Long-awaited versions of the operating system geared for speed finally see the light of day. Order it here for free to replace your 32bit version, or download a trial. A review is here.
Microsoft launches 64-bit Windows
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I may try it out in a few months After it matures some and the drivers are readily available.
With Windows, this process is SLOW. The 64-bit OS is finally available. We don’t know if it’s still a little buggy. Considering the sea out there, there’s pretty much nothing as far as applications and drivers are concerned.
With Linux the process of new drivers becoming available is slow. ISA soundcards anyone? Wifi? Laptops? ACPI? 3D Video Cards?
Windows the primary market for PC addon hardware manufacturers. I’m sure hardware manufacturers will target that platform first for driver updates / development, if they haven’t done so already.
With Windows, this process is SLOW. The 64-bit OS is finally available. We don’t know if it’s still a little buggy. Considering the sea out there, there’s pretty much nothing as far as applications and drivers are concerned.
But it won’t take long maybe a year before 64-Bit games etc.. are created to realize the full potential of hte OS.
What about if your 64bit laptop came with XP Home edition pre-loaded, which was never used, wiped then loaded with 64bit linux?
I’d like pay to upgrade from XP Home to XP Pro-x64, but i’m not willing to pay the full price of XP Pro when I’ve already paid for an OS I don’t even use.
Win64 bit won’t see my workstation until it can run 32 bit asp.net apps, get a wonderful 500 error when trying to run one. Thunking libraries?
Where can I find some basic info on this? For example, if I have an AMD64 machine running this, I assume I’d need 64-bit drivers for all my hardware, but would I be able to run 32-bit Windows apps on it?
Yes, it’s fully compatible with most 32-bit software (“most” in this case refers to software that doesn’t have to hook in on a low system level). The reason for this is that 64-bit Windows *requires* 64-bit drivers. Anything that provides a 32-bit driver won’t work.
That said, most people are quite satisfied from what I hear. 19/20 of their games and applications run flawlessly, and also with a bit of a performance increase.
The only problem right now is driver support. Both ATI and NVIDIA have 64-bit drivers, as well as the various chipset makers. Creative, on the other hand, does not have finalized drivers yet. I’m waiting on this until my Audigy2 is fully supported.
Being based on the Server 2003 SP1 codebase, XP x64 is *extremely* snappy. Some people have reported BIOS –> desktop boot times of 10 seconds.
“between March 31, 2003 and July 31, 2005”
terms of agreement bullshit not with standing considerably better than the month-ish window apple gives
Gee thats funny,, I thought I had to pay for windows.. What am I paying for than that free doesnt get me on its own? I havent used the product in question but how many drivers are included?
This hurry up, pay and wait is for the birds.
If you have a *valid* winxp install then you get the 64-bit version. Why don’t people read anymore? If you bought a pc with xp already loaded, your pc still comes with a serial number and MS authenticity sticker most likely with an install/reimage disk. If you have that, then you can get the 64-bit version.
Service Pack 1 will be available May 1, followed by patches for 16 new vulnerabilities the following week.
>Windows the primary market for PC addon hardware
>manufacturers. I’m sure hardware manufacturers will target
>that platform first for driver updates / development, if they
> haven’t done so already.
Only for new products. Users of older pieces will be out of luck without any practical options.
well lets see.. I have to pay shipping.. and its only valid until the end of July.. And its only an upgrade package. Why cant I download it? They can validate my installation.. They already do…..
OK,, how do I redeem my full version of windows? I have a licensed copy of WIndows XP (retail).. How do I exchange that?
it’s not invalid after july it just says that if you purchased XP pro AFTER july 31 you can’t trade it in.
and it’s not an ‘upgrade package’ it’s server 2k3 in 64 very different OS than xp pro 32 bit.
x64 can run 32-bit ASP.NET apps. You have to enable the functionality though. You can do so by running the following at the command prompt:
cscript.exe adsutil.vbs set W3SVC/AppPools/Enable32BitAppOnWin64 “true”
More info here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/WindowsServer2003/Libr…
To get 64bit support for Linux, first pick a variety of 64bit hardware (x86 or others), second choose a distibution that has 64bit support, and…well, it’s that trivial. Has been for years.
