XP or Vista 64

Faolan and Rider, thanks for explaining that for my 8 year old grandson. Now he has another question, where and how he "may need to poke around a bit to turn that capability on."? He has two computers running Vista 64 bit. He dosen't know if this info is a help or not, the laptop is 15 months old and has a 2.40 gigahertz Intel Core2 Duo CPU, and the desktop is a month old and has an Intel Core i7-920 (8MB L3 Cache 2.66GHz) CPU.

Are these self builds or off the shelf systems (Dell, HP etc).

The reason for asking how you switch this feature varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Have a look in BIOS is a good place to start and look for something that says Virtualisation.

To be honest, you don't need this feature unless you really want to use XP mode, you also need to download the XP package from Microsoft which consume more HD space/resources.

XP mode is purely for running business apps and it's not for gaming, heavy duty applications (graphics,3d or video) or running DOS games.

Personally I usually leave this feature switched off. However AMD doesn't have this option.

jr_senator wrote in post #7893175
Faolan and Rider, thanks for explaining that for my 8 year old grandson. Now he has another question, where and how he "may need to poke around a bit to turn that capability on."? He has two computers running Vista 64 bit. He dosen't know if this info is a help or not, the laptop is 15 months old and has a 2.40 gigahertz Intel Core2 Duo CPU, and the desktop is a month old and has an Intel Core i7-920 (8MB L3 Cache 2.66GHz) CPU.

The new PC certainly has the capability, so your grandson can rest assured on that one. I think that, if, uh... he really needs to run something in XP mode, I would just try it. If it doesn't work, then I would poke around in the BIOS. To get in to the BIOS, you'll usually see some kind of instruction during boot up, when you see all that big, blocky text - it'll usually say something like, "HIT DEL TO ENTER SETUP," and then pause a moment for you to do so... after that, yeah - anybody's guess. Each BIOS layout will be different, although this will probably be on an advanced settings screen.

midnight_rider wrote in post #7892905
I searched several times and always came up empty handed. I have even asked several members and all the canon links were for 32 bit.
Could you post a link for me please. It would help me out a lot.

Here is one that started about a 1D classic, but the info in it works for a MKII.

https://photography-on-the.net …?t=689583&highl​ight=Vista

This one points to the thread above but also might help.

https://photography-on-the.net …php?t=690067&hi​ghlight=1D

If that doesn't work I can find some more, just let me know.

acorean wrote in post #7834505
what are "the resources?"

My Components are
Intel® Core™ 2 Quad processor Q8200 (4MB L2, 2.33GHz, 1333FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
8GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4DIMMs
640GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB supporting HDMI

Since you have 8GB of ram, you will need a 64 bit OS to take advantag of them. Any 32 bit OS can only make use 3.25GB of RAM.

Now, 64bit is a must. Then Vista 64 is by far better than XP 64.

eelnoraa wrote in post #7908329
Any 32 bit OS can only make use 3.25GB of RAM.

Yeah, I found out after I put 4GB in my last computer, a 32 bit XP.

acorean wrote in post #7834464
I just got a new Dell studio desktop and am debating if I leave well enough alone and use Vista 64 that came with the computer or load XP Pro.

The latter obviously involves downloading drivers, etc. to get everything working right (I'm not the most PC savy person but I can get through it... eventually).

Is it worth the extra work?

Please help.

Without reading the entire thread and responding to the OP...

I too wanted to stick with XP because of all the bad press I read and heard about Vista. But a computer savvy friend convinced me to get Vista when I bought a new desktop last fall. I've been using Vista Ultimate 64 bit with service pack 1 for about 6 months now without a single problem. Also running 64 bit PS-CS4 and Lightroom without problems.

I'm starting to gather information about my next PC. This thread is easing my concerns about Vista somewhat. At this point I think I'm leaning Vista 64 bit, especially since that allows for more memory to be utilized.

Trying to decide if I want to go kit build or find a Dell that will suffice, or what.

Thanks for all of the great information. I have heard nothing but bad about Vista. After reading all of this,I will go Vista 64 on my next build.

Thanks again !!!!

I've had XP and Vista bought for me by employers over the years, but after working with the Win 7 RC, I can confidently say this will be one OS that I believe would be worth spending my own hard earned money on.

^^^ Good to hear - I liked the 7000 build but I didn't really have enough room for it, so I just bought a new hard drive to dedicate to the RC.

Yeah, the RC seems even better. Who'd of thought.