Any Tips/Tricks/Warnings/Notices before I upgrade to 64-bit Vista?

[sqeaky4100]

In regards to WoW, Multiboxing, or General Computer usage...

Is there anything you wish you knew before YOU upgraded to 64-bit, that may be of use to my knowledge?




Thanks

[puppychow]

Vista 64 is annoying as hell whenever you run stuff with admin privileges (Octopus, Vent, etc) since it brings up a giant window and fades out the rest of your screen when you do it.

Other than that my transition went smooth, installed Vista64 fresh on a system with XP, haven't once had to go back and boot into XP (you have that option). I choose to install fresh rather than upgrade to have a "clean" system, don't miss all those weird apps installed over the years.

Oh, also, Vista64 comes with both a IE 64 and a IE 32 bit version, mostly the same except Flash is only available in 32 bit. I usually use 64 bit browser so its a bit annoying when I come across youtube/etc and have to open a new window, but on the other hand it feels more secure since I can't run any embedded videos/etc.

[sqeaky4100]

Well I use Firefox, so I don't care about the IE deal.

Also, that security feature you mentioned is UAC, which comes with 32bit vista as well, I've disabled it.

[Ualaa]

Pretty much UAC is what makes Vista more secure then XP.
As mentioned you can disable it if you want.

If you have XP 64-Bit, I don't think you'll gain a whole lot with Vista 64-Bit, if you're planning on disabling the UAC.
If you have a 32-Bit operating system and are going to a 64-Bit OS, Vista > XP especially now that Vista has a Service Pack 1.

You can right click on a program and go to compatibility and choose to run the program with admin priviledges.
The UAC box will still come up (if that feature is enabled) but it will be run as an admin each time.

Firefox > Internet Explorer any day, especially with No Script addon for firefox.

Vista is organized a little differently, but if you're comfortable with XP the transition isn't anything major.

[sqeaky4100]

I guess I wasn't very descriptive before... I have 32bit Vista right now. So there's nothing new as far as Vista goes.


Also, I have UAC completely off, and just use NOD32

[Ualaa]

I've found a few older programs which would run on XP 32-Bit, which will not run on Vista 64-Bit.
I'm not sure that they would run on Vista 32-Bit or not.

I know Vista-64 makes two folders for program files, program files and program Files (x86).
The (x86) is for 32-bit programs, and most of those do run. The ones I've had issues with are quite a bit older.
Birth of the Federation, runs on XP-32 but not Vista-64, but that came out a ways back and lists Windows 95 as a requirement.
Pretty much anything made today, or in the last few years, should run.
Some of the older stuff might not run, if that is an issue.

[wowphreak]

Vista requires a considerable amount more resources (memory/graphics) this is some what offset by the fact that vista64 can use more then 4 gigs of memory.

[Frappuccino]

I went to Vista64 Ultimate after attempting to install XP 64 only to have it not detect my RAID0 setup and I don't own a floppy drive.

Needless to say I was pleasantly suprised with Vista, it looks great, stable, nothing to complain about. Fiddling with control panel, in particular network device settings is a bit rough at first since it's a very different interface.

The warning thing that pops up isn't really that bad, it's a security feature, one that's been in Linux for ages afaik.

Yea, I like it ^^

[Ellusionist]

No tips, tricks, warnings, or notices here -- just do it. You'll never look back.

[heffner]

I have both. Both run the same as far as I can tell (with the exception of the RAM). However, it will come down to what hardware you have and if you have any special software that may not work for whatever reason. Although, I would assume by now that most of the driver issues have been sorted out unless you have some serious legacy hardware.

Also, I built a new computer for it. So, I never actually upgraded. I had no issues that I recall.

I turned off Aero but not UAC.

edit: I just remembered what I thought when I first installed Vista 64...why the hell didn't I try Ubuntu with WINE first? Since my box is pretty much dedicated to WoW, I thought this may have been worth attempting and save me some money [and make Bill Gates $5billion+++ - $150 less rich :P (yes I know this isn't true, but it makes me feel better to think that way)]