Install 32 bit or 64 bit software?

[Skimer]

I have a slow laptop - 1.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM. Windows 8.0 x64 Bit.

Whenever there's a choice of installing 64 bit or 32 bit version of programs I've always opted for the 64 bit version. However, I've noticed that 64 bit versions often require faster CPU and more memory.

So I'm just wondering if I might get better performance out of the old laptop by using the 32 bit versions of programs.

Thanks.

 

[Bat 1]

While there's Not a significant amount of resources needed to use a 64 bit versus a 32 bit OS version, on PCs with 4 GB of RAM or less and slower CPU speeds, I'll usually opt for installing the 32 bit version. It might just be a placebo effect (?) or the slight increase of resources can be making that much of a difference (?) but on most configurations I found the 32 bit OS to be noticeably faster,

However if You find that you may be needing to run 64 bit versions of programs or apps in the future then you best option would be to go ahead and install the 64 bit OS.

 

[strollin]

Unless you are going to add RAM to your laptop in order to have more than 4GB, there is no advantage to running either a 64-Bit OS or 64-Bit applications.

 

[Skimer]

While there's Not a significant amount of resources needed to use a 64 bit versus a 32 bit OS version, on PCs with 4 GB of RAM or less and slower CPU speeds, I'll usually opt for installing the 32 bit version. It might just be a placebo effect (?) or the slight increase of resources can be making that much of a difference (?) but on most configurations I found the 32 bit OS to be noticeably faster,

However if You find that you may be needing to run 64 bit versions of programs or apps in the future then you best option would be to go ahead and install the 64 bit OS.

Thanks for the reply. I suspected that 32 bit versions might be the way to go.

 

[Skimer]

Unless you are going to add RAM to your laptop in order to have more than 4GB, there is no advantage to running either a 64-Bit OS or 64-Bit applications.

Thanks for the reply.

Bought the laptop a few years ago (5 years old this April) and it came with Windows 8.0 x64 bit pre installed. As far as I know I have no option to downgrade to 32 bits OS version, at least not for free. More RAM is an option I guess, but I hate to spend any money on such an old laptop, so opting for 32 bit versions of programs, where they are available, will be the way to go. Most of the software I use is freeware or open-source. I only have 4 commercial program installed.

 

[wiganken]

How come you are still using Windows 8.0? Windows 8.1 is far better and it's free to upgrade. See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/15288/windows-8-update-to-windows-8-1. Your laptop will probably speed up as a result.

 

[Skimer]

How come you are still using Windows 8.0? Windows 8.1 is far better and it's free to upgrade. See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/15288/windows-8-update-to-windows-8-1. Your laptop will probably speed up as a result.

As I recall, the reason at the time 8.1 was released was that the option to use Windows 7 recovery had been excluded from 8.1. Another reason was articles like: My Frustrating Upgrade To Windows 8.1 - on Forbes dot com and a few other articles and forum posts I read that made me think it was not worth the headaches.

For now I'll stick with 8.0. I'm actually becoming more interested in Linux (Mint) and plan to trial it a USB stick. I hope that won't bring down upon me a deluge of charges of heresy here on Windows Eight Forum

 

[mrjimphelps]

I have an old computer (2008) that has 2 GB of RAM. I clean-installed Windows 8.0 32-bit on it, and it ran really well. I then did the upgrade to Windows 8.1, and the ride got bumpy. I went back to 8.0, and I had smooth (and fast) sailing from that point forward.

I now have Linux Lite on that computer. It works really well. But if Microsoft would support Windows 8.0, I would go back to it, because it ran so well.

On my Dell laptop, I have Windows 8.1, and it runs well. But 8.1 doesn't run well on every computer; on some computers 8.0 runs a lot better.

I think you should try out Linux Mint, as you are considering doing. If you like it, you could always install Linux Mint as your primary OS, and then install Windows 8.0 as a virtual machine. On my main computer, I have Linux Mint 18.2 as my primary OS, and I have Windows 8.1 installed in a virtual machine. This system works very well for me, because, although I can do most things in Linux, I can't do everything; and for those things, Windows is just a click away.

I use VMWare Workstation Player as my virtual machine software. If you decide to go the virtual machine route as I have described above, make sure you install 64-bit Linux Mint as your host OS, not 32-bit Linux Mint, because VMWare requires that you have 64-bit Linux as your host system. They quit developing for 32-bit a long time ago.

Linux Mint is an excellent choice. I went with the xfce interface, because they say it is more lightweight (i.e. faster) than the other interfaces.

Before you do any of the above, make sure that you have all of your install keys written down, such as your Windows 8.0 install key, so that you can install Windows in the vm. Also, get the install key for any other software that you want to install in the Windows VM.

And be sure to do a complete backup of your 8.0 session.

You could probably go with Windows 8.1 in the VM. After installing Linux Mint, download the Windows 8.1 ISO, create a new VM, and tell the VM where the ISO is located. Put in your 8.0 install key. Hit "Go". In about 5 minutes, you will have a ready-to-use Windows 8.1 session! But if that doesn't work for you, you can always delete the 8.1 VM and do a new one with 8.0.

 

[Skimer]

mrjimphelps Thanks for your suggestion of Linux Mint. A week or so ago I had to re-install Windows so took the opportunity to install Linux Mint onto a USB flash drive. Everything seemed to go okay but I was unable to boot from it. I've tried several times to create bootable Linux Mint USB drives, using different programs to create them, but all have failed. So I gave up on that and decided to update Windows 8.0 to 8.1. Again, despite many attempts, it failed to update successfully. Too much hassle to keep trying so I'll just stick with 8.0.

 

[mrjimphelps]

I've had a lot of trouble setting up Mint (or anything else) on a flash drive and then booting from the flash drive. However, I have always had success when I set up a DVD to boot from. No persistent storage, but at least it works when I do a DVD.

 

[Skimer]

I've had a lot of trouble setting up Mint (or anything else) on a flash drive and then booting from the flash drive. However, I have always had success when I set up a DVD to boot from. No persistent storage, but at least it works when I do a DVD.

Thank you again for your help. I'll give that a try. Haven't used a DVD or CD in my laptop for ages, apart from the recent re-install of Windows from recovery disks which were made back in 2012. I guess I'm lucky that those disks still worked.