Windows xp 64 bit home professional, drivers, 64 bit software, etc.

[Chaosomega]

Alright ive decided to make the upgrade to the comp to go from 2gb to 8gb but i obviously need to load up a new os because my 32bit os does not allow me to do 8gb of mem.

So answer me this:
1.) Is 64 bit software fo windows xp still being made?
2.) Is the 64 bit software still readily avaiable?
3.) Do i need a wow 64 bit client or does the 32 bit work and is optimal with my system specs ( as in, does a 32bit software not use the extra specs like dual core, 3+ gb of memory, etc)?
4.) Does windows xp 64 bit support drivers for the 8800gt?
5.) does windows xp not recognize modern day external hard drives?
6.) Should i be worried if microsoft starts to not create new software for windows xp 64 bit beacause of windows vista?

anything else you could share would be great, thank you. I am looking to get 8gb of memory but im really worried about going back to xp, I dont have a problem with vista but it seems to ruin my wow playing with errors etc.

[Ken]

Alright ive decided to make the upgrade to the comp to go from 2gb to 8gb but i obviously need to load up a new os because my 32bit os does not allow me to do 8gb of mem.

So answer me this:
1.) Is 64 bit software fo windows xp still being made?

Yes. 64bit Windows software (Vista/XP) is definitely still developed, as it works on the 64 bit editions of both XP and Vista.

2.) Is the 64 bit software still readily avaiable?

Yes, but 32bit software works fine on 64bit systems (x86).

3.) Do i need a wow 64 bit client or does the 32 bit work and is optimal with my system specs ( as in, does a 32bit software not use the extra specs like dual core, 3+ gb of memory, etc)?

32bit works fine and you shouldn't see a decrease in speed. 32bit clients aren't optimized for 64bit architecture, which means they don't run as fast as they could. ... but certain operations of 32bit applications could go faster on a 64bit machine (e.g. 2 x 32 bits could be copied with one 64 bit 'command'(operator) )

32bit XP has a limitation of 4GB memory. That's the only limitation that I can recall, but it's a relevant one if you are planning to run 5 accounts or more (with medium to high settings).

4.) Does windows xp 64 bit support drivers for the 8800gt?

Yes, check www.nvidia.com

5.) does windows xp not recognize modern day external hard drives?

Generally: it supports them. The USB/Firewire/ext SATA drivers in XP(both 32 bit and 64 bit) work with most (almost all) external drives. I have never had an external drive that XP64/XP32 wouldn't recognize.

6.) Should i be worried if microsoft starts to not create new software for windows xp 64 bit beacause of windows vista?

No.
The only concern is: "will hardware manufacturers keep on delivering XP 64 drivers in the future, when they create new hardware?"

anything else you could share would be great, thank you. I am looking to get 8gb of memory but im really worried about going back to xp, I dont have a problem with vista but it seems to ruin my wow playing with errors etc.

I run a XP64 system by the way. Quad core 6600, 8GB RAM, 7900 GTX, etc etc
All works fine :)

[Daleka]

Don't forget that DX10 is also not available until vista. Believe it or not, I saw a decrease in performance when I reformatted and stayed with XP64 and DX9. Updates for anything XP related were stopped by Microsoft as of Feb this year, so no more updates beyond what is currently available. All focus is on Vista now.

Quad-core Q6600, 8gb RAM, 2x 8500

[Ken]

Don't forget that DX10 is also not available until vista. Believe it or not, I saw a decrease in performance when I reformatted and stayed with XP64 and DX9.

The DX10 argument only counts for the DX10 videocards of course.

Updates for anything XP related were stopped by Microsoft as of Feb this year, so no more updates beyond what is currently available. All focus is on Vista now.

Quad-core Q6600, 8gb RAM, 2x 8500

Wrong. XP has gotten (mostly security) updates this year.

[edit] http://blogs.technet.com/lifecycle/a...june-30th.aspx

This means that the Mainstream Support phase will end on April 14, 2009 and the Extended Support phase will end on April 8, 2014. That’s at least another 6 years of support remaining for Windows XP!