64bit vs 32bit apps under windows 7 home premium

[vhelp]

so, put another way.. will any of the apps i've been running under windows xp, run under the windows 7 home premium, 64bit OS ? is it backwards compatible (to some degree) like the old 16bit vs 32bit days of windows 95/98 ?

i want to pick up an new laptop but its 64bits and i'm not sure i understand the difference since i will be installing some of my heavily used apps like office 2000, delphi, and so on.

thank you.

[Hoser Rob]

You can run 32 bit windows programs on a 64 bit machine, no problem. It won't run as fast as the same program in a 64 bit version, and they won't handle >4Gb files, but otherwise there's no problem.

I'm not saying that any xp version will run on a win7 system ... microsoft moved away from backwards compatibility somewhat in win 7, which I overall think is good ... but that doesn't have anything to to with whether it's a 32 bit app or not.

I doubt you'd have much problem with the programs you're talking about, and win7 does have a compatibility mode.

[jman98]

Most programs will run successfully under Win 7 64 bit. However, some older programs will not. I use Win 7 64 bit Ultimate and I found a handful of programs that wouldn't run under Win 7 64 bit. Among the programs I found that wouldn't run are the Teco Bit Rate Viewer and VCDEasy. Teco works in the XP virtual machine that Ultimate users are allowed to download for free from Microsoft. VCDEasy will start under the XP VM but I tried to make one VCD with it and it produced bizarre errors that I couldn't find any explanation for via an internet search. I had very few programs that wouldn't run under 64 bit Win 7 and there wasn't anything that I couldn't either run in the XP VM or just find a replacement for. The only real issue I had was that I had an old Epson scanner and Epson refuses to make 64 bit Win 7 drivers for it, so I had to get rid of it and buy a new scanner (I bought a Canon). Note that while there is a 64 bit AviSynth almost none of the filters are ported to 64 bits so you might as well use the 32 bit AviSynth if you are going to use 64 bit Win 7. I do not regret installing 64 bit Win 7 if that helps you any.

[vhelp]

that is EGGcellent news! thank you. so i can continue (delphi) development on the apps i've been working on (though 32bits) under Windows 7 system without sweating so much.

[jman98]

By the way, Win 7's compatibility mode is vastly overrated and NONE of the few problem programs I had would run under it.

[jman98]

One more thing - the 32 bit firewire drivers that some people use to capture video directly from their cable boxes will NOT work under Win 7 64 bit. And you can't run them in a VM either because no VM has licensed firewire from Apple. I forgot to mention that and it was a big deal for me. I ended up having to buy the Hauppauge Colossus since I could no longer capture cable video directly from my box via firewire, but to be honest with you the Coloussus is better in my opinion anyway, it just cost me some money to buy it. If you are using those firewire drivers and CapDVHS you CANNOT run these at all under 64 bit Win 7 or a VM, but they will work under 32 bit Win 7. The author of the drivers has no plans to produce 64 bit drivers and while you can run 32 bit programs on a 64 bit OS, you CANNOT run 32 bit drivers on a 64 bit OS.

[vhelp]

well, as long as i can continue developing apps under win 7 system, i'm ok. and knowing that avisynth will still work as well, that also good news because i have tools i wrote for it as well, and some i took a break from. i don't write any low level code (asm/mmx) for avisynth or other, so i think i'm ok there. my only worry is with the current app i working on now because it uses the buggy twebbrowser component. well, i will know once and for all later today.. thanks again.

[vhelp]

well, i will test the firewire feature when i get the laptop. it does not come with fw, (dell inspire 14R) but i have the pinnacle movie box, the one with the fw port, but it operates over USB2.

[hello_hello]

You can run 32 bit windows programs on a 64 bit machine, no problem. It won't run as fast as the same program in a 64 bit version, and they won't handle >4Gb files, but otherwise there's no problem.

4GB is a RAM limitation for 32 bit versions of Windows (or a FAT32 file size limitation) but 32 bit programs certainly handle files larger than 4GB. I'm using XP and I've worked with files around 100GB in size on occasion, and a good portion of my video encodes are larger than 4GB. So unless there's some odd 4GB file size limitation when running 32 bit programs on a 64 bit OS I'm not aware of....
I doubt a mere mortal would be able to pick any speed difference between running a 32 bit and 64 bit version of the same software on a 64 bit operating system.

microsoft moved away from backwards compatibility somewhat in win 7, which I overall think is good ... but that doesn't have anything to to with whether it's a 32 bit app or not.

No they didn't and yes it does. As far as I know you can't run 16 bit programs using a 64 bit version of Windows. Only 64 bit and 32 bit, whereas 32 bit Windows can run 32 bit and 16 bit software. I think it's also possible for some older 32 bit programs to use a 16 bit installer, in which case they'd run but you probably wouldn't be able to install them using a 64 bit OS.
I've not had any experience with using Windows 7's XP mode (not just virtual PC) but according to Wikipedia, XP mode should run any software XP can run including 16 bit software... given you're actually running XP.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Virtual_PC#Windows_XP_Mode
As far as I'm aware Windows 8 doesn't have XP mode.

vhelp,
Have you considered a newer office suite rather than continuing with Office 2000? There's a few free alternatives such as OpenOffice. I'm quite partial to Lotus Symphony which is based on OpenOffice. For most people the free Office alternatives will offer all the features they'll need.

