So what CANT you do with Vista 64?

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Rob94hawk

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Building a new rig and I'm hearing many good things about Vista 64 but I'm worried about compatibility with things that I currently use. What software and hardware CANT you use with Vista 64? Do you have to install drivers in 64?

How about iTunes, word processing, games, skype, AIM, etc. Is there a list of non usable stuff?

Or is it only good for power users and 4 or more gigs of ram? Thanx
 
Not enough driver support. Just like XP 64 bit ... Dont bother. I went back to XP Pro (SP2) 32 bit
 
The consensus seems to be that most general stuff (Office, Firefox, iTunes, etc...) works well enough, but drivers aren't as good as on the 32-bit platform. First and foremost, you should be making a list of your specific hardware and software needs and looking them up individually on manufacturer'/developers' sites... After that, check forums and such to see just how good that support actually is.
 
I'm going with Vista-64 as well, I've heard pretty much good things with an occasional person who can't install an older printer. I'll have my computer in a week and a half if you can wait that long. I'll be the guinea pig!
 
Been using x64 for 6 months; everything works. Printers (3), quickcam, usb hubs, video cards, digital camera, etc......

Now, if I ask, what doesn't work (what doesn't have an x64 driver), someone will come up w/ a device or 2. Even then, the wow layer allows legacy installs.

Many people tried it early, and got burned. Things are better.
 
M a d c o w said:
Not enough driver support. Just like XP 64 bit ... Dont bother. I went back to XP Pro (SP2) 32 bit
Click to expand...
Comments such as the above are ones you can ignore... not much different than "Vista sucks, Linux rocks. Don't even try Vista".

A couple of things to note...
#1- Microsoft is mandating 64 bit versions of all drivers now. Driver support is the best it has ever been. Granted, you still must do research and see if all your hardware is compatible, though. On the machine in my sig, I installed it and Vista already had all the drivers!

#2- 64 bit Vista can run 32 bit apps... Therefore, the vast majority of your apps will still work. You have the additional luxury of running 64 bit apps, however.
 
I keep hearing about all this "64-bit drivers aren't as good as 32-bit" stuff, but I have absolutely NO idea what any of them are talking about.

nVidia and ATI graphics drivers - let's start here since this is [H]ardOCP and we do love our video cards. nVidia and ATI both have 64-bit drivers out that are the EXACT SAME VERSION as the 32-bit ones. You want to download 32-bit nVidia Vista drivers? You get 163.69. You want to download 64-bit nVidia Vista drivers? You get 163.69. nVidia does not even bother to differentiate the driver version numbers (same thing with XP and XP64, they both use 163.71). They are THAT much the same. You want ATI drivers for XP? 7.9. XP64? 7.9. Vista32? 7.9. Vista64? 7.9. Again, ATI does not even bother to differentiate the version numbers.

Sound? Well, I don't know too much about on-board sound, but I do own an X-fi. Let's see what the latest Creative cards have for drivers.

32-bit XP?
1. Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic, Platinum, Fatal1ty and Elite Pro Driver with OpenAL support 2.09.0007 (43.53 MB) 30 Oct 06
Click to expand...

How about the red-headed stepchild, XP64.. I'm sure Creative doesn't even MAKE a dri..
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic, Platinum, Fatal1ty and Elite Pro Driver with OpenAL support 2.09.0007 (43.53 MB) 30 Oct 06
Click to expand...

Same version. Same date released. Same size.

Does every hardware device ever made have a 64-bit driver? No. Does every 64-bit driver match it's 32-bit counterpart? Probably not. Is "64-bit driver support sucks" an incredible overexaggeration? Yes.
 
Vista 64 is incompatible with iPhone/iPod Touch. The only thing keeping me from wasting money on them :p
 
while you have 64 bit support, there are some complaints,

x-fi has issues that creative seem to be doing nothing about, for the most part it works for me, but not every feature is enabled, at least the ones I use are working

with nvidia, aspect ratio is broken, minor details here and there like alt-tabbing in some games, (changing res in others may lead to BSOD)... etc

also some drivers aren't as tweakable as their xp counterparts

have to be careful about doing some odd things in vista, changing modes with the x-fi will lead to a stoppage of sound which will cause your programs to think their is no audio device until you restart them, xp let me do this on the fly.

some sequence of events can cause codecs not to load, say if I look at the recent menu and load up a avi, my video codec will not load and I get blank but sound, only a restart of the program will work

So it's not exactly perfect, but it's a step up over the 1 year later xp experience when it came out.

