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There is a lot being said about
Windows Vista at the moment along with the normal paranoia keeping
users away that usually occurs when Microsoft release a new
Operating System. I´m surprised by the number of people I know who
have bought a new computer in the last couple of months and paid
more to have Windows XP installed on it because of the horror
stories they have heard, usually through a chain of half a dozen
people.
If I can just clarify to my readership that Windows Vista is a good
Operating System and in terms of bugs and security vulnerabilities
it´s light years ahead of how Windows XP was this far into its
distribution cycle. I´m not saying that you should rush out and buy
it tomorrow if you´re happy with XP, but all I am saying is that if
buying a new machine and you´re given the choice then definitely go
the Vista route.
Other than which edition you´re going to get (Home Basic, Home
Premium, Business or Ultimate) there is an equally important
consideration in whether you´re going to go for the 64 bit or 32 bit
version of Windows and unfortunately this is a consideration that´s
often overlooked.
Ultimately your choice may have already been made for you by the
system manufacturer; if your system only has a 32-bit processor then
you can only use the 32-bit version of Windows. Those lucky enough
to be buying a 64-bit processor will have the choice of going for
either the 64 or 32-bit version of Windows and as such this article
will be focusing on these users. If you´re not sure what on earth
I´m talking about here I should probably explain a little more about
what a processor is and how it works.
The processor could be considered the most central part of your
computer and is responsible for performing the billions of
calculations that are performed every time you use your machine.
There are a number of measures that can be applied to a processor to
determine how powerful it is but one of the primary considerations
is how many bits of information it can handle at any one time. My
old Commodore 64 could handle 8 bits of data at once, most current
PC processors can handle 32 bits and the newer, more powerful models
can often handle 64 bits.
I feel that this oversimplification could be misleading as there
are of course a million other factors that play a part in the
performance of the processor; another important consideration for
example is how many thousands of times a second the processor can
move these bits of information around. Suffice to say, a 64 bit
processor should perform better than a 32-bit processor of similar
specification as long as it´s using software written to take
advantage of the additional data handling capability.
As these processors are backwards compatible, you can install a
32-bit version of Windows on your 64-bit processor but as a result
your machine will not be able to take advantage of this additional
data bandwidth and you will be essentially handicapping your new
processor; this is where the 64-bit version of Vista comes in to
play. Whilst it is true that Microsoft did release a 64-bit version
of Windows XP it unfortunately never gained any real support and as
such was never developed in to a viable platform.
With 64-bit processors becoming commonplace and with a large wave of
support for these new, more powerful versions of Vista it looks like
64-bit computing has finally arrived so now there are important
decisions to be made. I think I have explained the primary speed
advantage however there are also a number of other benefits from
making the switch and rather predictably a large number of
disadvantages. As this decision is an important one I plan next week
to go over both sides of the argument so that you can decide which
version is right for you. |
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