Differences between Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit Chinese Cabbage

Now it's nothing new to install Windows 7. If you haven't installed Windows 7, it's too much. Speaking of the advantages of Windows 7, it's a bunch of things, so don't hesitate to install one.

Ah, wait. Before installation, you have to figure out which version of Windows 7, family edition, Professional Edition, and flagship edition you want to install. That is the love of radish cabbage, let's talk about another version classification today. That's right, it's the 32-bit and 64-bit versions that are directly related to computer hardware.

If you are an efficient visitor, please take the express connect and make up your mind in one sentence. However, if you want to have a deeper understanding of 32-bit and 64-bit, you may wish to take the complete channel, read the entire article.

[Expressconnect]: If you are not keen on playing games, but work involves a lot of development in a virtual environment, and the physical memory of your computer is greater than 3 GB, try to install a 64-bit system. Otherwise, if you are a game enthusiast and do not need that large memory (3 GB memory is enough for basic applications), try a 32-bit system.

[Full Channel]: Why do we set the memory condition threshold to 3G in the expressconnect? In fact, this is related to the 32-bit system architecture.

The difference between 32-bit and 64-bit systems is really long. Here we need to first understand the CPU architecture technology. Generally we can see that there will be x86 and x64 identifiers on computer hardware, in fact, this is two different CPU hardware architectures. x86 represents a 32-bit operating system x64 represents a 64-bit operating system. So what does the 32-bit and 64-bit "bit" mean? Compared with 32-bit technology, the 64-bit technology indicates that the data width of general-purpose registers (general-purpose register) is 64-bit, the 64-bit instruction set is the command to run 64-bit data, that is, the processor can run 64-bit data at a time. For example, the 32-bit throughput is 1 m, while the 64-bit throughput is 2 m.

64-bit computation has two advantages: it can perform integer operations in a larger range; it can support larger memory. However, we cannot simply think that the performance of a 64-bit processor is twice that of a 32-bit processor. In fact, in 32-bit applications, the performance of 32-bit processors is even stronger. Even a 64-bit processor, it is also more powerful in 32-bit applications. So do not be infatuated with 64-bit. 64-bit is not a legend. We need to analyze it clearly before deciding whether to use 32-bit or 64-bit.

Are you confused? When should I select 64-bit and 32-bit? We will divide it into several parts for you to explain one by one.

Let's talk about the memory. Why does a 32-bit system only display 3 GB memory (actually 3.25 GB? This is caused by system restrictions. The 32-bit system has a total addressing capability of 4 GB for the memory, while other things need to be put in 4G: for example, the system bios, input and output device address and settings, the interface settings and addresses, and the space occupied by these addresses and settings must be about mb. Therefore, the 32-bit 4G can only display 3G, however, the remaining memory is not wasted.

So is it true that a 32-bit system cannot identify 4G memory? No. We know that there will be more than 700 mb of space in the memory occupied by hardware addresses or interfaces. Can we use some means to let them occupy the space on the hard disk (similar to virtual memory ), instead of occupying physical memory, can 4 GB memory be fully recognized? Yes, this method is indeed feasible, so now we have a technology called PAE, which is called physical address extension in Chinese. This technology is provided on hardware devices, but this technology requires system support, for example, 32-bit Windows Server 2003 supports this technology, but Vista does not support it very well. For Windows 7, you can use it.

Therefore, I didn't say in express connect that a 64-bit system must be installed as long as the memory is larger than 3G. It depends on your actual work or usage requirements.

In addition to memory, the 64-bit technology is also related to hardware. The motherboard MUST support 4 GB first (some boards earlier than 945 do not support 4 GB memory, in this way, even 64-bit systems cannot recognize 4G memory. In addition, the processor (CPU) also needs to be 64-bit. Some people will mix the dual-core and 64-bit CPUs. Here I want to emphasize, dual-core and 64-bit are two different concepts. dual-core refers to two physical CPUs, while 64-bit is a technology, not to say that as long as it is a dual-core, it must be 64-bit, for example, the Pentium D series has a 32-bit dual-core (currently the Core 2 dual-core is basically 64-bit), and the 64-bit is actually divided into two types, one is often referred to as x64, and the other is Intel's Android CPU, which is a 64-bit processor dedicated to large servers (the 64-bit Client Version cannot be installed at all, only the server version can be installed ).

