Switching From 32 Bit OS to 64 Bit OS

So as the title suggests I am prepping my Windows 7 box to be switched from 32bit to 64bit. I know the main draw is that 64bit recobnizes more memory but aside from that are there any benefits from switching?

Secondly....I made a complete hard drive image of my primary hard drive with all of my apps installed....Can this be used after I install the 64bit version of my OS or am I reinstalling everything?

Thanks

Secondly....I made a complete hard drive image of my primary hard drive with all of my apps installed....Can this be used after I install the 64bit version of my OS or am I reinstalling everything?

You will have to install all applications. All except for the so called "portable" applications (usually quite small) and you probably don't have many of those.

Is there any real advantage of 64bit other than the fact the system recognizes up to 12gb of ram?

Thanks

sparker781 said:

Is there any real advantage of 64bit other than the fact the system recognizes up to 12gb of ram?

Thanks

None that you are likely to notice in ordinary day-to-day operation. At least I can't tell the difference. It may have some hidden advantages that are worthwhile, but that's not apparent in terms of speed or usability.

Some software won't install on 64-bit. I had an old version of Photoshop that was no-go on 64-bit because the installer was a 16-bit application. All was well on 32-bit. I waited until I upgraded Photoshop before I moved to 64-bit.

You probably won't notice much difference in average light usage, but it'll make a difference in resource heavy applications.

64-bit will be the most/even more common soon, more and more apps becoming x64, heck, the iPhone 5S has a 64bit architecture.

The biggest advantage of a 64 bit OS, the much larger virtual address space, is for native 64 bit applications. The majority of 32 bit applications will receive no benefits there. There are other advantages but they are usually quite minor. 32 bit applications must run in an artificial environment created for them and that brings with it some compatibility issues. A 64 bit OS must use 64 bit drivers exclusively. These issues are not as serious as they once were but still need to be considered.

One benifit from getting 64 bit is no ram limitations.

Long experience has led me to install 32 bit on 4gb RAM or less, and 64 bit on more than that for best performance.

gregrocker said:

Long experience has led me to install 32 bit on 4gb RAM or less, and 64 bit on more than that for best performance.

That is exactly right my friend