Installing Win8 is not new now. If you haven't installed Windows 8, it's too out.
Hey, wait, before I installed it, I wanted to understand which version of Windows 8, Core Edition, Professional Edition, Enterprise Edition, which is the radish cabbage, and I don’t bother to explain it to you. Now, let's talk about another version classification. Yes, it is a 32-bit and 64-bit version that is directly related to computer hardware.
If you are an efficient spectator, then take the fast track and help you make a decision in one sentence, but if you want to have a deeper understanding of 32 and 64, then you can take the full channel and read the full article. .
[Fast Channel]: If you are not keen on playing games, and your work involves a lot of development in a virtual environment, and you need the computer's physical memory is more than 4GB, then you can install a 64-bit system test. On the other hand, if you are a game enthusiast, you don't need that much memory (4G memory is enough for basic applications), try a 32-bit system.
[Complete channel]: Why do we set the memory condition threshold to 4G in the fast channel? In fact, this is related to the 32-bit system architecture, and listen to me slowly.
About the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit systems, that's really a long story. Here we first need to understand the CPU architecture technology. Usually we can see that there are X86 and X64 logos on the computer hardware. There are two different CPU hardware architectures, x86 stands for 32-bit operating system and x64 stands for 64-bit operating system. So what does the "bit" in the 32-bit and 64-bit mean? Compared to 32-bit technology, this bit of 64-bit technology refers to CPU GPRs (General-Purpose Registers), which has a data width of 64 bits. The 64-bit instruction set is an instruction to run 64-bit data, that is, Said that the processor can run 64bit data at a time. An easy-to-understand but not particularly accurate example: 32-bit throughput is 1M, while 64-bit throughput is 2M.
64-bit computing has two advantages: it can be used for a larger range of integer operations; it can support larger memory. But not because of the digital changes, it is simply thought 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 will be even stronger. Even 64-bit processors are currently more powerful in 32-bit applications. So don't be obsessed with 64, 64 is not a legend, we have to make a clear analysis before deciding to use 32 or 64.
Are you confused? When do you choose 64-bit and when do you choose 32-bit? We are divided into several parts to explain to you one by one.
We first talk about memory, why 32-bit systems only use 3G memory (actually 3.50G, in most cases 3.00GB or 3.25G)? This is due to the limitations of the system itself. The 32-bit system has a total of 4G for memory addressing, and there are other things in 4G: system BiOS, address and settings of input and output devices, settings and addresses of various interfaces, etc. The space occupied by the fixed space should reach about 500M, so 4G memory can only display 3G in 32 bits, but the remaining memory is not wasted.
So, is it true that 32-bit systems can't really use 4G or more of memory? Nor is it. There is now a technology called PAE, which is called physical address extension in Chinese. It adds 64-bit memory to 32-bit systems by adding a level one address translation. This is the technology provided on the hardware device, but this technology requires system support, such as 32-bit Windows Server 2003/2008 can support this technology very well, but Vista support is not very good, Windows 7 support situation is somewhat improve. As for Windows 8, for security reasons (NX allows the processor to help protect the computer against malware attacks, PAE is a prerequisite for turning on NX), the CPU must support PAE to run Windows 8.
Therefore, I did not say in the fast channel that as long as it is larger than 3G memory, it must be installed with a 64-bit system, depending on your actual work or usage requirements.
In addition to memory, 64-bit technology is also related to hardware. The motherboard must first support 4G (some motherboards before 945 do not support 4G memory, so even 64-bit systems cannot recognize 4G memory), and the processor (CPU) also needs to be 64-bit. Some people will confuse dual-core and 64-bit CPU. Here I want to emphasize that dual-core and 64-bit are two different concepts. Dual-core refers to physically having two core CPUs. 64-bit is a technology, not to say that as long as it is dual-core, it must be 64-bit. For example, there are 32-bit dual-core in the Pentium D series (currently Core Duo is basically 64-bit), and 64-bit is actually divided into two types. One is the x86-64 we often say, and the other is Intel's Itanium CPU, which is a 64-bit processor for large servers (the 64-bit client version is not installed at all, only the server version) ).
