Vista + birthing pains

[ferlach]

I just got a new laptop, which I bought because the price was great and it had descrete VRAM -256, which is almost impossible to get unless you want to spend $2000 or more for a laptop.

I thought to then downgrade to xp, but quickly found out about the trouble people ran into that had tried it. I know something about osses, but do not have that much hands on experience. So have decided to stay with vista.

I have vista ultimate 64-bit edition, and I would like to install adobe cs2 and studio8. I have had problems finding out if these are vista 64-bit compatible, or if it will screw up the os if I tried to install them.
I checked with adobe and the only info I was able to find, was that some people had problems and some had not. There was no indication if vista 64 would have problems, as I think both suites are 32-bit. I thought that was one of the most useless statements that I have ever read. On top of that it is impossible to find practical help with vista, as everyone seems to be on a slow learning curve and needless to say microsoft is practically useless for help. What info they have seems to deal with only the 32-bit versions, which in my case is no help.

So can anyone tell me if it is OK to install either one or both?

[binoj_daniel]

You can install a 32 bit sotware on 64bit OS.
Many programs designed for a computer running a 32-bit version of Windows will work on a computer running 64-bit versions of Windows without any changes. However, in some cases there might be differences in performance. If you have a 64-bit computer, it's best to run programs designed to run on a 64-bit computer.

[ferlach]

You can install a 32 bit sotware on 64bit OS.
Many programs designed for a computer running a 32-bit version of Windows will work on a computer running 64-bit versions of Windows without any changes. However, in some cases there might be differences in performance. If you have a 64-bit computer, it's best to run programs designed to run on a 64-bit computer.

I agree with your last statement, but there is the problem that very little has yet been developed for vista64, plus where to get the money to buy new versions of applications that I have already bought and PAID FOR.

If this is true, why would there be problems running cs2 and studio8 with vista, and what exactly causes the problems if 32bit can run on 64bit os?

Why would there be any problems running any application designed for xp with using vista os?

I would love to understand. Iam not a programmer, I am not wired that way, but I would love to understand what causes problems under the hood.

[binoj_daniel]

Problems with OS compatibility are due to many reasons. As with the Vista release there are considerable memory addressing changes behind the scenes. A 64 bit OS can hold a lot more memory refrences as compared to 32 bit. If the program/application you are trying to install does not use proper memory access thenits bound to fail. Most issues running incompatible applications are related to memory leaks.

I will write an article on COmpatibiltiy on www.coderewind.com
you can check it soon.