On 10/04/2012 18:20, Jim Hawkins wrote:

When I get a new PC it'll be Windows 7, but what are the pros and cons of
the two differebt bit sizes ?

64bit gives the ability to address more physical RAM - 32 bit is limited
to 4GB of which windows and things like your graphics RAM will take a
slice, giving a practical maximum of around 3.5GB usable memory.

64bit code is faster for some applications, although slightly more
memory hungry.

64bit was at one time slightly harder to find drivers for older
peripherals - but the situation is much improved.

I've heard you can't copy stuff from XP machines to 64 bit Win 7 machines.
Is that true ?

No, not really.

There are some compatibility problems which are mainly Win7 Vs XP rather
than 32/64 bit. These mostly stem from the more stringently policed
security model of Win7.

Note that the 64 bit OS can run 32 bit code in the same way as WinXP
32bit can run 16bit code. The 64 bit OS may be be slightly slower
running 32 bit code than the same hardware running the 32 bit OS
(depends a bit on your hardware).

Nothing stopping you installing a virtual machine hypervisor and running
a 32 bit OS as well should you need to.

The more expensive versions of Win7 also allow XP compatibility mode
(which is basically just a thinly disguised WinXP virtual machine)

I'd like to copy .jpg and .pdf files, Outlook Express folders and MS Word
.doc files. Are those a problem, and if so, are there any workarounds or
conversion utilities available ?

Data files in general are no problem. There is no Win7 version of
outlook express however. However there are plenty of alternatives.



--
Cheers,

John.

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