Windows XP Professional x64 Edition from a Hardware Perspective - Not Quite There

While everything seems to work right, there are a few areas that have failed so far in the early life of 64-bit computing. This first problem is driver support. This isn’t a problem with the OS, but with the other companies not producing the drivers. Outside of the bear minimum, like video and sound drivers, finding any more is near impossible, including many printer drivers.

The other major problem is with 32-bit software installation. Some programs, like Steam (above), don’t like installing with the (x64) after Program Files for the folder name. This can be solved by installing them into a different folder then moving them over.

After a year’s worth of work at Microsoft, we have Windows XP Professional x64. The OS is very stable and has a bit of a jump to it in general use. The x64 version looks very similar to the 32-bit. On day to day use you may never notice the difference. In benchmarks the x64 performs nearly the same as the 32-bit on 32-bit applications. When the 64-bit version of Far Cry went up against the 32-bit, it won and with a noticeable increase. This looks very promising for the future of 64-bit processing. The OS is ready for the mass market, but drivers for other hardware are not ready yet. Microsoft has held up their side, but everyone else seems to not care very much. As far as an everyday OS, I would only recommend it to those who can find drivers for everything they need, or have another non XP x64 computer to use. I currently use this as my day to day OS and will even use it as my benching OS from now on.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to drop by the forums and chat about XP x64, or go back to the home page and view other articles.