Vista 64 bit or XP Pro 64 bit?

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Have just ordered a new machine that will come with Vista 64 bit. I'm aware of the countless horror stories about Vista being bloated, uncooperative and generally evil, and am used to XP (albeit 32 bit) on my current machine.

Is it worth getting a copy of XP Pro 64 bit as an alternative to Vista?

What are the pros and cons of each OS?

Cheers ;)
 
XP 64bit does not have SP3 and alot of new Windows Live products are no longer supported, other than it works great for me.

You might wanna look at getting upgrade to Windows 7 64bit... btw do you have more than 4gb ram? If you dont then stick with 32bit OS.
 
I would have thought you would be better updating it to Windows 7 64bit.

I tried Vista 64bit for a month or so but returned to XP 64bit and have used this for a couple of years now.
 
Works absolutely fine for me. Lightroom is flying and the only problems I encountered is inconvenience that you cannot call 32 bit processes from 63 bit applications (meaning that 32 bit PS plugins won't work in PS 64 bit which is why Adobe installer installs both 32 and 64 bit versions).
 
Thanks guys - that was rapid :D

Actually I've just noticed that Microsoft are offering a free(ish?) upgrade to Windows 7 for those who've bought a machine with Vista, so perhaps I'll just hold out for that - the release date is only a few days after the ETA of my machine :)

I just hope it's not a repeat of the Vista launch, and that they've done something new with Windows 7 since MS operating systems only seem to get more bloated and untrustworthy as time marches on...
 
Win7 was in development before vista was released :LOL: I think the majority of Windows user will be happy with Win7 unless your a mac fan lol... It also has XP as a virtual machine iirc
 
Been running Vista 64 for over a year now with CS4 64-bit edition with no issues whatsoever, and I was a real Vista sceptic TBH. The only problem I had was Netgear not supporting 64-bit platforms, not a big issue but a real annoyance when I first installed..

Carl
 
Just ordered the 'free' upgrade to Windows 7 for my daughters new laptop - only £12.78 for delivery !
 
personally vista 64 bit. i found xp 64 bit unstable with my hardware at the time, vista was much more stable for me.

if youre running 64 bit vista then id like to think youd have 4gb+ memory in which case youll have no performance problems. plus you also get the free ish upgrade to 7.

i love W7 64.. rock solid.
 
I'm actually finding my new vista 64 system to be really quite good, it only falls down on the networking side. All the horror stories about the security pop ups only happen when logged on as an admin, which is not the way I run a system (admin account for admin, user account for using).

I've some dislikes, but my only BIG gripe is the mess they made of the network side. All the hassle of details like limited smb connections, throttling the network bandwidth to allow a better multimedia experience (yes, really! they cripple network file transfers deliberately in case you want to watch the bbc news), new smb protocol, default use of IPv6, LLPD & non-98/XP standard netbios ports, . . . etc. I know I'm not alone as an IT friend gave up with vista recently and installed an XP machine in a business to cope with the unreliable backup file transfers onto vista

but 7 is due soon, and everybody says its good . . . I'll wait a couple of months before switching though, new software testing is rarely as demanding as real world use and abuse.
 
dalex_257 said:
Works absolutely fine for me. Lightroom is flying and the only problems I encountered is inconvenience that you cannot call 32 bit processes from 63 bit applications (meaning that 32 bit PS plugins won't work in PS 64 bit which is why Adobe installer installs both 32 and 64 bit versions).
Click to expand...

Just FYI, 64bit XP has a 32bit Kernel..... but it can't run 16bit applications unlike 32bit XP.

So these applications/plugins are actually 16bit :)
 
I'm running vista 64 bit too, solid as a rock so far. I've also got the "free" upgrade for windows 7 coming as well. From what I've seen of it it looks ok. We'll see... :)
 
Jaffster said:
Just FYI, 64bit XP has a 32bit Kernel..... but it can't run 16bit applications unlike 32bit XP.

So these applications/plugins are actually 16bit :)
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That is a load of tosh - sorry. Neither 64 bit XP nor 64 bit Windows do not run 32 bit kernel. To run any 32 bit code, they launch it in the 32 bit virtual mode and they do it in their emulation/virtual layer called Wow64. It actually works the same way as 16 bit code in Windows XP 32 bit.

