 32 bit on 32 or 64 bit Windows. So all of your data will be compatible.
 
Crosshair said:
For example, the rumor goes that if you create a file on Word in a 64bit OS it will be incompatible with a 32bit OS. I transfer projects between home and work and this would be problematic if true.
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That's a funny one! Whoever, or wherever you heard that rumor from should be ignored for future technical advice. I'm using Vista x64 and the rest of my company is using XP x86. There are no issues sharing files and documents back and forth.
 
Data files are definitely not affected - even if a 64-bit version of Word did exist, it would still save files in a format compatible with 32-bit Word; it would be pretty stupid for Microsoft to make them incompatible, and there's no reason why they should be so. Data files are not programs, they're written and read according to a standard which is independent of CPU architecture.

Imagine if it were otherwise; when 32-bit Windows 95 came out, no-one with Windows 95 would have been able to communicate with people using Windows 3.1. Furthermore, no-one using Windows would have been able to communicate with anyone using a Mac, before they started using Intel processors - and PDAs wouldn't be able to read any files copied from desktops either. There may be slight platform-dependent incompatibilities if the programs differ in their rendering or feature support between platforms, but that's not the data file's fault - and Word is the same executable on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows anyway.
 
Crosshair said:
I am planning on updating to a 64bit OS to accommodate more than 4GB of RAM. I have heard that there are compatibility issures between a 32bit and 64bit platform. For example, the rumor goes that if you create a file on Word in a 64bit OS it will be incompatible with a 32bit OS. I transfer projects between home and work and this would be problematic if true.

Can someone give me some real information? I am unfamiliar with 64 bit operating systems besides what I've found on the intarwebbing.
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Your worries are completely unfounded. Even if Word was a fully 64bit application you would still be able to read the files on both 32 and 64 bit systems. That's a function of the document format and not the bitness of the OS and application.

The restrictions are with the applications. You can't run a 64bit application on a 32bit system. You can, however, run a 32bit application on a 64bit OS as long as it has some sort of translation layer. In vista's case it's WOW64.

One notable restriction on Vista 64 is that there is no compatibility with 16 bit applications. These days, that's not really much of an issue as we moved away from 16bit applications a long time ago and it's currently limited to very specific, niche, applications that just were never upgraded. Software started the 32bit transition well over a decade ago now.

Today, the gotchas with 64 bit operating systems is mostly with driver availability. Not so much for the computer itself, but peripherals. Printers and Scanners usually. For those there are a lot of work arounds though. On my set up, I have only a single device in the house that doesn't have a native 64bit driver under Vista64. It is my HP Laserjet 1012, but I simply use the built in PCL driver included with the OS and I print just fine on that printer.
 
griffinhart said:
It is my HP Laserjet 1012, but I simply use the built in PCL driver included with the OS and I print just fine on that printer.
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Would that work on all printers? I have a laser printer that doesn't have native support either. It's a Konica Minolta Page Pro 1350w... I've tried various work-around methods including using XP64 drivers, which didn't work for me... I ended up just leaving it connected to my XP machine and print it off there instead.
 
I doubt the PCL driver would work on your Konica. PCL is just the print language that HP uses on its printers. Unfortunately there still are a number of printers that don't support 64bit. Honestly I find it pretty sad that these hardware companies haven't put much effort into updating these drivers.
 
griffinhart said:
IHonestly I find it pretty sad that these hardware companies haven't put much effort into updating these drivers.
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But then you wouldn't buy a new printer to keep your compatibility, would you? My basement is filling with functional but obsolete printers and scanners from the XP change and now Vista.
 
yossarian said:
But then you wouldn't buy a new printer to keep your compatibility, would you? My basement is filling with functional but obsolete printers and scanners from the XP change and now Vista.
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If forced to, I might. But, It wouldn't be from that company again. Especially with something like a printer. I can see if the printer is 5+ years old, but a printer that's no more than two years old? That's just poor customer support. Especially since printers these days don't really make money on the hardware but the consumables.

Some companies are much better about drivers than others. My Epson scanner and printers all had Vista drivers at release and all have 64bit drivers.
 
The problem is most cheap (even laser) printers are winprinters. Next time you go buy a printer make sure it supports "PCL 5" or "PCL 6" and "PostScript" which are and have been the defacto standards for printers since at least 20 years ago (I still deal with DOS apps that print direct to LPT1 and as long as you get a "PCL5" printer it works!)

I had this same issue with a Canon printer when Windows 2000 came out... they had a beta driver even but wouldn't release it!
 
griffinhart said:
If forced to, I might. But, It wouldn't be from that company again. Especially with something like a printer. I can see if the printer is 5+ years old, but a printer that's no more than two years old? That's just poor customer support. Especially since printers these days don't really make money on the hardware but the consumables.
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Exactly. Same boat here. If they don't come out with a Vista driver soon, I'm never buying KM again.

Actually I probably don't have too seeing that the printer will likely outlive my computers.
 
