I did a bit of searching, and can't say I found this question straight up asked, which kinda surprised me, so here it is! Is there generally speaking, a lot of compatibility issues with the 64bit Edition of Windows XP Professional? I realise I'll need to download 64bit Drivers, and 16bit Programs will not longer function, but is this a major drawback now-a-days? I now do a bit of DVD work, transcoding Audio and Video, and assuming the software is 64bit Programmed, then there is a massive boost in speed? Basically, how is the Trade-off of Compatibility against Performance increase? Perhaps checking my more commonly used Programs (and PC Hardware for Drivers) ahead of installing it, to check for Official 64bit software would be wise regardless.

All in all there is some compatibility issues with hardware/software drivers for the 64 bit. Nothing like there used to be as you can readily find the drivers now for all the latest stuff....but when one decides to upgrade...well they need to upgrade everything so as to get the peak performance that one should get....that is rid yourself of all the crap that you don't need or use any more...which is peoples biggest issue. There will be a dramatic boost to performance if you can visualize the nano speed of data racing from here to there...but in reality most cannot really tell. As you are into video editing and the likes then you will see a markable change in time for downloading and editing...say 15 minutes for downloading what usually takes 20 to 30. You might also notice more processing capabilities and multi-tasking but then back you go on all that you gain. Right now, I personally haven't changed over to the 64 bit architecture as I don't personally see any need for it as with what I do with my clumsy hunt and peck would slow down a truck load of them... In The Matters Of Style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, Stand Like A Rock "People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid."

I've been running XPPro64 since MS released an evaluation copy a couple of years ago. I installed XPPro64 on a machine that was marginally qualified to run it. Before the trial expired I decided to do it right and built a machine using a 3.06 Celeron D processor (w/EM64T). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64 I bought a copy of XPPro64 when the trial expired and installed it on the new machine. It runs like a champ and with a few exceptions does anything XPPro will do. I've never had any driver problems and the only things I can't run are several older utilities that I had become attached to over the years. It also doesn't support flash if you are a YouTube fan. 64bit is the future! There is no way I'd buy a 32 bit system again. Anything I can't run I don't need. I just checked and couldn't find the XPPro64 trial download and I would imagine that's because XP is in it's death throes. Maybe Vista64 has a trial available but I don't know. Me and Vista have agreed to disagree! I'd jump to 64 bit and adapt like we've done with anything else that comes along. If you have particular software to run you might want to thoroughly research whether it's compatibile but with the run-of-mill stuff that I use there isn't any problems. We're not going back to 16bit stuff any time soon.......... we're going forward to 64bit. Try it, you'll like it!

I have had no problems running XP Pro x64 since it first became available. I liked it that much, I had a new OEM XpPro X64 installed on my new computer I had built last November 2007. AMD had a long list of x64 drivers from the major hardware companies at the time. So have never had problems getting the correct drivers from the start...