Computer newbies: Differences Between 32 And 64 Bit Operating Systems

by Psych Doc - 9/20/09 4:42 AM

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Differences Between 32 And 64 Bit Operating Systems

by Psych Doc - 9/20/09 4:42 AM

....I apologize in advance for this ridiculously elementary question but I have never understood what the difference(s) is between Win XP/Vista/7 32/64 bit operating systems.

From the end user POV it seems the operate identically and do pretty much the same things. So why does Microsoft make these two versions of the OS? What do they do differently and which is best to get on a laptop that will be used for simple surfing, email, photo loading from a digital camera, etc?

TIA!

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Post 2 of 3

Re: 32 versus 64 bit

by Kees Bakker

- 9/20/09 5:33 AM In reply to: Differences Between 32 And 64 Bit Operating Systems by Psych Doc

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/06/04/differences-and-advantages-between-32-bit-x86-vs-64-bit-x64-windows-vista/ tells about it.

For the foreseeable future, a 32-bit OS is quite nice for what you plan to do with the machine.

Kees

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Post 3 of 3

Another explanation

by jeff_windows_team

- 9/21/09 10:25 AM In reply to: Differences Between 32 And 64 Bit Operating Systems by Psych Doc

Here is Microsoft's description of the differences: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946765

As stated above, for your needs a 32bit OS will be just fine. You should start thinking about getting a 64bit OS if your RAM goes above 4GB. That's when a 64bit OS starts to mean something.