None of the 32 bit dlls can be used in native 64 bit applications - the communication that works is an IPC mechanism between 32 bit and 64 bit processes.
 
tbm said:
I'm aware of the countless horror stories about Vista being bloated, uncooperative and generally evil, and am used to XP (albeit 32 bit) on my current machine.

Cheers ;)
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And they are just that, stories. I've been running Vista x64 since Beta and it's been far better than XP ever was. There are very few actual complaints about Vista from people that have actually used it, almost all are from people that either haven't used it or used it for about a day and decided they hated it...

Compared to XP x64, the steaming pile of **** that it is. Are there still major issues getting drivers for it? I used a copy for a few weeks once, and had to give up on it as there were very few drivers out for, well, anything!:LOL: This was a year or two after it was released!
 
Vista 32 is as solid as a rock with the latest service packs. The original release was buggy and damaged Microsoft's credibility significantly. I would have compared the initial release version to a late Beta, it was not ready or fit for market. The service packs have fixed this and Vista is as good and as solid as should have been the case from day one.

Microsoft have not made the same mistake with Windows 7 and the last Release Candidate was very stable. The rule of thumb with MS OS launches is wait for the first service pack before upgrading/installing. Windows 7 could be the first time I would be less cautious and believe it will probably be very stable and very well received.

Bottom line is that, in my opinion, Vista with the latest service pack is solid and pretty well supported. Windows 7 should be very good (I ran it as a primary use machine for 3 months) and the XP compatibility mode in the Pro version will ensure that older software/hardware is usable still.

Windows 7 is what Vista could have and perhaps should have been.

John
 
jpwone said:
Microsoft have not made the same mistake with Windows 7 and the last Release Candidate was very stable. The rule of thumb with MS OS launches is wait for the first service pack before upgrading/installing. Windows 7 could be the first time I would be less cautious and believe it will probably be very stable and very well received.
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to be honest id say sod caution and go for 7 asap, at this moment in time it is nowhere near needing a SP. in fact i may go as far to say that we've had more issues with snow leopard so far, W7 is that good.

Bottom line is that, in my opinion, Vista with the latest service pack is solid and pretty well supported. Windows 7 should be very good (I ran it as a primary use machine for 3 months) and the XP compatibility mode in the Pro version will ensure that older software/hardware is usable still.
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agreed. the main problem with vista (in my opintion) was vendors shipping it on entry level 1gb memory machines. if you ask me the minimum spec for vista should of always been 2gb. for me vista64 was probably the most stable OS ive had installed, W7 is the same but faster.
 
running XP 64bit on main machine for photo processing [CS3], printing and networking and apart form the occasional issue with hardware drivers [ok, one issue tbh, with one printer that just wont install, everything else has installed fine using specific 64bit or standard XP drivers], everything has been fine. Having said that, I dumped 32bit Vista in favour of the RC Windows 7 on my laptop a month or two ago and its brilliant - much quicker and more stable than vista. Pre-ordered standard version which is released this month and if a 64bit version is planned, will probably get that to upgrade the main machine.
 
Been running Windows 7 64bit ultimate for several months now on Laptops & Desktops works a treat :D (incliding CS4)- appears much quicker than vista 64-bit
 
Like others have said, ignore the armchair critics Vista is rock solid with latest updates and service packs. I have been running it at home since launch and its noticeably better.

Also, we run vista business on a few machines within our corporate network and its pretty good, although for the majority of our 8000 users, we use XP 32bit as the corporate standard.

But for home, get vista and then install 7 as soon as its released (y)
 
neil_g said:
im already running it :)

if i remember rightly you get both on the disk, i think its just the prod key you need?
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TBH, I never checked, I wasnt really bothered bout the main machine, it was my 1GB lappy that was the issue, so just downloaded what was there, installed and been very very happy with it. It was only a week or so ago it occured to me that it might be worth upgrading the other one too, so hadn't looked into whether there was a 64bit option. Needless to say, thanks to this thread, will be doing so now (y)
 
Thanks for all the replies :)

I'm getting quite excited about Windows 7 now - is it safe to assume that I'll get an upgrade to 64bit Win 7 if coming from 64 bit Vista?