The good:
The x-fi sounds better, I actually get better sound separation for my surround now, my center channel really acts like one in vista compared to xp,

System more stable when oc. I was able to identify a low voltage on my ram due to a BSOD in xp, that vista was able to mask, raised it and xp worked fine.

Games work great under vista, so far no compatibility, and many hours of gaming later, still going strong, performance is near identical
 
In terms of hardware, the only thing that doesn't work is my Terratec EWX 24/96.
There are beta drivers, but they are very unstable, and the SPDIF doesn't work, which happens to be the only output I use.
I'm not too bothered by that though. This card is from the Windows 2000 era. I was amazed it actually was supported by XP x64 even, and that they actually have beta drivers for Vista (in 32-bit they even work quite well). I have been thinking about upgrading that card even before I used Vista, so perhaps it's time to get it over with.

A few weeks ago I even got an update for my Soundmax, which completely restored the DTS functionality, and even added some new DSP options. That pulled it beyond the support for XP and XP x64.

In terms of software... Cuda is the only thing I've found so far. Then again, that doesn't work in the 32-bit version of Vista either, nor does it work in XP x64.
All my daily software just works, and quite well at that. But the lack of support for my EWX 24/96 puts a bit of a cramp in my style in terms of Cubase. I have an USB audio interface which works, and I can use that, but when I get serious about recording, I still boot to XP so I can use all my sound hardware. But that's not a problem of Vista x64 really, I'm sure it will work fine once I upgrade my soundcard, or get proper drivers.
 
zacdl said:
#1- Microsoft is mandating 64 bit versions of all drivers now. Driver support is the best it has ever been. Granted, you still must do research and see if all your hardware is compatible, though. On the machine in my sig, I installed it and Vista already had all the drivers!
Click to expand...
Well they are at least forcing it for WHQL certification. WHQL is mandatory in a corporate environment most usually, and most companies will want the certificatoin if their product can be applied to business use.

I've been running x64 almost 3 years, damn it has been that long o_O. My main bitch is that people blame the operating system when its the vendors problems. I can understand why this would hold you back from the choice, but it shouldn't stop someone from wanting to get there. Put the pressure where it belongs, doing otherwise only stagnates the problem and will keep the real future of 64bit from coming. It has to move to x64, otherwise we're not going anywhere.
 
It works great. Just need to make sure you can get the drivers. If you can it runs awesome.
Like others have said, dont pay attention to people who say it sucks, etc. They have no clue what they are talking about. Let them use xp and be happy. hehe
 
well i got vista 64 and tried it for a couple of days and went back to xp media center edition
most of my issues were with vista as a whole,alot of software wouldn't work but i don't think it would of worked with vista 32 bit either, but what wouldn't work for me was norton ghost and core temp (which you could get core temp to work by at boot up disableing driver signing verifycation and then it would work but after you re-booted it would not unless you repeated the process.
I personally found vista to be a big let down there nare many who like it but i couldn't imagine why for me it was less stable and annoying
 
to be honest i couldn't understand why MSN messenger doesn't exactly work properly in vista 64.. always wants to run in admin mode, or won't let you install extra bits and pieces.


also for Music production, some vst's don't run under vista 64, which is why i just moved back to XP sp2 32.
 
Windows Live Messenger works fine for me. As far as what i can't do, well...I can't make part of my 4 GB of memory disappear.
 
zacdl said:
Comments such as the above are ones you can ignore... not much different than "Vista sucks, Linux rocks. Don't even try Vista".

A couple of things to note...
#1- Microsoft is mandating 64 bit versions of all drivers now. Driver support is the best it has ever been. Granted, you still must do research and see if all your hardware is compatible, though. On the machine in my sig, I installed it and Vista already had all the drivers!

#2- 64 bit Vista can run 32 bit apps... Therefore, the vast majority of your apps will still work. You have the additional luxury of running 64 bit apps, however.
Click to expand...

QFT...still amazes me how much hyperbole and FUD surrounds Vista in general, let alone Vista x64.
 
