Windows 7 home premium 64-bit or 32-bit?

[GoldenBoy55]

     hi this is my first post, I hope what seems to be a fairly simple question will have an equally simple answer
     I have just bought my wife a Toshiba L450D-11v notebook/laptop new. It has come pre-installed with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, it also has supplied a DVD containing the 32-bit version of the same OS. Currently there is 3gb of RAM (Im not planning on adding to that in the near future)
     I am a dyed in the wool Windows XP man, and my only knowledge of 64-bit versions of windows is sketchy to say the least! I recall it being a rather rarified OS due to much hardware not having 64-bit drivers etc, obviously times have moved on.
     OK heres my question, given that the specs for this unit are nothing to write home about, and her intentions of use are pretty much emails/facebook/shopping! along with watching DVD's or listening to that wailing Cheryl Cole!!! should I leave the 64-bit OS in situ? or should I remove that and install the 32-bit? Are there any specific benefits in using the one or the other?
     Let me know if there is any more info that would help give me a definitive answer
     Thanks in advance

Toshiba L450D-11v / Athlon x2 Dual Core QL-65 2.1 Mhz / 3GB ddr2 800Mhz RAM / 250Gb HDD / DVD-SM Drive / ATI Radeon HD3200

[Allan]

My personal opinion is if you don't need 64 bit don't install it. It can be finicky with some old sw and I found it a bit "laggier" than 32 bit.

[Geek-9pm]

Welcome to CH forum, Best web site in this part of the galaxy.
Just leave it alone until you find or reason to change it.
But if it were mine, I would do this.
1. Buy a replacement HDD.
2. Install the other OS version on the new drive.
3. Use an external gadget to get data off the old drive.
That way I could easily go back to the way it was.
Replacement HDDs are very low in price now.   

[patio]

I've had zero buggy issues with Win7 64bit and i've been running it from the BETA thru the RC and finally the final version...

[2x3i5x]

Ok, so there is enough 64 bit drivers out there for hardware that needs it and enough 32 bit programs working without problems on a 64 bit windows?


Oh I'm wondering too, I hear windows 8 (the future is coming too quickly!) is supposedly gonna future proof computing by having 128 bit processing available!! 

[Geek-9pm]

Ok, so there is enough 64 bit drivers out there for hardware that needs it and enough 32 bit programs working without problems on a 64 bit windows?
Oh I'm wondering too, I hear windows 8 (the future is coming too quickly!) is supposedly gonna future proof computing by having 128 bit processing available!! 

OH? I was under the impression...
that Windows 8 ...
would be 8 bit computing!

[Allan]

I've had zero buggy issues with Win7 64bit and i've been running it from the BETA thru the RC and finally the final version...

You're gone all day and now that you're back this is the best you could do?    

[GoldenBoy55]

just to clarify that the notebook already had windows 7 home premium 64-Bit pre-installed when I bought it
Would a possible work around be to set up a dual-boot system with both the 64-Bit & the 32-Bit versions of the OS?
I think the general response is along the lines of "if its not broke, dont fix it" so I will leave the status quo as is for now and deal with any problems if and when they arrive
thanks for your help and advice
Merry Christmas to each and every one!

[patio]

If you really want to try the 32 bit ver. it can be installed.
You will need to do a clean install however so backup your data...

You can run 1 or the other...but not both under the Liscense agreement.

[jpirate78]

I'm dual-booting Vista 64-bit with Win 7 64-bit on my wife's new Dell Inspiron 1545 - though she's noted to me probably 4 times in the past week about some odd video occurrances (blacked-out screen portions, mis-appropriated background designs, that kind-of thing).  The Win 7 disc I used was sent-out by Dell "to be used as Upgrade only," though I had been told these upgrade discs will allow for a fresh install (which is why I opted for the fresh install).  I'm thinking that it may be possible that having the two OS's on the same HDD is responsible for the graphics problems, and another DVD drive issue that I've personally noticed.

Any ideas on this would be much appreciated.  I do plan on re-formatting the Vista partition once I'm satisfied that Win 7 is actually as stable and as great as it's stated to be . . . I will then use G-parted to re-group those partions back into the one that they used to be, just fyi.

[Allan]

Check for the latest release of the 64 bit driver for your specific video card for the 7 install.

[jpirate78]

I got rid of the Vista partition in early January - though G-Parted wouldn't do anything for me b/c the Vista partition was set as the Boot drive, even though the default boot drive was Windows 7 according to how it actually booted w/o personal selection input.  The built-in Windows Partitioning tool wouldn't touch the Vista partition either - for the same reason I'm assuming.

What finally got the job done was to use the Windows 7 install disc to reformat all but the OEM partition into one again, then do a fresh install . . .
This gave me/us more than just the extra elbowroom, but a seemingly smoother running OS - imagine that, right?

Thanks for the advice guys!