Yes, most 32bit apps will run on a 64bit OS... and if I were you I'd skip Vista x64 (not that there's anything wrong with it) and go straight to Win7 x64.  It's much improved on Vista, is snappy and somewhat faster than Vista... also Win 7 is a smaller OS so is not eating into the extra resources of your better machine, thus leaving them for your apps.  I've been running Win7 since the 1st public beta and I am impressed with its performance, stability and reliability, etc... very nice indeed.

there's a major difference between those two statements, kona.

i agree with starkers. if you're not currently running vista64, skip it and wait for win7 64.

Yeah I see where I should have wrote my first post differently.

As for Windows 7 - I'm not upgrading. I'm not even getting Vista.

Um, like didn't you have Vista there a while back??

And what's wrong with upgrading to Win 7... it's the best MS OS to date?  Really, I've been running the Win 7 RC and feel it's pretty darned good, stability and performance-wise... and fast, decidedly faster than 2000, XP and Vista.  More importantly, it is smaller and less resource intensive than Vista, so you don't need a top-end machine to run it, just something decent and fairly reccent... meaning it doesn't necesarily mean an OS AND hardware upgrade.

At least try the free Win 7 RC to see if upgrading may be a later consideration... it runs uninterrupted 'til March 2010, but more importantly, XP support is likely to be phased out over the next 12 months or so.

I did have Vista but we returned that machine to the store. I'm wanting to get a new Mac with Snow Leopard. The new OS will handle memory better than a Windows machine and all the apps are true 64 bit apps.

My machine is not capable of running Windows 7. I only have a Pentium 4 CPU and 512 MB of RAM. Besides I am not interested in Windows 7.

Fair enough... each to his own.

Understandable. But you can have fun back there on XP once windows 7 comes out and they stop supporting XP so no more updates.

And also when newer stuff won't work on XP ... ill see ya then to ... still standing strong yet ...can't run crap lawl.

Seeing as I don't buy any new software nor download any new software I think I will be OK.

I probably will not be the only one sticking to XP. Heck they are still selling XP boxes at the store.

Again - nice try.

That maybe so, but I saw on TV the other week where MS would begin to phase out XP support once Win 7 is released proper, eventually ceasing it by 3Q 2010.... so it has been given the death knell

I'll still use it. I have no plans to upgrade my hardware any time soon. Thanks guys but no thanks.

For another perspective Microsoft does not support Windows 98 or 2000 yet plenty of people still use them. The latest version of Windows isn't always the best for everyone.