With the support of these hardware, you can start to consider using a 64-bit system, but the next step is the most important, we need to know the risks that may occur when using 64-bit. In general, we need to consider the following four issues.

1. Is there a better performance?

2. How is compatibility?

3. What is the reliability and security?

4. Do you need to spend more?

As for the first question, we will talk about it at the beginning. Sometimes the 32-bit system may have better performance than the 64-bit system. We are used to infer from experience that the performance of the computer has been improved from 8 to 16, 16 to 32, but the performance of the 64-bit computer has not yet been determined, this is because only 64-bit optimized 64-bit programs can improve the performance. Currently, most Windows applications do not perform this optimization, while 32-bit applications run on 64-bit systems, it takes more time logically (the difference in actual testing is very small ).

Some people have seen that a large number of 64-bit applications have appeared recently, but note that these applications are not used to improve performance, but to solve the incompatibility problem of 32-bit programs on 64-bit systems. Of course, I believe that this kind of 64-bit optimization processing software will be more and more, after all, 64-bit is a direction, sooner or later.

The second problem is very important. compatibility is an important factor for a system to heaven or to hell. In Windows 7, 32-bit system compatibility is very good, however, the 64-bit system compatibility is still at risk. Although many software versions have been updated to be compatible with the 64-bit version, however, users still need to run a large number of 32-bit software on 64-bit systems, which may bring risks. In a 32-bit system, the DLL (Dynamic Link Library) required for running the program is stored in c: \ windows \ system32, while in a 64-bit system, the 32-bit library is stored in C: \ in Windows \ syswow64. When a 32-bit program tries to load the library from system32, wow64 (Windows
On Windows 64-bit) is responsible for redirecting him. Similarly, the program also needs to perform a redirection when calling the Registry. wow64 redirects HKLM \ Software to HKLM \ SOFTWARE \ wow6432node. wow64 is more compatible with software than other virtualization mechanisms, these redirection works well, but any complex layer may cause unforeseen problems, which are manifested as incompatibility. In addition, if your computer still has 16-bit software, it will certainly be incompatible in a 64-bit system, which is also a problem we need to consider in advance.

Regarding the hardware compatibility, we can see from our previous tests that the overall Windows 7 hardware compatibility performance is very good (more than 90% of the hardware can be compatible ), however, this refers to a 32-bit system. In a 64-bit system, the hardware compatibility is currently lower than that of a 32-bit system, however, we believe that this phenomenon will gradually improve with the development of 64-bit.

We recommend two addresses for compatibility, one for software compatibility and one for hardware compatibility, which are officially provided by Microsoft.

Http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/zh-cn/applications.aspx

Http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/zh-cn/devices.aspx

The third problem is about stability and security. In 64-bit systems, security has been improved to a greater extent. patchguard and Dep (Data Execution Protection) it can protect the system against malicious behaviors such as buffer overflow attacks, but the security issue cannot be solved simply by technology. In terms of stability, the 64-bit stability should theoretically be better than 32-bit, but this is not the case in use. The main problem occurs in incompatible software and drivers. This incompatibility may even result in a blue screen. Even if the driver needs to sign a digital signature, this phenomenon has not yet seen much improvement.

The fourth problem is that everyone is most concerned about it. I have a 32-bit system. Do I have to pay for it again when I want to install a 64-bit system? Friends who have bought FPP should know that in Windows 7, the 32-bit system and the 64-bit system use the same license for activation (that is, the key we often call ), the retail edition also usually contains both 32-bit and 64-bit media (the domestic general edition does not seem to provide 64-bit media in China, but if you download a 64-bit image, you can choose which system to install. If you do not have 64-bit media, you can also contact the dealer to purchase a separate media. However, you must note that the retail version can only install one system at a time. If you have activated your 32-bit system, you need to call Microsoft 800 to log out, then activate your 64-bit system.

Based on the above four points, I believe that everyone has a basic understanding of where to go and where to go. I will summarize that we need to implement a true 64-bit computing, A 64-bit processor is not enough. A 64-bit operating system and 64-bit application software are required, without any of these elements, 64-bit computing cannot be implemented. In addition, we also need to consider the actual situation. 64-bit is the trend, but if you want to experience it yourself now, you have to make a good decision. Of course, if you haven't made up your mind and don't worry about your computer, we can install 32-bit Windows 7 on 64-bit hardware first, however, if the hardware is 32-bit, the 64-bit Windows cannot be installed.
7. This is the legendary "backward compatibility ".