46% of Windows 7 PCs Are Running a 64-Bit Edition of the OS

Last Updated on Saturday, 10 July 2010 01:28 Written by Mire_B Saturday, 10 July 2010 01:28

I don’t know about you, but after Vista came out I started running only 64-bit versions of Windows on all my systems. Three of my “main” PCs now sport 64-bit Windows 7. I also have a few computers I use for testing purposes, all of which with 32-bit CPUs, but those are essentially stuck in time, with XP and Vista installed on them.

It wasn’t really that much of a surprise when Microsoft said that almost half of all Windows 7 PCs are running a 64-bit editionof the OS. From the Windows team blog:

Are you running a 64-bit edition of Windows 7? There is a high likelihood you are. As of June 2010, we see that 46% of all PCs worldwide running Windows 7 are running a 64-bit edition of Windows 7. That is, nearly half of all PCs running Windows 7 are running 64-bit. Compared to Windows Vista at 3 and a half years after launch, only 11% of PCs running Windows Vista worldwide are running 64-bit. With Windows 7, running a 64-bit OS is becoming the norm.

A primary benefit of 64-bit Windows is the increase in addressable memory. This makes more “bits” available to Windows (the OS), which means more information can be “addressed” at once. 32-bit architectures have a memory ceiling of 4GB while the 64-bit architecture increases the memory ceiling to approximately 17.2 billion GB or RAM! Windows 7 is designed to use up to 192 GB of RAM (see SKU and OS comparisons here), a huge jump compared to limits with all 32-bit systems.

Essentially, 64-bit Windows allows your PC to take advantage of more memory to do more things. If you are like me and are running tons of apps, you can see a real difference in performance. Aside from the performance gains, there are also security enhancements and support for virtualization as well.

The reason for the jump in transition to 64-bit PCs can be attributed to a few things. The first is the price of memory has dropped over the last several years making it easier for OEMs to up the amount of memory in the PCs they ship. And most major processors in PCs today are capable of running a 64-bit OS. There are also more and more compatible devices and applications for PCs running 64-bit Windows 7– but I’ll talk more about this in a minute.

OEMs today have fully embraced 64-bit. We have seen many OEMs convert entire consumer lines of PCs to 64-bit only – which can be seen quite a bit today in North America. According to Stephen Baker at NPD, 77% of PCs sold at retail in April 2010 in the U.S. had a 64-bit edition of Windows 7 pre-installed.

And businesses are adopting Windows 7 64-bit as well. According to Gartner, by 2014 75% of all business PCs will be running a 64-bit edition of Windows.

Office 2010 Build 14.0.4730.1007 Beta 2 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64)

Last Updated on Sunday, 10 January 2010 01:00 Written by Mire_B Sunday, 10 January 2010 12:56

A new build of Office 2010 Beta, superseding the public Beta released in November 2009, was leaked to the web. The string for the leaked release of Office 2010 is 14.0.4730.1007, while that of the public Beta of was build 14.0.4536.1000. Both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) versions have been leaked, and Wzor refers to the new build as Beta 2.

MICROSOFT.OFFICE.2010.BETA.2.BUILD.14.0.4730.1007. X86.VOLUME.ENGLISH-WZT

BUILD: 14.0.4730.1007
FILE: 14.0.4730.1007_Select_volume_ship_x86_en-us.rar
SIZE: 3,330,331,324 byte
SHA1: 0997E4521B0DCB28134E35FA4CF947199904654C
MD5: BE566DE7521B28005A4F759709FAFED2

MICROSOFT.OFFICE.2010.BETA.2.BUILD.14.0.4730.1007. X64.VOLUME.ENGLISH-WZT

BUILD: 14.0.4730.1007
FILE: 14.0.4730.1007_Select_volume_ship_x64_en-us.rar
SIZE: 3,775,757,630 byte
SHA1: 9F05F340EEB972D1CDC48B7AE9E4826C25FB0629
MD5: 56C681DD5677ED1E09B9719414C03ECB

Vista SP2 6.0.6002.18005 RTM

Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 April 2009 08:43 Written by Mire_B Wednesday, 29 April 2009 08:41

On the heels of Office 2007 SP2 RTM, Microsoft also announced the finalization of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2. Vista SP2 RTM features the following build string 6.0.6002.18005. It’s only a shame that Microsoft plans to release it to the public in the coming months. Just as much of a shame is the fact that torrents with Windows Vista SP2 RTM are already available for download. Again, no you won’t get a download link from me, but what you will get, just in case you decide to live on the edge is the following information:

32-bit (x86) Windows Vista SP2 RTM and Server 2008 SP2 RTM (English, Japanese, Spanish, German and French)
CRC: 3368C777
MD5: C9394FD32DB15619328AF4FF0315750A
SHA1: 106C0484D7449CC4B70353C21D0C0D63E4BA66C3

64-bit (x64) Windows Vista SP2 RTM and Server 2008 SP2 RTM (English, Japanese, Spanish, German and French)
CRC: 1737E14D
MD5: A3BCB1FFDB366397FA5FAB0898EB098D
SHA1: BE8D74ADC029FA7350FC1F0D32BEF853C0519A92

32-bit (x86) Windows Vista SP2 RTM and Server 2008 SP2 RTM (36 Languages)
CRC32: 8D07A886
MD5: cad218b99fc301836e385049c75f5eaf
SHA-1: 7f8aa802e157282d84cf47950281de53a8c26f22

64-bit (x64) Windows Vista SP2 RTM and Server 2008 SP2 RTM (36 Languages)

CRC32: 19C1676E
MD5: db35df98ae5a6fd085386580a6ee8b55
SHA-1: f0e46deb7734b8ed277b0cf2304ee2babc4d9b1c