How come some of you already have Windows 7? Beta testing?

Interesting thread - keep it coming ;)
 
tbm said:
How come some of you already have Windows 7? Beta testing?

Interesting thread - keep it coming ;)
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I guess most are like me and work in IT in some form. The betas were made more public but for the full RTM version which is the one that will hit the shelves, you had to be a part of the testing program or have something like an "Enterprise Agreement" with Microsoft.

I am in charge of IT globally for the company I work for and we will start rolling out Windows 7 as soon as it becomes official in a couple of weeks.

XP came out in 2002 and so it has been 7 years since we (and many companies out there) had a meaningful upgrade and you must remember, large companies generally pay a subscription fee for the MS licensing which entitles you to run all the latest versions of their software so we want to see new OS's every 5 years or so.

By missing out the step to Vista, a couple of more years have past and now one of the biggest hurdles to any OS upgrade (upgrading hardware to match minimum acceptable specs) has now pretty much vanished. Like most companies, we keep our hardware for 3 years and so pretty much all our kit is already built to run Vista and so able to run 7.

Under normal circumstances, we would wait for the first service pack before starting a roll out but we have sufficient confidence from our initial testing to go straight into this one.

For home users, 7 will be great because the home networking they have built in there really simplifies file and printer sharing between Windows 7 machines. Personally, I like 7 alot, I'm just disappointed it took this long to get there.
 
tbm said:
Thanks for all the replies :)

I'm getting quite excited about Windows 7 now - is it safe to assume that I'll get an upgrade to 64bit Win 7 if coming from 64 bit Vista?

How come some of you already have Windows 7? Beta testing?

Interesting thread - keep it coming ;)
Click to expand...

some volume licencing for business etc got the RTM in august :)

you wont necessarily get a "free" upgrade, some hardware vendors are offering it as a deal but i wouldnt assume id check.
 
Looks like I will soon be upgrading to Win7 64bit ... good thread to read.
 
My view is it depends what your PC spec is like.

I have moved over to vista recently from XP and I wont go back. Mainly because Vista has much better capabilities to deal with multi core processors (I run a quad).

Vista takes up more RAM to use as well so I believe, but if you have around 4GB it shouldnt bother your PC at all!

And im not intending in going to Windows 7 until they realise its useless, and release all the fixes for it :D
 
I have found 64bit vista and XP reasonably stable although I do not batter Windows anymore. I have found the only thing that broke either of them were early third party drivers.
 
neil_g said:
another source of vistas initial hatred.
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Even though I run an Apple web site and a thread giving Apple tips I'm not anti-Microsoft. You do hear a lot of Vista bashing and to be honest I have found Windows 98 and Windows XP to be my favourites. I have not really got on with Vista as it just kept annoying me. I have used Windows 7 a bit and like that so it might go on my PC.
 
ooh i think my last post sounded like it was aimed at you cowasaki when it wasnt, it was just a reference to vistas initial 3rd party drivers giving a lot of people trouble early on.. :)
 
neil_g said:
ooh i think my last post sounded like it was aimed at you cowasaki when it wasnt, it was just a reference to vistas initial 3rd party drivers giving a lot of people trouble early on.. :)
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No I didn't take it that way.
 
excellent.. im always a little paranoid about getting my thoughts out into writing without sounding like im preaching or being arsey lol

but anyway, 98 was a good OS for its time and XP really nailed pretty much everything beyond service pack 1 hence why a lot of businesses still run it. windows 7 has taken all the good bits out of XP and vista and mooshed them all together. we're planning to go to 7 from XP at work we (IT dept) like it so much..
 
I'm in the position of going backwards from Win 7 to vista.

Been running Win7 for a few months (beta testing) and absolutely love it, so much more functionality than Vista (and quicker).

Just bought a new desktop with Vista with automatic upgrade to win7 (64bit) later this month, and can't wait to get back to win7.
 
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