I hate Windows x64. I wanted to try out something new, I had marvellous intentions. My computer had been stolen (along with every other thing in the house that had a cord) and I had the opportunity to get a legit copy of Windows via the insurance. This was August 2005. I was getting a spiffy new AMD 64-bit processor and of course wanted to get full use out of it so of course I wanted the 64-bit Windows. Of course!!
I read a bit beforehand and saw that some people were experiencing driver issues (as in not having any) but I had a friend with x64 and he assured me he had no issues. I was getting brand new everything so was certain I’d have no issues either because surely my peripherals would be supported. Uggh.
No printer, no scanner, and many of my favourite apps didn’t run in x64. I had to do searches for new tools like Daemon Tools and Antivir that would work on my operating system. Canon, the manufacturer of my shiny new printer with all the bells and whistles, said they might write a driver for x64 sometime in the future. Isn’t that great? So here I am, a full-time student with a top-o-the-line pc and I can’t print my papers out to hand in.
I patched things up for awhile by setting up a dual boot of Windows XP (Luckily I have access to this through the comp sci department). This was a hellmare because XP will only install as the first OS, not as the second. So I had to wait until holidays, back up everything I’d done from September to December, wipe the hard drives, create partitions, install XP and then install x64. Yes, reinstall x64 because I wanted to maximize that 64-bit processor. I also found that my printer (Canon pixma ip5000) could be run instead as Canon Bubble-Jet BJC-8000. This was fine for text documents and photo proofs but whenever I wanted a good quality photo or artist quality printout (i.e. whenever I wanted to use the features of my printer) I’d have to reboot in XP. harumph.
Sure it was handy for testing out web pages and other things (don’t ask me what) in XP. Or if someone needing some trouble shooting for their computer I could reboot and help them out. Because No One Else I Know Runs x64.
So fast forward to September 2006. There’s a bad storm and my network card (onboard) and modem get fried and lightly roasted respectively. Rob comes buy with a spare card and pops it in. How many chances do you want to guess if there was x64 support for it? No support. For crying out loud! Reboot into XP and online in moments.
So now I either go buy a new network card with x64 support or start moving all my x64 profiles and applications over onto XP. What a pita. Why sell software (for a lot of money) with such limited functionality?
I don’t notice that much difference between photoshop on x64 and XP. If I wasn’t such a user I’d drop Windows and go Linux. As it is, I’m contemplating a triple boot…