Rob94hawk said:
Building a new rig and I'm hearing many good things
How about iTunes, word processing, games, skype, AIM, etc. Is there a list of non usable stuff?
Click to expand...
iTunes is not officially supported on Vista x64. It will install, but you can't import CDs, burn CDs, or sync with an iPhone. I've had no problems with Office 2007 or OpenOffice 2.3.0. I use Pidgin (formerly GAIM) for AIM and haven't had any problems with it either.
M a d c o w said:
Not enough driver support. Just like XP 64 bit ... Dont bother. I went back to XP Pro (SP2) 32 bit
Click to expand...
Driver support for Vista x64 is much better than for XP x64. It's not perfect though. For example, I can't find a consumer level (meaning not several hundred dollar RAID) PCI IDE controller with working x64 drivers. The latest drivers for the popular Silicon Image 0680A chipsets cause BSODs on both XP x64 and Vista x64.
dekruyter said:
Now, if I ask, what doesn't work (what doesn't have an x64 driver), someone will come up w/ a device or 2. Even then, the wow layer allows legacy installs.
Click to expand...
WoW allows 32 bit applications to run, but not 16 bit apps or 32 bit drivers.
Slade said:
while you have 64 bit support, there are some complaints,

x-fi has issues that creative seem to be doing nothing about, for the most part it works for me, but not every feature is enabled, at least the ones I use are working
Click to expand...
Creative sucks. That's not something Microsoft should be blamed for.
 
feanor1024 said:
I can't find a consumer level (meaning not several hundred dollar RAID) PCI IDE controller with working x64 drivers.
Click to expand...
What about the Promise Fastrak100 controller? I have a FastTrak 4060, but I don't know if it has Vista drivers or not. Promise has had their drivers built in to some of the recent OSes, so Vista should have them as well.
 
I just installed Vista Ultimate x64 over the weekend and have been playing with it extensively for the past couple days.

If you have relatively modern hardware, you should be okay. I got my 3 year old color laser printer going, everything else on my motherboard works fine. I run an nvidia 8800gts so the drivers work fine, though the nvidia control panel is a little different compared to the 32-bit driver version, if you care and are an nvidia user. One feature I remember that is missing is the display optimization wizard. Other than that, I can't recall.

Software - well I don't use iTunes. I do use a lot of current version software though, so I am probably not the best person to ask about this. Office 2007, Visual Studio 2005, Foobar 0.9.whatever, Lightroom, Media Player Classic, Zoom Player. AIM I assume works fine, but I use Pidgin if I have to IM someone, and Pidgin works without issue.
 
An MP3 player may not work at first, if it depends on drivers or needs a firmware update in order to be used as an MSC (Mass Storage Class, so you can drag and drop files onto it in Explorer) device. I bought one recently (IRiver ifp-799) and was unable to use it out of the box with Vista. I had to use XP to load the driver in order to flash it with the MSC firmware. After that, it worked fine in Vista x64. If it's MSC as shipped, there shouldn't be any problem.

WRT Foobar, make sure you install for all users and make sure "Enable user profile support" is checked. Otherwise you'll get error messages and changed settings won't be saved.
 
I haven't read all of the thread so I'll just relate my experience.

After some hardware issues I rebuilt my comp (Q6600, 8800GTS, Xfi Platinum, 2gb Ram, 80gb raptor, 36gb raptor, 2x300gb Maxtors, 1 external 750gb Seagate, 1 USB hub with wireless mouse.

I haven't touched Vista or really looked at it at all with the exception of helping setup one of the PCs at work. We are a MAC based ad agency. On my home comp I've used XP up until Friday when I installed Vista Ultimate x64..

Well Vista picked up and enabled most of my hardware. Had to install video and audio drivers. Installed chipset etc drivers to be safe.

The only problem i've had is with iTunes. When I start iTunes i get an error message saying it wasnt installed correctly and that i cant burn music or something. I assume thats a compatibility issue as a reinstall did nothing to change that.I keep all of my music on an external drive where I also keep the iTunes library. There was some time getting it to work because of Vistas retarded sub folders in the USER section. I guess the best corollary is User/GIGANTOID/ is the new My Documents except with added FAIL. On a new install i usually set XPs My Documents folder to a RAID or external away from the OS in case I need to reinstall. This has worked great bt it seems like I may need to change that in Vista some how. I guess I rambled a bit on that.

