April 24th, 2005
Windows XP Professional 64-bit Launching Tomorrow
By David Johnston
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews.com
Word has gotten out that Microsoft is going to be releasing Windows XP Professional 64-bit tomorrow. The new OS is actually based on Windows Server 2003 instead of Windows XP and will support only the newest Pentium 4’s with EM64T technology and Athlon 64/FX’s. Among other things, the new OS will allow for an increase in the maximum amount of RAM a system can have from 4GB to 16TB (so that shouldn’t become an issue for the home user for quite some time) and will run both existing 32-bit applications and new 64-bit applications natively.
Having used Windows XP Pro 64-bit Release Candidate 2 a bit, I can say that my system felt a bit more responsive overall though the improvement was not breathtaking. It is said that Microsoft will allow current users of Retail versions of Windows XP Professional to get a free upgrade to the 64-bit edition via a download on Windows Update, though this may deactivate your 32-bit license. Because of this, I’d highly reccomend checking to see if *all* of your hardware is supported by 64-bit drivers because you cannot use your existing 32-bit drivers. The most troublesome devices to find drivers for are printers and other peripherals as well as some soundcards (it’s funny that my nForce4’s onboard soundcard doesn’t have 64-bit drivers though the board was supposedly designed to be used with Windows XP 64-bit edition).
Source: Information Week
jason says:
Any decent SATA drivers this time? The last round was a total mess.
April 24th, 2005 at 8:57 pm
David says:
I never had a problem with Release Candidate 2 using SATA (and also SATA RAID) on the nForce 4 chipset. I’d suspect that most SATA controllers are well supported by now.
April 24th, 2005 at 9:51 pm
David says:
I have a correction to the amount of RAM supported, it’s 32GB.
April 24th, 2005 at 11:26 pm
David says:
Check it out: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/upgrade/default.mspx
April 25th, 2005 at 7:25 am
David says:
Oh, I’d also like to add that I think you’ll also likely need to get new antivirus software and possible CD/DVD burning software. As I see it right now, it does not seem like it’s worth losing a perfectly functional 32-bit copy of Windows to upgrade to the 64-bit version (upgrading will invalidate your original copy).
April 25th, 2005 at 11:19 am
jason says:
So in other words, this is yet another half-product foisted upon us from Microsoft? Seems to me that they needed to get something, anything, out to the public before OSX Tiger hit the streets. Doesn’t matter if it’s not ready - get it out anyway. Quantity over quality.
April 25th, 2005 at 11:54 am
Perros says:
I disagree Jason, the Windows XP 64 bit released is a full product, which they are generously offering as a free upgrade.
You can hardly blame Microsoft for the lack of support by third parties.
-Perros-
April 25th, 2005 at 12:12 pm
David says:
Yargh, getting new reports that you can have 128GB of RAM and up to 16TB of virtual memory. Hopefully that’s the final say…
April 25th, 2005 at 1:32 pm
David says:
You can’t place all the blame on Microsoft. Many of the problems that currently exist with Windows XP Professional 64-bit Edition are the fault of the hardware companies who have been lazy about writing drivers (the OS has been in open beta for quite some time and there’s been plenty of time to write drivers). Since Apple has very tight control over their hardware and software, this is much less of a problem for them.
April 25th, 2005 at 2:43 pm
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