Windows 7

hannoja

slow_saver wrote: »

I am running W7 now and to be honest I'm not finding a lot of difference between it and Vista, I've only been using it for a day or so. So I can't say whether it's better or not, one thing I will say is.. if you move up to the 64bit version from the 32 bit, then the choice of programmes that are compatible is greatly reduced.:o

This sounds worrying.. :eek:

mr_fishbulb

slow_saver wrote: »

I am running W7 now and to be honest I'm not finding a lot of difference between it and Vista, I've only been using it for a day or so. So I can't say whether it's better or not, one thing I will say is.. if you move up to the 64bit version from the 32 bit, then the choice of programmes that are compatible is greatly reduced.:o

hannoja wrote: »

This sounds worrying.. :eek:

But not completely true. There is a lack of 64bit programs specifically written for 64bit Windows, but the vast majority of 32bit programs will run fine on 64bit Windows.

As drivers need to be in 64bit, you can run into trouble if your hardware is old and the manufacturer has not written any 64bit drivers. Sometimes a 3rd party will write a 64bit driver which is what happened with my phone.

Oakey22

mr_fishbulb wrote: »

But not completely true. There is a lack of 64bit programs specifically written for 64bit Windows, but the vast majority of 32bit programs will run fine on 64bit Windows.

As drivers need to be in 64bit, you can run into trouble if your hardware is old and the manufacturer has not written any 64bit drivers. Sometimes a 3rd party will write a 64bit driver which is what happened with my phone.

Nearly all programs that work in vista will work on windows 7, i have it installed on my dell laptop and it is running twice as fast as vista. I have the 64bit version and have only found 1 bit of software that will not run on it as it is a 64bit version. I recommend anyone to get 64bit if they have 4Gb of RAM as 32bit will not see the whole 4Gb of RAM.

Money_Grabber13579

But is there not the problem then of the processor not supporting 64-bit? I thought there were only a limited number of processors that would support it?

Idiophreak

Money_Grabber13579 wrote: »

But is there not the problem then of the processor not supporting 64-bit? I thought there were only a limited number of processors that would support it?

Only 64 bit processors will run a 64 bit operating system, sure...It's not exactly a "limited number", though - a *lot* of 64bit machines have rolled out over the last couple of years...

Money_Grabber13579

Idiophreak wrote: »

Only 64 bit processors will run a 64 bit operating system, sure...It's not exactly a "limited number", though - a *lot* of 64bit machines have rolled out over the last couple of years...

I've got a dual core processor (Intel Centrino Duo) and apparently it's not 64 bit compatible. Even though it's only 2 1/2 years old!

standinman2009

anywhere selling windows 7 for £49.99 please?

dov

Idiophreak wrote: »

Only 64 bit processors will run a 64 bit operating system, sure...It's not exactly a "limited number", though - a *lot* of 64bit machines have rolled out over the last couple of years...

I think its *almost all* processors that have come out in the last 4 or 5 years have been 64bit. I'm not sure if Win7 will work well with processors older than that anyway.

64bit launched in April 2003 by AMD and then by Intel in 2004

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64

hannoja

standinman2009 wrote: »

anywhere selling windows 7 for £49.99 please?

See posts 88 and 89 above.

dov

hannoja wrote: »

See posts 88 and 89 above.

sold out.

The links on http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/buy/offers/pre-order.aspx are all sold out as well but I would come back every so often to check as at one point Microsoft were updating the page.