I'm so confused at the amount of myths and crazy nonsense I hear about 64-bit Windows (and 64-bit OS's in general).

There was an episode of Star Trek where these two aliens were on the Enterprise. One was the "superior" and the other the "lower". The entire course of the show basically had the superior kicking around the lower at every chance. By the end, the truth comes out, and the crew of the Enterprise learn that the entire reason the "superior" class bullies the "lower" class is because the "lower" class have the ability to evolve to pure energy forms.

This is 32-bit vs. 64-bit. the 32-bit crowd just keeps kicking and smacking and talking trash about the 64-bit OS, because they don't want to see the plain truth.
 
It's all FUD from Creative Labs. They want to make sure people use 32bit OSes and then 2 or 3 years down the line *BAM* you need to buy a "64bit sound card" all because their too cheap (intentionally) to hire a developer that can write 64-bit drivers.
 
SuperSubZero said:
I'm so confused at the amount of myths and crazy nonsense I hear about 64-bit Windows (and 64-bit OS's in general).

There was an episode of Star Trek where these two aliens were on the Enterprise. One was the "superior" and the other the "lower". The entire course of the show basically had the superior kicking around the lower at every chance. By the end, the truth comes out, and the crew of the Enterprise learn that the entire reason the "superior" class bullies the "lower" class is because the "lower" class have the ability to evolve to pure energy forms.

This is 32-bit vs. 64-bit. the 32-bit crowd just keeps kicking and smacking and talking trash about the 64-bit OS, because they don't want to see the plain truth.
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I think most people are just misinformed. There are a lot of self important people that badmouth Vista and 64 bit, and people don't know better. I had issues with 64 bit, but I don't discourage its use. The myths come from the the idiot that just sent you that email that you have to send to 10 people in 10 minutes or your hair will fall out.

athlon1.2 said:
It's all FUD from Creative Labs. They want to make sure people use 32bit OSes and then 2 or 3 years down the line *BAM* you need to buy a "64bit sound card" all because their too cheap (intentionally) to hire a developer that can write 64-bit drivers.
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When I was running 64 bit, my X-Fi drivers were actually one of the things I had no problems with.
 
Vista screwed over Creative royally. I'm not happy either, since I do like hardware accelerated sound (everywhere, not just by way of kludges). Vista makes Creative cards unnecessary, or rather unusable to their potential. It's depressing, and I loathe the idea that my next desktop build may be my first since my first PC in 1992 to not have a Creative Labs card in it.
 
SuperSubZero said:
Vista screwed over Creative royally. I'm not happy either, since I do like hardware accelerated sound (everywhere, not just by way of kludges). Vista makes Creative cards unnecessary, or rather unusable to their potential. It's depressing, and I loathe the idea that my next desktop build may be my first since my first PC in 1992 to not have a Creative Labs card in it.
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Vista is code and as such in an inanimate object or rather a collection of inanimate objects. No OS is intelligent either thus rending an OS incapable of doing harm on its own.

That said please put the blame where it belongs and in this case it is not the Vista Programmers.

Creative Labs like every other manufacture had more then a year to develop either a new sound card and or drivers however they made a choice not to do that.

There is nothing new about Creative Labs historic problems with drivers. There is also nothing new about Creative Labs unrelenting issues with their own attempt to redefine the IRQ and IRQ addressing instead of accepting the standards long held by the rest of the industry.

Now no doubt you will want to argue this point endlessly however before you go too far please Google Creative Labs along with DOS, and windows, any version, and you will find the complaint list to be more endless then any argument you could present.

Sorry, I don’t mean to flame you but when you make a generalized statement like you did you should have some fact to back it up.:)
 
athlon1.2 said:
Yes, it's their fault you chose to buy a cheap winprinter. PS & PCL licenses aren't free.
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Excuse me? "Cheap winprinter"? WTF are you on? What, all home users are suppose to shell out 5 grand for a printer now? $120 is too cheap to warrant a working product?
 
sth128 said:
Excuse me? "Cheap winprinter"?
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Sorry I didn't have time to come up with pretty graphics or statistics but generally the lower end (cheaper) printers don't support PCL. Espeically the $30 - 70 jetprinters that are sold at a loss with the manufacturer hoping to make money on you with the ink (isn't that business model enough to scare you away from buying the product?)

WTF are you on?
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Pot.

What, all home users are suppose to shell out 5 grand for a printer now? $120 is too cheap to warrant a working product?
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Brother make some decent laserprinters with PCL support that sell for less than $200 (at retail stores!) and include a built in printserver.

HP Photosmart D7400 is a $150 color jetprinter that supports PCL It even has a color LCD screen on the front so you can feel all high-tech and cozy inside while you watch it print.

There's even an HP "OfficeJet Pro K5400" that cost only $99. an supports PCL!

For arguments sake, even the HP MFP "Copier" doesn't even cost $5k.... http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/e...64-12004-3328083-2512319-2512326-2512331.html

Me, I use a Lexmark T520 cost per page is very low and it worked with Windows Vista out of the box no issues at all.
 
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