Windows XP 64-Bit

So I have a fairly complex system with tons of development software, lots of hardware, etc... When I went from a 32-bit version of XP to a 64-bit version (my current), it took about 6 weeks to get everything working properly - mostly hardware but a lot of software issues.

I REALLY want to move onto Windows 7 but I am afraid of the compatability issues. I tried the MS compatability checker but apparently it does not run on 64-bit XP machines (not a good sign...)

Does anybody have any suggestions for checking compatability ahead of time?

Thanks!

Dual boot or get a spare HDD and try out the evaluation copy of Windows 7 Enterprise.

Windows 7 Enterprise| Trial, Evaluation, Test, Deploy

That's what I did... dual-boot.. installed Win7 x64 Ultimate RTM onto a second drive. It automatically detects XP64 and sets up dual boot.
Works fine... can swap back and forth OK.

Not to be stupid but I have configured all of my drives in a RAID 5 and it looks like a single 2 TB drive to Windows right now. When you say install on a second drive, are you saying that I need to split off on of my harddrives or just use the DVD drive to do the install?

I can obvious partition another logical drive - is that what you mean?

Thanks!

GlobalArchitect said:

So I have a fairly complex system with tons of development software, lots of hardware, etc... When I went from a 32-bit version of XP to a 64-bit version (my current), it took about 6 weeks to get everything working properly - mostly hardware but a lot of software issues.

I REALLY want to move onto Windows 7 but I am afraid of the compatability issues. I tried the MS compatability checker but apparently it does not run on 64-bit XP machines (not a good sign...)

Does anybody have any suggestions for checking compatability ahead of time?

Thanks!

Hi there

almost anything that you got running on XP 64 bit should work on W7 since XP 64 has a load less drivers etc than the normal 32 bit XP.

You *might* miss the speed of XP 64 however -- whilst I like W7 and its time to move on XP 64 Bit IMO should have been improved and developed and that could have been a better upgrade path than the wretched VISTA experience. Still that's history.

A well tuned XP 64 bit system STILL IMO will run rings around even W7 -X64 on most hardware - but remember the words WELL TUNED. - We're going to get loads of posters saying W7 runs faster -- but I'm saying WELL TUNED and I'll bet a load of those posters will be running XP and not the 64 bit edition of XP.

W7 hasn't really been out long enough yet for people to fine tune it much and until someone "vLite's" it there's probably not a lot you can do to make W7 faster than it is straight out of the box - and its no slouch either.

It was a shame MS essentially gave up with XP 64 bit edition - but its probably in the same category as say Mini-discs are in the music business --great technological invention but not pushed hard enough by the develper (SONY) so other relatively inferior products took its place.

(You can STILL download it from Technet however - you can also get Windows 3.11- but unless you really want to mess around with this fine old OS (XP 64 bit edition) you are better off moving to W7).

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

A well tuned XP 64 bit system STILL IMO will run rings around even W7 -X64 on most hardware - but remember the words WELL TUNED. - We're going to get loads of posters saying W7 runs faster -- but I'm saying WELL TUNED and I'll bet a load of those posters will be running XP and not the 64 bit edition of XP

So then you are comparing tuned to non-tuned? ...okay...

You *might* miss the speed of XP 64 however -- whilst I like Windows 7 and its time to move on XP 64 Bit IMO should have been improved and developed and that could have been a better upgrade path than the wretched VISTA experience. Still that's history.


i have no problems with x64 vista or x64 win7 I wouldn't call x64 vista wretched either. I have had only one blue screen issue in 9 months I switch from x32 to x64, and that was just recently and it was a symantec issue, I uninstalled norton av and put avg on it, problem solved. I use the x64 win7 for my HTPC

sgtarky said:

i have no problems with x64 vista or x64 win7 I wouldn't call x64 vista wretched either. I have had only one blue screen issue in 9 months I switch from x32 to x64, and that was just recently and it was a symantec issue, I uninstalled norton av and put avg on it, problem solved. I use the x64 win7 for my HTPC

I HATED Vista 64... my kids laptop runs the 32-bit version and I didn't [don't] like that much either. Moved back to XP64 about a week after my Vista upgrade. I never had compatibility, hardware or BSOD issue with Vista, I simply HATED the interface. I'm a long time Unix user and been on Wintel since before Win 3.1, so the cyclical references and trying to find anything in Vista drove me crazy !!!

I'm now happily using Win7 64 which "out of the box" appears a little faster than XP64, but it does require a larger memory footprint [by about 750Mb] to do so... {FWIW}