Windows Vista x64

The Gateway P-7811 FX comes with vista home premium x64 right? What are the benifits? I currently have a vista ultimate desktop on x86 or x32 same thing. Can I run programs like VLC player, firefox, photoshop [ adobe stuffs ] and winrar in x64? Or let me but it this way... what can't x64 run?

 

I believe Ultimate > Premium. I haven't encounter a program that couldn't run on Vista Ultimate x64. VLC, Firefox, PS (all Adobe), and winrar all works.

 

From my understanding, 64bit will make full use of 4 gigs of ram+.

I've been using 64 bit for a month now with no problems.

 

i like 64bit, best choice ive made yet in OS's

 

Is it faster?

 

I've used all the stuff you mentioned except for VLC on Vista 64 with no problem... Even Office XP installed and Word, Powerpoint and Excel run fine

 

vlc works just fine on 64 bit vista provided you dont mind the occassional crash when trying to add something to the playlist. it doesnt happen every time, but every once in a while it will cause it to crash, causing you to exit the program from task manager.

 

i upgraded to 64bit vista ultimate from the home premium the 7811 came with, i think when i get my other hdd for raid 0, im gonna go back to home premium, ultimate comes with too much stuff i dont need and/or use. so home premium is fine with me

 

RAID GOOD! I had no problems reinstalling Vista on RAID. One thing to watch for is that after you go into BIOS and switch the setting to RAID and reboot, after the BIOS info comes up, the next screen prompts you to press CTRL+I to configure RAID. You have about 2 seconds to hit CTRL+I before it continues on. If you are like me and walk away to grab something out of the fridge, you don't realise you missed something until the Widows install process asks you how you want to format the drives and where you want Vista installed. (So I rebooted and saw the Ctrl+I prompt, and rebooted again, with my fingers hovering about the CTRL and I keys so I could hit them in time)

One nice thing I noticed about the install is that I was not prompted for a product key, and once installed, Vista was already activated. I used the Jelly Bean Keyfinder tool to get the preinstalled Vista product key, thinking I would need it for the install. When I flipped the laptop over to install the hard drives, I noticed that the product key that the keyfinder came up with was different than the product key on the "Genuine Windows" sticker on the bottom of the 7811. After reinstalling Vista 64, the keyfinder came up with the same key from the preinstall. So either a) they put the wrong "Genuine Windows" sticker on the laptop, b) I have two lisence keys, or c) the key on the sticker is for the 32-bit version of Vista.

 

I don't think I'll need raid 0 for I only have 1 hard drive....

 

Gametap doesn't work w/ 64-bit windows (not that anyone uses that lol) but it doesn't I found out

 

The only thing that I have found that refuses to work right on Vista 64 is my HP 2840 all in one printer. There are no 64 bit drivers, just a universal print driver that is next to useless. That basically means, no scanner, email fax etc etc and a very expensive copier/fax. HP has annoyed me on this but after a few tweaks I like Vista 64.

 

zonealarm doesn't have 64-bit version of their firewall yet

 

K thanks guys!