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"Windows 7 Compatible" PCs Must Be 64-bit
Barence writes "Microsoft has started certifying PCs as 'compatible with Windows 7' — and is looking to avoid the mistakes that dogged the Vista-Capable scheme. Whereas Microsoft certified PCs that could only run Vista Home Basic last time around, this time PCs will have to work with all versions of Windows 7 to qualify for the sticker, including 64-bit versions of the OS. Microsoft also claims, 'products that receive the logo are checked for common issues to minimize the number of crashes, hangs, and reboots experienced by the user.'"
Why would Microsoft turn down that money?
If there aren't enough people with builds like yours (32-bit but still decently powerful), it just wouldn't be worth the cost of maintaining a separate architecture.
What about netbooks running 32-bit CPUs? Those will all be declared incompatible with Windows 7, even though 32-bit Windows 7 will run on them? I think I must be missing something.
If only Microsoft had done the world a huge favor, and made Windows 7 64-bit only. And if only they had dropped a few different flavors of Windows 7, too. It would all be so much less confusing and frustrating.
"'products that receive the logo are checked for common issues to minimize the number of crashes, hangs, and reboots experienced by the user.'"
The Vista USB issue was a good example. And this policy would not have prevented that.
A manager at work insisted their new laptop had Vista pre-installed several years ago(pre SP 1).
Initially all was well, till it started blue-screening at random after about 6 months. It was difficult for me to nail down until Ipods(itunes) new ver 8 came out and bluescreened the machine 100% of the time when the iPod was plugged in. That was the clue I needed. Investigation found a disparity between the OS and the some (not all) USB controllers.Remember, some laptops can have different contoller type for side and back. At the time a few hot fixes wasnt 100% reliable.
Then SP1 came out, and I found a reference to my problem in the release notes. Not one problem since with USB. The manager can use her Ipod, any and all usb sticks, her USB printer at home, her camera. The fix was a couple years in the making.
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
Because Windows 7's main competitors - Windows XP and Vista - run on 32 bit. And not even offering your product to half your customers is a great way to ensure half your customers don't buy it.
Curiously, initial reviews say that amongst the general public, most don't have plans to upgrade. Must have something to do with how most people are friggin' poor now and can't afford to drop $700 on a new desktop, LCD, and then $200 or so on licensing a new operating system. Not when we're still getting over sticker shock from having to spend $800 freaking dollars on an 'HDTV' because of the forced and sudden obsolesence of every TV made before it. I'm sorry -- but if you make less than about $35k a year, forget it. Just keep using XP and playing Warcraft 3 with your friends. Who bloody cares anymore about having a gazillion gigabytes of everything and a processor you can fry sausages on? I mean, besides you and me, because we're geeks and attracted like moths to fire when it comes to computer goodies.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Yup you are correct: there is no Office 2007 64-bit. It obviously runs fine on 64-bit windows, but until Office 2010 there's no true 64-bit office apps.
I created this account just so I could comment on this story
Freedom. In 32-bit versions of Windows, if you want to do something that requires kernel-mode programming, you can write your own drivers. In 64-bit versions, you have to pay Microsoft to get their approval for your driver, or else it will only load if you boot Windows in a test mode where multimedia functionality is crippled.
Fuck that totalitarian bullshit. 32-bit forever.
(And yes, there are legitimate uses for writing drivers even though you're not a hardware maker. Some examples: Process Explorer, Process Monitor, Sandboxie, VDK...)
They don't have an official version, but there is a 64bit Firefox and I have found it to run much faster on XP X64 than 32bit Firefox. The only hangup is there is no 64bit flash for Windows, but since I'm not looking at flash it doesn't bother me. if I find a video that I absolutely must watch, well there is always Firefox 32 for that.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Note the silence of the "Mac Jihad" when you're the second person to post, and anonymously at that. Really sure of your argument there, sonny eh?
Apple are still supporting older versions of OS X to this day (just upped a PPC to latest 10.5 with a recent security patch to boot), and kept up with the Classic environment for a long time.
10.6 is Intel only, but that was not surprising at all.
Other than just getting in a cheap jab at Apple while you were (incorrectly) bashing Linux for "abandoning customers", do you have anything to back up your weak arguments or did you go to the Right Wing Talk Radio Host school of debating?
Actually they said that Windows Server 2008 was the last 32bit server OS. They said nothing about client OS's.
You'll love this then. Since the digital changeover, my cableco decided, that to get more than 10 channels via their system, you have to 'upgrade' to their digital cable service. The kicker? Their 'new' digital cable boxes (new subscribers and upgraders only get the new ones from them now) only have HDMI and digital optical audio connectors.
The only half-way decent thing about the box, is that it also has USB, Firewire and Memory Stick slots. Of course, the Firewire I believe is mandated by the FCC. The USB slot is crippled and only works with external USB DVD/CD drives. The Memory Stick slot of course relies on Sony's proprietary Memory Stick and Memory Stick Duo trash. The other hardware on it sucks though. 128MB onboard RAM, 64 MB programmable internal flash (totally used and encrypted by them remotely - used to store the temp files for firmware upgrades, channel subscription info, etc) and the PPC equivalent of a 1.4 Ghz P4 processor. The thing runs about as quickly as a drunk turtle with two legs tied together. Oh, yeah, those memory slots I mentioned? Only good for loading .jpg and .wma files. It ignores other filetypes and the USB slot gives errors on device types that Aren't Approved(TM). Haven't bothered with anything Firewire, cuz I don't own anything that needs it (the stuff around here that is Firewire-enabled is all for Macs/videography/photography equipment).
Not that I'm going to bother paying them an extra $50 per month just to go to the next tier of stations when I can just stick to the 10 channels and watch everything I want elsewhere online.
@Mindless Drivel: 100% of Twitter posts ever Tweeted.
That number is a lie. The unemployment rate is not based on the number of people who would like to have work but cannot find a job, but instead on the number of people currently receiving unemployment benefits.
It therefore does not include any of the people who would like to be working, but for whatever reason are either ineligible for unemployment or have not opted to seek such benefits. This group includes young people who are just entering the job market but are unable to find work, people who were casually fired (getting fewer and fewer hours per week until it becomes unprofitable for them to keep showing up), folks who left their job for whatever reason and can't find another one, and a whole slew of other people (including those that have simply been "unemployed" too long to receive further assistance).
It may very well be the best measure of employment we can capture based on available data, but merely being the best possible measure does not mean that it's not complete bullshit in the context in which you're attempting to use it.
Kid-proof tablet..
Actually it doesn't. in fact I have found (in my own personal experience) that FF64 running on XP64 uses less resources that FF32, with both running the same extensions. If you would like to see some benchmarks that someone was nice enough to put up here you go. These were made when Firefox was at 3.0.x but I have found that if anything FF64 has just gotten better, whereas FF32 seems to have gotten a little slower, at least in my experience.
So why not give it a try if you are running 64bit Windows? It is free and will only take a little bit of your time. If you are gonna use it long term I would suggest using the same version number as the 32bit you have installed, otherwise you'll get a tiny nag about "upgrading" when you go from the smaller number to the bigger. But since they seem to update the 64bit version pretty quickly it really isn't hard to keep them synced. If you have 64bit it really is a nice experience, and as you can see from the benchmarks the 64bits does help with the speed.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
I don't know of any single-purpose VT presence tester; but I'm guessing that CPU-Z could probably tell you that(along with a whole lot of other things).