Windows XP Pro x64 Compatibility List

[Alien]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

I did a search just now also and I may be wrong, the itanium intel chip is 64bit only and runs 32bit via emulation this is quite possinly what I read about.

Core2duo is probably true 32bit indeed I am running xp32 on my core2duo now.

You're right in that C2D is a proper 32bit chip, but it also has "64 bit extensions", instead of [in my, & I think Zingle's, opinion] being a true 64bit chip like AMD's, which is also fully backwards compatible with 32bit. I think this is what Zingle was getting at earlier in the thread, when he was complaining about XP64 having probs on C2D-based systems, but running fine on AMD64-based systems. It's also what I meant when I referred to Intel using a kludge instead of doing things properly; using "64 bit extensions" instead of making a proper 64 bit chip. Just like slapping 2 single cores together in an almost Blue Peter-like fashion [P4D], instead of making a proper dual core chip, & then doing the same thing again with quad cores: slapping 2 dual-core chips together & calling it quad-core instead of making a proper quad-core chip.

Edit: Hmm... just had another read of what Zingle wrote, & it seems he was more miffed at Intel's mobo chipset than the CPU itself.

[Chrysalis]

interesting that intel just using 64bit extensions.

I got a c2d following rave reviews from all over the place and in my honest opinion I have found some flaws in both the chip and the chipset.

1 - I get problems when there is high ram utilisation and some stuttering in video media, this doesnt happen on my "lower" spec amd64 and I suspect it may be due to the c2d lack of a hypertransport and integrated ddr2 core.
2 - the intel speedstep is a bit dissapointing in that it doesnt actually downclock by a lot from 2.6ghz down to 2ghz. I heard later revisions of the c2d have fixed this.
3 - the ide chipset is poor, it supports plain ide, ahci and raid. ahci has no support for write caching at all in the drivers, the raid drivers do support write caching but only when using raid5 mode, plain ide has no intel drivers whatsoever and the microsoft drivers are used. Lots of people sing intels praises on the ich7/8/9 chipsets but they all using raid modes and in particular hardware review sites all specifically tested the raid functions and not single drive setups. When I emailed intel about the limitations they simply told me to use the plain ide mode which doesnt utilise features such as native command queuing.

[Alien]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

2 - the intel speedstep is a bit dissapointing in that it doesnt actually downclock by a lot from 2.6ghz down to 2ghz. I heard later revisions of the c2d have fixed this.

That reminds me, I need to get round to installing the Cool and Quiet driver on here. Under XP32 it would, IIRC, reduce the clock rate down to around 1Ghz [from 3.0] when idle.

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

When I emailed intel about the limitations they simply told me to use the plain ide mode which doesnt utilise features such as native command queuing.

AFAIK, NCQ is only found on SATA controllers/drives.
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Software made for 64bit:
SmartFTP [client, not server]
PDF-XChange PDF Viewer [download includes both 32 & 64bit versions]
Azureus 3.0.3.4: doesn't run in 64bit mode by default, but can be made to do so.*

32 bit software that works with XP64:
Blocklist Manager: Depending on what Visual Style you're using, you may need to turn off Visual Styles on the compatibility tab of the prog's shortcut. If you get big black patches in the options then you'll need to do it, otherwise it should be ok. [also applies to XP32]
TopDesk: gives you Vista's Flip3D & OSX's Exposé style application switching [not free, but only a tenner; I'm still on the trial period & haven't made my mind up about it yet].
SkinStudio: Free [but nags you to register when you open & close the prog] alternative to TGTsoft's Stylebuilder for creating your own Visual Styles for XP [& I think Vista too]. Dilli: if you haven't already found 1, I was thinking you could make a Style specifically suited to you.
NextSensor: Interesting alternative to SpeedFan, with features like remote monitoring, etc. Fonts are a bit small though.
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*How to get Azureus working in 64bit mode.
Stuff you need:
1. Azureus [obviously, link above]

2. the 64bit version of Java [though if you want any 32bit Java stuff [e.g. games in 32bit browsers] to work, you'll want to install the 32bit version first. Go to this page, scroll down to where you see an entry for "Java Runtime Environment" & click the download link. On the next page, click the option to accept the license agreement, then when the page reloads, scroll to the bottom & you'll find a download link for the Win64 version of Java.

3. The 64bit version of SWT [some sort of GUI API/library or whatever]

Steps to get it working:
1. Install Java [32 bit first, then 64bit]. For some reason the installer for the 64bit 1 doesn't "register" it, so you need to do that manually. Find where the 64bit version of Java's been installed [if you're not sure, try pasting %ProgramFiles%\Java into Windows Explorer's address bar & hitting enter]. Then you need to find the bin folder, in my case it's at:
K:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_03\bin
Right click My Computer, choose Properties, go to the Advanced tab & click the Environment Variables button. In the bottom pane, find the Path variable, & then add a semi-colon [;] to the end of it, followed by the full path to the bin folder.

2. Install Azureus, but don't run it.

3. In the folder where Azureus is installed, make a backup copy of swt.jar

4. Open the zip file for the 64bit version of SWT & copy swt.jar from it into your Azureus folder, overwriting the original.