With the support of these hardwares, it's good, you can already start thinking about using 64-bit systems, but the next and most important thing is that we need to understand the risks of using 64-bit. In general, we have to consider the following four questions.
1. Is there better performance?
2. What is the compatibility?
3. How reliable and secure?
4. Do you need to spend more money?
About the first question, we started talking about the article. Sometimes the performance of a 32-bit system may be better than 64-bit. We are used to inferring from experience, 8 to 16 bits, 16 to 32 bits, the performance of the computer has been improved, but the performance improvement of 64 bits is not good at the moment, because only 64 applications are applied. Bit-optimized 64-bit programs will have performance improvements, and most current Windows applications do not do this optimization, while 32-bit applications run more logically on 64-bit systems (the difference between real tests is very small).
Someone has seen a large number of 64-bit applications in recent times, but it should be noted that these applications do not appear to improve performance, but to solve the incompatibility of 32-bit programs on 64-bit systems. . Of course, I believe that this 64-bit optimized processing software will be more and more, after all, 64-bit is a direction, sooner or later.
The second question is very important. Compatibility is an important factor in the system of heaven or hell. In Windows 7, 32-bit system compatibility is very good, but 64-bit system compatibility still exists. There is a certain risk. Although a lot of software has been updated to be compatible with the 64-bit version, users still have to run a large amount of 32-bit software on a 64-bit system, which may bring risks. In a 32-bit system, the DLLs (dynamic link libraries) required for program execution are stored under C:\\Windows\\System32, while the 32-bit libraries in 64-bit systems are in C:\\Windows\\SysWow64. When a 32-bit program tries to load a library from system32, WOW64 (Windows On Windows 64-bit) is responsible for redirecting it. Similarly, the program also needs to perform a redirect when calling the registry. WoW64 redirects HKLM\\Software to HKLM\\Software\\Wow6432Node. Compared with other virtualization mechanisms, WoW64 can ensure software compatibility. Usually, these redirects work. Very good, but any complex layer can cause unforeseen problems, and the performance of this problem is incompatible. In addition, if you have 16-bit software in your computer, it will definitely be incompatible in 64-bit systems, which is a problem we need to consider in advance.
With regard to hardware compatibility, we can see through our previous tests that the overall Windows 8 hardware compatibility is very good (about 90% of the hardware is compatible), but this refers to the 32-bit system. Under 64-bit systems, hardware compatibility is currently lower than 32-bit systems, but I believe this phenomenon will gradually improve with the development of 64-bit.
The third issue is about stability and security. In 64-bit systems, security is improved to a greater extent. PatchGuard (safe kernel) and DEP (data execution protection) can keep the system against similar buffers. Malicious behavior such as overflow attacks, but the problem of security can be solved by technology alone. In terms of stability, the theoretical stability of 64-bit should be better than 32-bit, but it does not experience this feeling when used. The main problem is in incompatible software and drivers. This incompatibility can even bring the consequences of a blue screen. Even if the driver is required to sign a digital signature, this phenomenon is gradually getting better.
The fourth question is what everyone cares about the most. I have a 32-bit system. Do I need to spend money again when I want to install a 64-bit system? Friends who have bought a retail color box package (FPP) should know that in Windows 8, 32-bit systems and 64-bit systems use the same license (that is, the Key we often say), and the retail version. It usually contains both 32-bit and 64-bit media, and you can decide which system to install. If you do not have 64-bit media, you can also contact your dealer for a separate media purchase. However, it is important to note that the retail version can only install one system at the same time. If you have activated your 32-bit system, you need to call Microsoft 800 to log out and then activate your 64-bit system.
Reference to the above four points, I believe that everyone has a basic understanding, and where to go should also have a good heart, I will sum up, to achieve a true sense of 64-bit computing, the 64-bit processor is No, you must have a 64-bit operating system and 64-bit application software. The three are indispensable. Without any of these factors, 64-bit computing cannot be implemented. In addition, everyone should also consider the reality, 64-bit is the trend, but whether you want to experience it yourself, you have to make a good calculation. Of course, if you haven't made up your mind and don't want to idle your computer, we can install 32-bit Windows 8 on 64-bit hardware first, but if the hardware is 32-bit, it can't be installed. 64-bit Windows 8, this is the legendary "downward compatibility."