Got Vista x64 questions? I've got answers
section: windows, for your questions: KezNews forum, 5.8.2008
I got a lot of great questions and comments via e-mail and in the Talkback section of my previous post on the sudden surge in adoption rates for Windows Vista x64. In this follow-up, I summarize the answers I’ve found for each question.
I got a lot of great questions and comments via e-mail and in the Talkback section of my previous post on the sudden surge in adoption rates for Windows Vista x64. In this follow-up, I summarize the answers I’ve found for each question.
Rather than try to explain that here, I’m going to refer you to a very crisply written blog post by Microsoft’s Mark Russinovich, entitled “Pushing the Limits of Windows: Physical Memory.” The short version is that 32-bit operating systems can, in theory, address memory above the 4GB line on specially configured systems, but doing so is problematic:
[When] Windows XP SP2 was under development, client systems with more than 4GB were foreseeable, so the Windows team started broadly testing Windows XP on systems with more than 4GB of memory. […]
What they found was that many of the systems would crash, hang, or become unbootable because some device drivers, commonly those for video and audio devices that are found typically on clients but not servers, were not programmed to expect physical addresses larger than 4GB. As a result, the drivers truncated such addresses, resulting in memory corruptions and corruption side effects. Server systems commonly have more generic devices and with simpler and more stable drivers, and therefore hadn’t generally surfaced these problems. The problematic client driver ecosystem [led] to the decision for client SKUs to ignore physical memory that resides above 4GB, even though they can theoretically address it.
source:
blogs.zdnet.com
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Comments(10)
vista x64 is pathetic, just because of the driver support, im not a genius so i duno if
it would be possible but they should be able to emulate 32 bit drivers or somethin like
that...
i have no experience of this, but i've heard 64 bit linux uses a wrapper to allow 32bit
drivers to be used.
vista x64 is great and has great driver support. there are a lot of dvices out there and
on the packaging it sometimes states vista is supported but there is allmost never mention
of vista x64. after buying a lot of stuff knowing i can return it if it doesn't do what i
want it to, i've found out i haven't purchased anything besides some pci wifi adapters
that doesn't work in vista x64! mind you, the same pci wifi adapters have serious
problems working with vista 32bit! the problem isn't lack of drivers because vista x64
drivers are available. i found out some time ago, like it states in the article here, that
there are drivers that have 4gb of ram! that's poor design by the programmes that
developed the driver! i can't blame ms for that.
very common examples of
devices that work but are nowhere advertised as working, are my canon eos 400d, which
supposedly only works with vista 32bit, as well as my panasonic sdr-h40 camcorder. well,
both of them work without a any problem! right out of the box, no extra software/driver is
needed!
by and large, driver support is very good. unfortunately, i have run into the infrequent
situation where the hardware manufacturer (philips) has no intentions of ever making
64-bit drivers for their current webcams - which i think is very short-sighted of them.
regardless of that, i will continue to use 64-bit xp & vista; the pros far
outweigh the cons.
still using windows 64-bits not doors 64-bits??!
i dont care about drivers because i only need a mouse and keyboard, and my game
controller works fine in 64 i think people who complain about their printers, webcams,
cameras, and all the other stuff should stick to xp, even though most drivers work in 64
now some still dont
as each year new h/w comes, so do windows to upgrade(need more power h/w). cost to
upgrade cheaper than finding old h/w + new product with warranty. ;)
so far driver support has been fine the only difficulties i found was with wireless
controllers and especially with linksys. other than that everything else is ok
i have tried it, and my wireless keyboard and mouse didnt work, along with my net
adapter... hence, i hate the driver support, from the companies..
so, u pr*ck, stfu
i was very surprised by vista 64 ultimate
all my hardware works. 64bit drivers were
all available. no problems.
can now run a 4gb virtual os in my 8gb memory and watch
tv at the same time via ms media centre. no other os can do that!
have also
‘acquired’ several good 64bit programs including the 64bit version of firefox (minefield).
directory opus 64bit is also great.
well worth investigating.
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no driver support
By Ash on 06.08.2008 - 11:08