5. Create a new shortcut, wherever you like. In the location box, paste the following:
javaw -classpath swt.jar;Azureus2.jar org.gudy.azureus2.ui.swt.Main
Once the shortcut is created you'll need to modify its properties to change the Start In folder to the folder where Azureus is installed.

6. Use the shortcut to start Azureus instead of Azureus.exe.

7. Download all the updates** & start torrenting.

** 1 of the updates doesn't seem to work properly, or at least the updater doesn't seem to recognise that it has been updated: Platform-specific support v1.13. I even tried manually updating it [yes, I've also tried the newer 1.14_cvs version as well], but to no avail. You'll just have to put up with the fact that until they fix it every time you start Azureus it'll offer that update. Just cancel the update dialogue if that's the only update available, or untick the box next to it if there's others available.

[Chrysalis]

Alien I do have sata controllers.

I have the ICH7R chipset which has 4 sata and 2 pata ports, my main hd is the newest version of raptor which supports NCQ.

So I have 2 choices for my single drive configuration.

1 - Use basic ide mode and have write caching (dispite what people say this makes a big difference in the apps I use and I have a UPS so dont have power cutout concerns.)
2 - Use AHCI or RAID mode so I can use the intel drivers and of course NCQ but have no write caching.

Different chipsets such as nvidia and via allow write caching in single drive configurations on raid and ahci modes.

The board also has a jmicron controller and I have read on certian forums from raid and intel fanboys how it sucks use the ICH etc. except my own experience is the jmicron is faster than the intel controller and has lower cpu usage when drive accessed.

[Alien]

Originally Posted by Alien

** 1 of the updates doesn't seem to work properly, or at least the updater doesn't seem to recognise that it has been updated: Platform-specific support v1.13. I even tried manually updating it [yes, I've also tried the newer 1.14_cvs version as well], but to no avail. You'll just have to put up with the fact that until they fix it every time you start Azureus it'll offer that update. Just cancel the update dialogue if that's the only update available, or untick the box next to it if there's others available.

This is semi-fixed now, mentioned it on the new Azureus forums [still naff, but an improvement from the SourceForge 1] & 1 of the devs saw my post & has modified the updater so that it won't try to update the platform-specific-support for amd64, ia64 and x86_64 architectures until there is actually a proper update for them.

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

Alien I do have sata controllers.

I have the ICH7R chipset which has 4 sata and 2 pata ports, my main hd is the newest version of raptor which supports NCQ.

So I have 2 choices for my single drive configuration.

1 - Use basic ide mode and have write caching (dispite what people say this makes a big difference in the apps I use and I have a UPS so dont have power cutout concerns.)
2 - Use AHCI or RAID mode so I can use the intel drivers and of course NCQ but have no write caching.

Different chipsets such as nvidia and via allow write caching in single drive configurations on raid and ahci modes.

The board also has a jmicron controller and I have read on certian forums from raid and intel fanboys how it sucks use the ICH etc. except my own experience is the jmicron is faster than the intel controller and has lower cpu usage when drive accessed.

Oh, right. Well, 1 more reason for me not to switch to Intel I guess. [not that my current board can do NCQ anyway, but it's a fairly basic board]

[Alien]

Originally Posted by Alien

Software that doesn't work in XP64:
PathCopy 4: An amazingly useful shell extension, that doesn't work on XP64.

Looks like that assesment might have been premature. It turns out it does partially work. What I didn't realise is that in XP64 there are 2 versions of Windows Explorer, 32 & 64bit. If you open a My Computer, Explorer, etc window from something 64bit [e.g. from the My Computer entry on the Start menu], then it runs the 64bit Explorer; if you open an Explorer window from a 32bit prog [e.g. Xteq Explorer LaunchPad, another useful 32bit prog] then it opens the 32bit Explorer, in which apparently 32bit shell extensions do run.

Software that's made for 64bit:
UltraMon: Kinda like ATI's HydraVision, except there's a 64bit version & it's not 4 years out of date! Unfortunately it's not free after the first 30 days, but I'm strongly considering registering it as it's only £20.
Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0.10.238 Beta: This is a direct link to the exe that I found via google, though it is on Comodo's server. I can't post a link to the original page that the link is on because it's an area of their Forums that you have to register to view & a) I haven't gotten round to registering for their forum yet, & b) even if I had registered & posted a link to the page you'd have to register to view the actual page. The link I found via google was posted on another site, but like I said, the link will fetch the file direct from Comodo's server.

I've been using the 64bit version of CFP for a couple of days now & I'm quite pleased with it. It's a major improvement over the rather annoying 32bit version [2.4.16.174] I tried previously under XP32.

32bit software that works in XP64:
Maxthon: Browser that uses the IE browser engine. both versions 1.6 & 2.0.5 work just fine in XP64.
Caligari trueSpace 6.6, 7.11, & 7.51
Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 as well as versions 7 & 9. 1 thing I should mention on X2 & XP64: you may have heard that starting with version XI Corel introduced their own spyware in the form of Protexis "licensing". It's even in the EULA that they reserve the right to have the product report back about useage, though they don't mention Protexis by name. This has annoyed a lot of PSP users, some of whom have sworn off Corel products altogether as a result. The good news is that PSP X2 seems to run just fine with the Protexis service disabled, whereas from what I've read [at least about PSP XI] PSP wouldn't run without the Protexis service running on XP32.