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Should You Install Windows 7 32-bit or 64-bit?

@ 2009/07/31

With the upcoming release of Windows 7, the question is raised again on whether you should install the 32-bit version (x86) of the operating system or move up to 64-bit (x64).

This is something that's been asked since the introduction of consumer-level processors bearing the “x64” nomenclature. It feels like just yesterday that Intel and AMD fanboys were at odds over the Athlon 64. At that time and even as recently as the introduction of Windows Vista, software and drivers for 64-bit setups were slim-pickings.

Analogous to the shift from 16 to 32-bit computing, the jump to 64-bit has been a slow one. Windows XP x64 never took off, though 64-bit versions of Vista did, thankfully. The ride was a bumpy one, but hardware manufacturers and software developers alike have finally widely adopted the 64-bit architecture - and there’s no turning back now.

Comment from wutske @ 2009/08/02

I personaly don't see the advantage of signed drivers. I've never cared about them and I also never had any problems with using unsigned drivers, the only thing that matters is the added functionality.
Best example is the giveio driver, I can't install it on a 64-bit OS and a lot of applications (with the same functionality) rely on this driver.

Comment from jmke @ 2009/08/02

driver signing is maybe expensive, but if you want a better OS, it starts with making sure that any and all programs can that access lower level programming use verified drivers

Comment from wutske @ 2009/08/02

I personaly thing Microsoft is slowing down the x64 transition by forcing signed drivers and by dropping support for a lot of legacy hardware.
I'm now running Windows 7 x64 and it's a bit annoying that I can't use my old, yet trusty HP Laserjet 4L anymore. The same goes for some programs (like i8kFancontroll, speedfan or RMClockUtil) which use homebrew drivers to access hardware, pitty I can't use them anymore.

Driver signing appears to be ridiculously expensive, adding an extra cost to products which -of course- the user will have to pay for.

Using Windows 7 in test mode and signing the drivers yourself seems to fix some problems, but imho these problems should have never existed...

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