[El Heggunte]

.....
vhelp,
Have you considered a newer office suite rather than continuing with Office 2000? There's a few free alternatives such as OpenOffice. I'm quite partial to Lotus Symphony which is based on OpenOffice. For most people the free Office alternatives will offer all the features they'll need.

Not sure if Office 2000 or Office XP can run flawlessly on Windows 7, but Office 2003 works OK, and it looks and feels similar to the older versions, since it doesn't use the gayish ribbon interface.

I myself would like to use OpenOffice/LibreOffice, BUT from what I have read so far, they DON'T support embedded fonts, only the Devil knows why -.-

[vhelp]

i want to install off 2000 pro because that is what i have on my home pc and i need its ms access database since i use and develop a lot of it. i would prefer off 2003 since we use that at work but rumar has it that they are pushing for off 2010 on newer pc setups. as for 2000 and 2003, they are transparent. that is, to date, i have no problems creating db's in either, and using either off versions back'n forth and so on. by the way, i ended up purchasing the dell inspiron 15r model.

[sanlyn]

i want to install off 2000 pro because that is what i have on my home pc and i need its ms access database since i use and develop a lot of it. i would prefer off 2003 since we use that at work but rumar has it that they are pushing for off 2010 on newer pc setups. as for 2000 and 2003, they are transparent. that is, to date, i have no problems creating db's in either, and using either off versions back' forth and so on. by the way, i ended up purchasing the dell inspiron 15r model.

Office 2k and Ofc XP will run in Win7 (However, the Outlook versions will not run in Win 7. No problems with Access, Excel, etc.). I believe all Office 2003 apps will work OK, but you might want to check Microsoft about Outlook 2003/2004. The newer "ribbon toolbar disease" versions of Office are universally hated and despised by many businesses because the native Word and Excel formats are incompatible with every known Office format. Absolute pain in the......neck.

The Office Assistant icons in early Office versions work except for not displaying transparent backgrounds properly.

[sanlyn]

i want to install off 2000 pro because that is what i have on my home pc and i need its ms access database since i use and develop a lot of it. i would prefer off 2003 since we use that at work but rumar has it that they are pushing for off 2010 on newer pc setups. as for 2000 and 2003, they are transparent. that is, to date, i have no problems creating db's in either, and using either off versions back' forth and so on. by the way, i ended up purchasing the dell inspiron 15r model.

Office 2k and Ofc XP will run in Win7 (However, the Outlook versions will not run in Win 7. No problems with Access, Excel, etc.). I believe all Office 2003 apps will work OK, but you might want to check Microsoft about Outlook 2003/2004. The newer "ribbon toolbar disease" versions of Office are universally hated and despised by many businesses because the native Word and Excel formats are incompatible with every known Office format. And the tools and formatting icons most users are accustomed to are hidden and double-hidden and sometimes triple-hidden under a thick layer of submenus. If you've developed Office VBA apps, many of them will develop glitches. Absolute pain in the......neck.

[usually_quiet]

Windows 7 does cause problems with some software in and of itself. However, most of the programs I use made the transition when I switched from XP to Windows 7 (32-bit in my case), although I had to use XP compatibility settings for some to get them working.

I had MS Office 95, but didn't try installing it, since it was known to be incompatible. Beyond that and hardware without compatable drivers, video-related software was where I had problems. Two of those that would not work were old versions of Cyberlink PowerDirector and Cyberlink PowerDVD. Ulead DVD Workshop 2 is somewhat crippled using Windows 7, meaning some features do not work, and trying to use them results in the program crashing or hanging. I'm guessing that the cause of the problems were driver-related or DirectShow issues.

[El Heggunte]

And more importantly, right-click on the installers and choose the option "Run as Administrator"
Otherwise, you may manage to install the applications, BUT some of them will not be started when clicked.

[lordsmurf]

@sanlyn:
I use Outlook 2003 in Windows 7 64-bit. It works.
Word, Excel and Frontpage are also installed, and each works fine.

However, it needs an update from MS after install. It won't work directly off the disc.

[El Heggunte]

Oops, I forgot to mention Service Pack 3 for Office 2003 ++ the latest "FileFormatConverters" package.

[sanlyn]

@sanlyn:
I use Outlook 2003 in Windows 7 64-bit. It works.
Word, Excel and Frontpage are also installed, and each works fine.

However, it needs an update from MS after install. It won't work directly off the disc.

Thanks for that info, LS. I see Ofc 2003 on eBay often, think I'll give it a try to replace my Ofc 2K. Problem with 2K, though -- it still works like a charm. Had it so long, never a problem; hitting the uninstall button would be like shooting the family dog.

[lordsmurf]

Thanks for that info, LS. I see Ofc 2003 on eBay often, think I'll give it a try to replace my Ofc 2K. Problem with 2K, though -- it still works like a charm. Had it so long, never a problem; hitting the uninstall button would be like shooting the family dog.

I felt the same way.
But 2003 is an upgrade. You'll like it more.

The only nuisance is the default views add grid lines. Those can be turned off.

2003 works better with IMAP, too.
(Though I use Thunderbird for IMAP, Outlook only for POP3 accounts.)