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Old 10-05-2007, 03:04 PM
Freakin Freakin is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 6,022
Default Re: so i just found out my vista is 32-bit, my options are?

Unless you know you need a 64-bit OS, just go with a 32-bit OS. You will likely have many fewer headaches.

You may need a 64-bit OS if you have software that is 64-bit (if you don't know, it's probably not).

You may need a 64-bit OS if you are going to address more than 4GB of RAM for the OS, or 2GB of ram for a single process. In actuality, you'll usually only get 3GB & change addressed by a 32-bit windows OS.

I would almost bet money that you don't need a 64-bit OS. I consider myself a power-user and only have XP-64 on one of my systems. I have x64 on that one system because I do virtualization with it and need full 4GB of RAM, plus the ability to have 2-3GB dedicated to a single process. Running x64 has been a HUGE pain in the ass as far as drivers for older devices go (new ones have been ok).
32-bit is fine for all the rest of my systems.
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