32 to 64-bit Migration Considerations

Late last month I received Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade in the mail. The upgrade comes provided with both the 32 and 64-bit editions – each on a separate DVD which are very plainly marked. And no, there aren’t two separate licenses. The license is a singular and applies whichever you decide to go with.

Currently I am running the Windows 7 RC 32-bit edition. My PC is capable of running 32 or 64. Being that the RC won’t expire until March 2010, I have plenty of time to decide whether to stay with 32 or go 64.

I have not upgraded yet.

The reason I’m waiting on upgrading from my RC to the full edition is because I’m performing research on 32 vs. 64 for my personal computing experience.

I do champion 64-bit processing and apps, make no mistake. However I’m seriously considering staying in 32-bit world for now because of the current hardware and software I use.

Hardware

In 64-bit world there are things you have to take into consideration that you’d ordinarily never have to think about.

Mouse

My mouse is made by Microsoft and uses the Intellipoint software in order to gain functionality, such as having the wheel-click as a double-click (which I use all the time.) Does Microsoft provide a 64-bit version of Intellipoint? Yes, they do. All you have to do is do a Google search for microsoft intellipoint 64-bit and you’ll find it.

Webcam

My webcam is made by Logitech. When I go to their web site and search for 64-bit drivers, do they exist? Yes. They exist for Windows Vista 64-bit, but these will work in Windows 7 without a problem, so I’m covered there.

Other hardware

For other hardware like printers, tablets or for whatever else you use, you must seek out 64-bit drivers so they work properly in a native 64-bit OS environment, else you may run into wonky issues.

Software

Quick question answered: Do 32-bit apps work in a 64-bit OS? Most of the time they will. It is not a universal "yes" because of the way some apps are programmed.

For example, I use Mozilla Thunderbird as my mail application. Do they have a 64-bit edition? No, and they never have. There are unofficial 64-bit ports of that software (along with Firefox), but no from-Mozilla official releases.

Fortunately I have read that 32-bit editions of Mozilla products will work just fine in a 64-bit environment, so even if I chose to run the 32-bit versions, they will operate without issue.

When it comes to other software however, there can be problems.

You can think of running 32-bit apps in a 64-bit environment in the same vein that we had with transitions of the past.

For those of you that remember the transition from MS-DOS/Windows 3.1 to Windows 95, there were many 16-bit apps that simply did not work in the 32-bit Windows 95 environment at all. On attempt to run them, they’d simply not work, crash and well.. that was that.

For those of you that remember the Windows 98 to Windows XP transition, that was a somewhat better experience. Being that Windows 98 apps were natively 32-bit, most worked in XP without a problem – except for those that didn’t know how to handle the NT environment (which 2000/XP is.)

Most apps in XP will migrate to Windows 7 32-bit flavor easily. I know this from personal experience as I’ve been using Windows 7 RC for many months. This is because once again you’re going from 32-bit to 32-bit. It is unlikely you’d find any 32-bit XP app that absolutely would not work in Windows 7 32-bit edition.

When going 64 however, you have to bear in mind that the under-the-hood way of which things are run are distinctively different.

How to prepare for 64-bit

Once you’ve confirmed that your hardware is all 64-bit capable, you basically have to research each software title you have to see if it will actually work in 64-bit world. This can be time consuming but well worth the effort knowing what will work and what won’t.

You can get a list of all your software simply by going to the Add/Remove section of Windows. I know of very few programs that do not list themselves there these days. From there you just perform a Google search using the title of the software and 64-bit, such as "photoshop 64-bit", "wacom tablet 64-bit" or the like. Performing any search of this type will immediately bring up results either in the form of the respective company web site, blogs and/or forums informing you if said software runs in a 64-bit environment effectively – if at all.

I don’t want to give off the impression that you shouldn’t go 64-bit, because this is the way desktop computing is heavily leaning towards. However it is a fact at present that the vast majority of hardware and software are specifically designed for 32-bit environments only, and this will remain the case for at least another 5 years.