Because of that, I expect that Microsoft will come out with a full suite of drivers in the next 6 months. If folks are still complaining about hardware support for 64bit Windows…well…not a good sign.
It seems like WinXP MCE 2005 isn’t qualified for the upgrade… What kind of BS is that? I tried and no can do…
Nicely said P.J 🙂
I got the 64Bit version from MSDN Downloads, everything works fine apart from the NVIDIA Graphics drivers. I have an old Geforce 3 TI and the current 64bit drivers don’t support it. Using the older set of drivers will allow me to only run it in 16bit colour.
Performance wise, seems exactly the same as standard Windows XP Professional
is addressability of more than 4 GB of RAM under a 64 bit system.
Most applications are running equally fast on the same hardware be they 32 bit or 64 bit compiled. Only apps which are IO intense (utilizing the broader bus) or which have lots of 64 bit register usage (utilizing the broader registers) gain speed.
As most desktop programs don’t do that you will not recognize much difference.
I expect that games will be the apps making most use of the 64 bit hardware compatibility.
On the other hand our company could now replace an expensive superdome with 64 GB memory and 32 Processors with 4 dual processor 16GB RAM AMD64 PC’s to chew on our structure mechanics problems.
The main feature to be noted is the Server 2003 build 3790 platform which allows Windows x64 to perform better than the old 2600 build of Windows XP.
If you have a *valid* winxp install then you get the 64-bit version. Why don’t people read anymore?
The time to install and test it still costs money. If we are talking about people that typically have any use for 64 bit system such testing could take ayear. By then Microsoft is supposed to offer Longhorn so I guess most people will wait for that, or will Longhorn only be available for 32 bit systems?
OK,, how do I redeem my full version of windows? I have a licensed copy of WIndows XP (retail).. How do I exchange that?
This is not an exchange, nor is it a required upgrade, nor is this a beta, nor is it even necessary to use. MS sometimes offers betas and other products for free, some have a download, others you can get for free w/o shipping charges, others you can’t. If you don’t want it bad enough to pay $12.00 shipping charge, this obviously isn’t for you. You should likely spend your $12.00 elsewhere.
a friend of mine (who has been trying it with every beta so far) refers to it as “xp without webcam support”, which is the only reason he has windows on his box in the first place.
and does x64 mean anything?
This is Microsoft’s way of not pissing off AMD or Intel over petty naming inconsistencies. AMD developed the 64 bit extended x86 architecture and ISA and called it x86-64 then later, AMD64. Intel basically copied AMD64 (incompletely) and called it EMT64, so it will be different in name, but not in nature (becasue Microsoft already pledged support for AMD64, they were NOT going to work on porting the NT codebase to ANOTHER architecture). Basically it’s all the stuff with MMX, 3DNow, 3DNow extended, SSE, SSE2, and SSE3 on a more fundamental level.
Since all the names end with “64” it’s easier to call it “x64”, where “x” can be anything but Itanium (no WORKSTATION OS for Itanium anymore, only server):-). This way, no one is “offended” or left out, and marketing simply has to add a tagline that reads “designed exclusively for machines with processors supporting AMD64 or EMT64”.
tc.
–JM
yeah, i know about the whole x86_/-64 deal. the thing is, they never have useful information in the title of operating systems. (nt 5.1 tells you something, xp doesnt) logically, Windows XP 64-bit Edition or something like that would make more sense. What would be more consistent would be Windows XPDZ or some other random combination of letters. but x64 will just help to confuse an already confusing situation.
also, the geek in me gets offended when marketing types use “psudo-geekspeek” to make something seem more powerful
Windows XP/Server 64-bit Edition was already taken by the Itanium version.
The full name for the x64 Editions used to be Windows XP/Server for 64-bit Extended Systems but I guess they thought the name was too long (and most people referred to it as x64 anyway).
Looking at the website, they’ve now changed the name of the Itanium SKU to Windows Server for Itanium-based Systems.
At least with the x64 moniker it leaves them open to supporting other 64-bit platforms in the future under the same name, or possibly combining the builds into one SKU later on.