Installing 32bit Vista on 64bit processor?

Hello,

I bought Vostro 1500 with a T7100 which I believe is 64bit processor. I have a 32bit vista home premium and installed it. Do I lost any performance in doing so. If I do, how much of performance would I lose.

By the way, is there 32bit and 64bit windows xp or are they all same?

Thank you

 

You are not 'losing' performance if you use 32-bit OS with a T7100. It is relative to using a 64-bit OS. You are just not going to be able to use the 64-bit capability of the processor with the 32-bit OS. However, your performance will be no lower than a 32-bit OS running on a 32-bit processor. It will be the same. You just have to upgrade to a 64-bit OS if you want to take advantage of that capability.

 

Here are 64 bit related questions, if you could help me out as well.

Can I run 32 bit programs on a 64 bit OS (on a 64 bit processor ofcourse)? How will it effect the usage. I mean will there be BSODs or such, or will they not work in the first place? Because not all my softwares are 64 bit yet.


Thank you!

 

Sometimes. Most programs will run as 32bit programs under a 64bit environment, but many will not, because they depend on specific system things that don't exist under 64bit. There will almost certainly not be any BSOd's, but it may still crash the program.

 

More specifically, the CPU itself is 100% capable of running 32-bit code, even from within a 64-bit OS, so basically, everything will work 100% as it's supposed to. Guaranteed. When it comes to hardware, 99% compatibility is meaningless. It's either compatible or it isn't And in this case, it is.

However, the programs you run may depend on various hardware drivers (for the sound card, for your webcam or printer or.....) and those have to be 64-bit versions. And 64-bit versions of them don't always exist, and they aren't always as robust as their 32-bit counterparts.

Another limitation is 16-bit code (yes, dating back to the good old Win3.1 days). That is still used a few places, and it can be run just fine from a 32-bit OS, but not from 64-bit. So if you run any software that depends on that, you'll be in trouble. (That is rare though)

 

if you use palm hotsync..it will not work with 64 bit, no matter what...fyi...that was a really important factor for me

 

Palm has a beta out that does work with 64 bit. It's not 64 bit specific, but it does run fine. The problem is with the Palm driver, which is only 32bit. In that case, you can hotsync over wireless if your palm has bluetooth or wifi.

 

The problems you will run into with a 32bit apps on a 64bit system are those that need to use libraries from other programs. For example, the winzip right-click menu item interfaces with explorer, which is 64bit. Unless winzip has a 64bit DLL that can also work in 64bit space, it will not work. The only other issue you might have is with drivers. Otherwise, anything that runs should work fine.

 

i've heard people have had success over bt...but i've tried everything and nothing worked...so i had to do a clean install back to 32 bit...kinda blew