Answers to some common questions about 64-bit Windows XP

If you have installed the system, you should know that the system has 32-bit and 64-bit. The installation of these two systems is not the same for the system configuration. Today, users who want to install the system are told. Say some questions. WinXP 64 Pro stands for windows xp 64bit Edition and is an operating system designed by Microsoft for Opteron/Athlon 64 and Intel EM64T. It can meet the needs of future massive memory and floating point performance applications, with faster code execution efficiency. In the face of the new operating system, as a user, I was also excited to look forward to it, with a little worry, with some questions … … after getting WinXP 64 RC2, with my most concerned issues Try it out. The webpage completes the online registration and fills in the correct email address, so Microsoft will send you an email containing the WinXP 64 Pro RC2 download address, and download the ISO according to the email instructions. Remember to take the installation serial number inside and use it later. Must be activated to use 360 ​​days, otherwise there is only a 14-day period.

32-bit core " broken & rdquo;?

Install WinXP 64 Pro RC2, which first checks if the CPU meets the requirements. When a 32-bit CPU is detected, it "relentlessly" refuses to install, and cannot be installed in VM software such as VMWare. It seems that Microsoft has not considered 64-bit win xp to be compatible with 32-bit CPUs. That is to say, most of the current computers are not compatible with WinXP 64.

What is the difference between the installation?

The downloaded ISO image is engraved, the system is booted with the CD and the installation interface is entered. The installation interface and installation process of WinXP 64 Pro RC2 are both 32-bit version. WinXP is very similar. When installing SATA hard disk under WinXP 64 Pro RC2, you need to pay attention to it. When installing SATA hard disk under 32-bit WinXP, some motherboards need to load the SATA driver that comes with the disk. This is also true under WinXP 64 Pro RC2. I used the VIA KT800+SATA hard drive, so first log in to the VIaA official website to download the corresponding 64-bit driver (VIA_HyperionPro64_V099.zip file). After decompressing, copy all the files in the HyperionPro64-099VIARaidDrvDisk directory to the floppy disk. When installing WinXP 64 Pro RC2, when the screen prompts "Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver...", press the "F6" key, press the "S” key to insert the just created The floppy disk loads the driver, and in a short while, the SATA hard disk can be found successfully. After the file copy is complete, the installation wizard will prompt you to enter the serial number, then fill in the serial number previously copied with the pen.

Coexisting with 32-bit WinXP?

The PC configuration is AMD64 3200+, and the entire installation process of WinXP 64 Pro RC2 lasts about 40 minutes, which is slightly slower than the 32-bit version of WinXP. The installer is very smart, it allows the original operating system in the computer to coexist with it. For example, the original C drive has a 32-bit WinXP, WinXP 64 Pro RC2 is successfully installed on another hard drive, and is added to the boot entry. A "windows xp x64 Edition" option.

How does the hardware adapt to 64-bit systems?

WinXP 64 Pro RC2 is a 64-bit operating system. Currently 32-bit hardware drivers are not working properly underneath it. Fortunately, Microsoft 64-bit drivers for most of the mainstream hardware have been built into the system. The sound card and network card integrated with the MSI MS-6072 motherboard and the FX5900 graphics card can be driven normally. Of course, there are exceptions. The author's Tianmin TV card is only displayed as an unknown multimedia device in the device manager. Currently, there is no 64-bit driver, so it cannot be used. In short, the overall compatibility of WinXP 64 Pro RC2 hardware is similar to that of 32-bit WinXP, as long as it is not too different hardware can achieve the most basic functions.

To fully exploit the full performance of hardware devices, it is not enough to rely entirely on the hardware drivers that come with the operating system. For example, let the FX5900 graphics card in the game (such as DOOM3, Half Life 2, etc.) Smooth operation (the default driver does not include OpenGL1.4 required for games such as DOOM3), you must install the 64-bit driver provided by nVIDIA, and download it after downloading from the official website.