Anyway Steam works fine frame rates seem to be marginally bettr in Vista. I'm seeing a minimum 75 in TF:2. Adobe CS3 installed and worked without a problem. mIRC same. I even downloaded a copy of Acronis True Image Home and was able to back up vista and move it to another drive without issue. haven't installed Office 2007 yet. May or may not but I don't expect any issue.

I think the largest issues with Vista are useability. The constant nag screens to Ok things you're doing. The change in the My Documents handling. The way the Start bar handles the Programs list. The transparency for transparency's sake in the UI seems to have grown me.
 
GIGANTOID said:
I guess the best corollary is User/GIGANTOID/ is the new My Documents except with added FAIL. On a new install i usually set XPs My Documents folder to a RAID or external away from the OS in case I need to reinstall. This has worked great bt it seems like I may need to change that in Vista some how. I guess I rambled a bit on that.
Click to expand...

the \Users directory is more like the \Documents and Settings directory in XP.
Inside your \Users\GIGANTOID you'll find a Documents subdirectory, which is like My Documents (if you'd look in \Documents and Settings\GIGANTOID in XP, you'd also see various subdirectories next to My Documents).
 
GIGANTOID said:
I haven't read all of the thread so I'll just relate my experience.

(SNIP)

I think the largest issues with Vista are useability. The constant nag screens to Ok things you're doing. The change in the My Documents handling. The way the Start bar handles the Programs list. The transparency for transparency's sake in the UI seems to have grown me.
Click to expand...

The nag screens can be disabled... disable UAC (User Access Control). It won't bug you normally though unless you're changing system settings (i.e. as you're doing constantly on a fresh install) anyway. I personally found trhe Start bar to be much better. Also, I can't deny the little visual flairs are just nicer and make it easier to track windows ;). I especially love the window preview when you either alt-tab or hover over programs on the start bar that shows the program's contents instead of a static icon.
 
I'm not one to disable UAC, but I do after the intial install, mainly to let me re-arrange my Start Menu icons around. Once I get that and the basics setup, I re-enable it, and it doesn't bother me much after that.
 
DeaconFrost said:
I'm not one to disable UAC, but I do after the intial install, mainly to let me re-arrange my Start Menu icons around. Once I get that and the basics setup, I re-enable it, and it doesn't bother me much after that.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's what I did :).
 
GIGANTOID said:
The only problem i've had is with iTunes. When I start iTunes i get an error message saying it wasnt installed correctly and that i cant burn music or something. I assume thats a compatibility issue as a reinstall did nothing to change that.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing that iTunes may rely on 32-bit drivers to access the CD drive, and that's why reading/burning doesn't work.
 
99% of what I have works with the exception of Winamp and some weird error message in Itunes (still works fine). Otherwise smooth sailing.
 
GIGANTOID said:
The only problem i've had is with iTunes. When I start iTunes i get an error message saying it wasnt installed correctly and that i cant burn music or something. I assume thats a compatibility issue as a reinstall did nothing to change that.I
Click to expand...

Yes, I have the same issue, so far without a fix.
 
So iTunes can download and play music but not burn it. OK, I can get deal with that.

If I go with an Intel Quad core and Vista 64 is there any benefit? Or is it just a more than 4 Gig of memory thing?
 
line 6 gear will not work because they are still thinking, about thinking of making drivers.
 
that is just dumb, I stumbled on to the fix for the cd burning in itunes, a little mad though as they are being a pain to support the 64bit version of windows, but oh well thats what you get when Apple and Microsoft aren't too cozy with each other.
 
I love the suggestions to 'just disable UAC' when doing remote support.

Picture this: Mmmkay let's open a remote session.. Oh geez you gots Vista going? No worries lemme do some registry changes in order to remove the safety features in your new OS (Dont worry it's perfectly safe you dont really need it), reboot your computer and after 2-3 minutes you can reconnect me if your computer still boots up. What? Is there a problem? :rolleyes:

Then when UAC is off and the client loads the skinny mpg from the president -> gets a virus -> data loss -> guess who gets the blame?
 
I cant get Steam to work..............bah.

Bioshock sucked......(in 64 bit that is, the game is great).....bah.

I disabled UAC and Driver signing......much happier now.
 
Strange. I'm using both Steam and Winamp in Vista x64, and haven't found any problems.
I even have the x64 version of Lost Coast.
I've only played the Bioshock demo, but that seemed to work fine aswell.
 
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