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Ask Slashdot: Best 32-Bit Windows System In 2012?

Posted by timothy on from the looking-backwards-fondly dept.

First time accepted submitter justthinkit writes "I have a number of applications that will not run on 64-bit Windows, but I would like to gain the benefits (most better caching) of having more than 4GB of RAM. Am I stuck with these Windows operating systems? And why is Windows Server 2008 Datacenter and Enterprise not included on that page? Should I go with a Linux or Win 7/8 system, and run a VM of Windows XP? Is this a solved problem or a lost cause?"

3 of 313 comments (clear)

  1. Depends on the 3D by Krneki · · Score: 5, Informative

    Do you need 3D accelerated graphics? If not, VM is the way to go. Just RDP to the machine and do what you have to do.

    --
    Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
  2. Re:Windows 7 compatibility mode by Spad · · Score: 5, Informative

    Or they have shoddy legacy code that checks for 64-bit systems and refuses to run on them in the same way that a lot of older websites still keep insisting that you upgrade to IE6 in order to view them in their full glory because someone did a != instead of a =

  3. Windows 7 x64 with XP Mode by TrekkieTechie · · Score: 5, Informative

    This was briefly mentioned earlier, but I wanted to state clearly and concisely:

    Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate all include licensing for Windows XP Mode, a 32-bit virtualized instance of Windows XP SP3. It is an additional download (actually a couple downloads), but it is free. I use it every day at work (on my 64-bit Win7 machine) to run a 16-bit app that was written in 1992, while I wait for that app's replacement to be written. It works perfectly, in fact much better than VirtualBox did for the same use case (there was laggy/odd redrawing issues with VirtualBox, no matter how many resources I allocated to the virtual machine).