Tips: Athlon 64 and Intel EM64T implement 64-bit technology

AMD64 chose to develop a 32-bit 64-bit processor technology that is backward compatible with x86-64. The way x86-64 is implemented is to add support for 32-bit processors based on 64-bit processors. The finished product is the AMD64 processor we are familiar with, including Athlon 64 and Athlon FX. Intel 64-bit processor technology adds support for 64-bit extensions based on current IA-32 architecture processors. Soon, we can see the civilian-class Intel 64-bit processor in kind.

Can a 32-bit program run?

This is indeed a concern. If a 32-bit program cannot be compatible in a 64-bit system, then so many softwares are needed. It is too difficult to implement a 64-bit upgrade. In WinXP 64 Pro, Microsoft provides a subsystem called WOW64 (Windows-32-on-Windows-64), which provides an analog environment for existing 32-bit applications, making most 32-bit applications unnecessary. The changes run smoothly on the 64-bit version of Windows. In order to explain the problem more intuitively, the author randomly tested several commonly used 32-bit applications and games, and the compatibility is shown in Table 1.

The commonly used 32-bit application software runs well through the WOW64 subsystem, and the performance loss is very small, especially the support for the current mainstream games is very satisfactory. Everyone notices that any application software related to virtual devices, such as Alcohol, daemon, etc., is refused to install. It seems that if you want to continue to use the virtual drive in WinXP 64 Pro, you only have to wait for the new 64-bit version. RealPlayer 10 Simplified Chinese version will refuse to install under WinXP 64 Pro RC2, but you can use Storm Video 5.0 instead. Although the Chinese input method 4.2 can run smoothly, it cannot be input in pure 64-bit applications such as IE for 64bit, and Microsoft's own "Microsoft Smart Pinyin" can be.

Careful users may find this phenomenon when installing the application software. By default, the 32-bit application software is installed in the "Program Files (x86)" directory, while the 64-bit application software is installed. “Program Files” directory. Open the Task Manager and you will see a number of programs with the (*32) flag in the process list. These are the flags used by the system to distinguish between 32-bit applications.

Since WinXP64 is still in the testing stage, there is no 64-bit anti-virus software installed yet. I have tried the 32-bit version at hand. Rising 2005” anti-virus software, very lucky, whether it is Rising real-time Monitoring or anti-virus, the operation is normal. This can be used for the time being before the 64-bit Rising stand-alone version has not come out (it is reported that Rising and Jinshan will soon launch 64-bit anti-virus software).

What are the advantages of 64-bit?

As can be seen from Table 1, although 64-bit windows xp systems are well compatible with 32-bit programs, this does not reflect 64-bit. The advantages of the system, and from the 3DMark test scores, the performance is very low. Isn't the 64-bit system better, but worse? Actually, this is because 64-bit applications are still very small, and the method of testing 64-bit system performance is different from that of 32-bit systems, so it will not rise. The phenomenon of counter-falling. However, Sciencemark.org has now launched ScienceMark 2 specifically for 64-bit Windows. It takes advantage of the 64-bit system to get a more accurate system score. This version already supports Pentium 4 EM64T and AMD 64-bit processors.

Is there any change in the Internet?

The author uses ADSL fixed IP Internet access, and can be configured directly in the WinXP 64 Pro RC2 according to the 32-bit WinXP Internet settings, in “Control Panel ”/“Network and Internet Connections”//Network Connections”Open the connection properties in the configuration, and fill in the IP, gateway, mask, DNS and other parameters provided by the telecom. The tools for browsing the web can choose IE6 or a third-party browser (such as Firefox) that comes with the system. It should be noted that since IE6 for 64-bit is still a beta version, there are fewer plug-ins for it (including the Flash plug-in), so in IE6 for 64-bit version, it may not be able to browse flash, online video playback, etc., LAN settings and The 32-bit WinXP settings are the same, so I won't go into details here. According to the author's test, WinXP 64 Pro RC2 and 32-bit WinXP SP2 peer-to-peer network interconnection and shared Internet access are normal.

These questions are all users' concerns. In fact, the two versions of the system may have more specific explanations when they say differences, but these questions basically summarize what you want to know. I hope everyone can take a good look.