It's actually a virtual machine running XP, no emulation so everything will just work.

Thank you sir, I hoped it would be like that. Sorry I missed your reply the other day

I see references in various places saying that 64-bit is faster than 32-bit.

Is this intrinsically so?

Or is it more a function of using, or being able to use, more memory?

it isnt necessarily faster, and directly it probably isnt, but 64bit has numerous advantages which in turn can lead to improved performance.

The only 2 practical downsides of 64bit are.

1 - compatibility with some old apps/drivers. For the most part drivers should be a non issue, no company can get WHQL certified on only 32bit drivers now, software that is 32bit only should run as windows has a 32bit compat layer which works very well. 16bit support is removed in 64bit windows, but the only 16bit apps/games I am aware off are dos based and I can still use dos stuff in dosbox fine. So 16bit can be emulated. Plus one could run vmware or something to install an older operating system for that purpose.
2 - 64bit binaries are bigger and as such require more memory to run, probably only a minor issue at most tho as 64bit breaks the 4gig memory limit barrier. I even use 64bit on systems with lower ram than 4gig, such as my laptop which has 3gig.

There is to me more downsides using 32bit than 64bit, as you far less future proof and 32bit has disadvantages such as internal limits on virtual memory etc. 64bit cannot be emulated on 32bit, its one way only.

Thanks Chrysails.

I have very few connected devices - USB connected HP Laserjet 1320 which has Vista 64-bit drivers and Googling suggests is ok on W7 - the main PC hardware is from earlier this year so motherboard, graphics et al should be ok.

Anyway W7 Professional has been despatched tome so I see about installing 64-bit in the next week or so.

I had a couple of progs that wouldn't work on W7(64), NetMeter and Pinnacle Studio (v8) so now using TBB meter and PS (v14HD). Everything else seems to work ok even a 12 year old HP laserjet. Just need to run the windows drivers update when drivers aren't found initially.

I have windows 7 pro 64 bit and nearly all programs work with it. 16bit programs do not but the only one I have is an old astrology app which I no longer use.

I have tried the 32bit windows 7 on my 4gb machine with 1 gb video card and it works fine but will only recognize 3.5gb memory.

I have now settled for 64 bit and it recognizes all memory. I had some internal modems but there are no drivers available in 64bit so I use my mobilephone as a fax machine.

The one thing you may notice after it first installed is that it does a lot of indexing of all your documents but once that is finished it just gets faster and faster.

I have noticed no speed difference from using either version, they are just as fast as one another. I did notice that when manipulating graphics in the 64bit verison it worked faster and snappier.

I have tried many older progs Photoshop 7, elements 2, dreamweaver 2004 etc some of them reverted to basic diplay but switched quickly back when closed.

I currently use Networx which I know works on W7 64-bit. Don't use Pinnacle Studio, use Memories on TV for simple slide show work and that is ok.