Win 7 64bit - software compatibility ?

garywork

garywork

garywork

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19 Oct 2002
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529
Hi

Just wondering - always been a 32bit user but wondering how much "modern" software (not some strange ancient win 95 stuff) will work correctly on 64bit Win 7 ?

is it safe to assume any from last couple of years will be ok ?

any pointers welcome as i've never looked into this before

considering 64bit for a future laptop so i can have a "mega ram" amount :cool:


thanks
 
Hi Gary,

I took the plunge recently from windows XP 32 to Win 7 64 and took the opertunity to rebuild pc at the same time ..cos I wanted more memory..

Before I upgraded I spent ages looking at what hardware I was keeping / installing and made sure that I downloaded the 64 bit versions of the drivers.

The main issue I had was wih Kapersky 2009 Internet security cos it just would not run and kept crashing stuff...but eventually I downloaded 2010 internet security and used the same licence code and this fixed it.

Other bits of software that I had issues with was the dvd software that came with Blu ray / dvd player cyberlink ..this would not run very well so ditched it and now using windows media player with additional codec's.

I do notice that a lot of games and such get installed to a program files (x32) directory and other then this not be a problem, just played a few games (MW1 / MW2 / red alert 3) and had no issues what so ever.

Well worth the jump tho love win 7 ( just wish they would include the screen resolution as a user setting rather then a machine one)

Hopefully this assists

Ray
 
A lot of software will work just fine on Windows 7 64. [32- and 64-bit software].

Sometimes something wont work, but you have the option of putting it into Compatibility Mode. Which makes Windows run a program as if it was in Vista or even XP.

The biggest issue you're likely to have is drivers. However, as long as your hardware is fairly recent or made by well-established companies you should have no problem here either. The people who do have driver problems are the people with no-make hardware made by some guy in his shed.
 
thanks guys

i'm not a gamer so thinking boring business and web stuff

my idea is to get a new laptop with a 17" screen and 64bit windows
so all new gear - i'll think about it over the xmas holidays

didnt know about the Compatibility Mode - will read up on it

thanks
 
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Been using x64 since Vista and not had any problems for at least a year now. And even before then, they were all issues that had workarounds.
 
Everything works fine for me except my old win 95 games.

I really really wanted to play Warlords 3 a few days ago, I wonder if I can downgrade my Vista Ultimate 64 bit licence to XP 32 bit and dual boot.
 
Everything I've used works with 64bit (bar one thing, which was down to the company being lazy and outright saying "we think 64bit is useless, so you're not getting drivers").

Lots and lots of hardware, and software, again, there was one piece of software that didn't work for me, and that was metaboli games on demand service, they didn't list on their site that it didn't work, so I got a refund straight away, and since they've actually added 64bit support.
 
I had been using Vista x64 and am now running Windows 7 x64 and have never had a problem with any software. The only real problems have been with software that writes back to areas such as Program Files or even the Windows folder which both Vista and Windows 7 don't like.

For these programs I've just identified the file and or folder and put on special permissions to allow the writes.
 
garywork said:
i feel the time for 64bit has come !

good news chaps and thanks for the info
Click to expand...

Definitely got for it. Been using 64bit for about 2 years now and haven't had any problems with it. Some really old programs wont work, but its a small price to pay to get a much more responsive OS.
 
last thing on this

just noticed a dell laptop pamphlet in one of the magazines

actually read it properly for once

apart from 1 , all the laptops were 64 bit win 7 - i'll take that as a sign !
 
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