32 or 64 bits...

As any true geek should be, I'm a lover of all new technologies.
This includes software of all sorts as well, and the new Windows 7 is no exception.

When they released the beta version earlier this year I jumped at the chance to download and test out this new version. I did the same with Vista but quickly realised it was inferior to the mighty Windows XP (long may it survive). Windows 7 was a different story.
It appears to be a polished and much improved version of Vista, which some may hate (true XP lovers) but others will enjoy it's ease of use and full (speedy) functionality.

So when Microsoft announced the pre-orders for it I made sure I got my order in. I was surprised to learn that you no longer needed to specify whether you wanted the 32-bit or 64-bit versions, but that both were included on the disc and you/the system would decide which version to install. With that in mind I started wondering about whether the 64-bit version would be better for me.

For anyone who knows a bit (excuse the pub) about memory address allocation, they will be aware that in order to access more than 4GB of RAM you need a 64bit architecture and 64-bit operating system. I now have 6GB of RAM installed so figured I might as well make use of it. [Pain starts here]

I have a copy of the x64 release candidate and a valid key so I decided to install it early and make sure it all worked as I expected before installing the official release. It took an age to install the OS with lots of periods of blue screens appearing for minutes on end with no sign of progress. But eventually it worked.
I'm aware of the issue of hardware support (devices need specific 64-bit versions to work) and was not surprised when my webcam wasn't supported. Luckily everything else works perfectly.

Start-up/Shut-down times appear to be good (as fast as, or faster than XP) and the general usage speed is spot on.
I'm now working my way through the list of software I regularly use to ensure that they all work as expected and configuring accounts and document directories etc.

For now the 64-bit experience is a pleasant one and will hopefully continue to be so.