A random thread for small computing things that don't really warrant a thread of their own

[Pickled Onion]

Have an dell inspiron zino htpc with 8gb and dual core athlon.  Currently running 32bit version will I gain anything running the 64bit version?

What version of Windows? I think most of the 32-bit versions won't let you access more than 4GB. Check System properties to see how much memory it says is usable.

Apparently there's way of hacking 32-bit Windows to access more memory, not tried it myself. eg http://www.unawave.de/windows-7-tipps/32-bit-ram-barrier.html

Hmm, I'm not convinced. How does a 32-bit OS address that additional memory space?

Whether or not it's a dodgy hack that will give away your bank details, having a larger physical memory than per-process virtual address space is entirely feasible, and I don't really understand why a 32-bit system should be in principle limited to 4GB of RAM.

It isn't, that's why you could use more RAM if you paid for 32 bit windows server edition.

If you had to directly address all of RAM then 16 bit architectures would have been limited to 64 kB. I suddenly feel very old because I remember the grief of HIMEM.SYS and far pointers. 

[ian]

Well, you can do it, but with a kludge, it's like counting to ten using five fingers. Given that most OSes are 64 bit, direct access makes a lot more sense.

[Afasoas]

In reality all 32-bit Intel Processors since the Pentium Pro have been able to address a memory address space > 4GB using PAE.

As already stated, Microsoft opted not to include support for it in their desktop versions of Windows. I suspect the kludge involves copying binaries over from equivalent Server versions of Wind0ze.

[Kim]

Have an dell inspiron zino htpc with 8gb and dual core athlon.  Currently running 32bit version will I gain anything running the 64bit version?

What version of Windows? I think most of the 32-bit versions won't let you access more than 4GB. Check System properties to see how much memory it says is usable.

Apparently there's way of hacking 32-bit Windows to access more memory, not tried it myself. eg http://www.unawave.de/windows-7-tipps/32-bit-ram-barrier.html

Hmm, I'm not convinced. How does a 32-bit OS address that additional memory space?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

[simonp]

Have an dell inspiron zino htpc with 8gb and dual core athlon.  Currently running 32bit version will I gain anything running the 64bit version?

What version of Windows? I think most of the 32-bit versions won't let you access more than 4GB. Check System properties to see how much memory it says is usable.

Apparently there's way of hacking 32-bit Windows to access more memory, not tried it myself. eg http://www.unawave.de/windows-7-tipps/32-bit-ram-barrier.html

Hmm, I'm not convinced. How does a 32-bit OS address that additional memory space?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

So it's only 20 years since Intel added support in the page table for a larger than 4GB physical address space, no wonder Windows doesn't support it.

There are significant disadvantages to using 64 bit pointers, mainly in terms of bloat. How many applications genuinely need a >32bit address space?

[ian]

Because Windows users scream like banshees if Microsoft do anything that stop a 10-year old scanner driver working?

[Kim]

Because Windows users scream like banshees if Microsoft do anything that stop a 10-year old scanner driver working?

Quite.  The transition to 64bit on Linux was pretty much painless, because for 99% of everything it was basically just a recompile, and the users are used to new distros breaking the stuff that needs proprietary drivers in exciting new ways.

I did run 32bit Linux with a PAE kernel for a while, because I'd bunged some extra RAM in an old machine and couldn't be arsed with a reinstall to 64-bit.  Naturally, it Just Worked.


I reckon Microsoft are weaning users off the expectation of backward compatibility.  Vista made great progress in that respect...

[Biggsy]

32-bit Windows users can also access memory beyond 4GB with a RAM disk and use it for caching and paging, etc.

http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk

[Mr Larrington]

So after a Several of months you've finally got used to all the foibles and idio(t)syncracies of iOS v.N and the the Mega-Global Fruit Corporation of Cupertino, USAnia introduces iOS v.N+1 and with it a whole new slab of things to get annoyed with.  Gits

[Biggsy]

Must admit I hadn't always realised Cupertino was a real place.  I thought Mr Larrington had made it up from "cup of tea, no?".

[Ham]

So after a Several of months you've finally got used to all the foibles and idio(t)syncracies of iOS v.N and the the Mega-Global Fruit Corporation of Cupertino, USAnia introduces iOS v.N+1 and with it a whole new slab of things to get annoyed with.  Gits

Do bear in mind http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/28/ios-9-wifi-assist/

and

http://www.zdnet.com/pictures/iphone-ipad-ios-9-privacy-security-settings-immediately/

[Mr Larrington]

"Cupertino" is in fact¹ derived from the Spanish word for "lair of thieves and vagabonds".

1: Lie

[ian]

El Capitan, I believe, is out today. The OS, not the mountain, that's already out there. The internet will probably slow down later.

[Mr Larrington]

So after a Several of months you've finally got used to all the foibles and idio(t)syncracies of iOS v.N and the the Mega-Global Fruit Corporation of Cupertino, USAnia introduces iOS v.N+1 and with it a whole new slab of things to get annoyed with.  Gits

Do bear in mind http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/28/ios-9-wifi-assist/

and

http://www.zdnet.com/pictures/iphone-ipad-ios-9-privacy-security-settings-immediately/

Ta Ham, though most, if not all, the above pertain to "features" which I haven't got...

[Mr Larrington]

El Capitan, I believe, is out today. The OS, not the mountain, that's already out there. The internet will probably slow down later.

Any Internet would slow down with this on top of it:


47_Yosemite_El_Capitan by Mr Larrington, on Flickr

[simonp]

That fuss over wifi assist is hilarious. I have stopped connecting to the work wifi network because it's so throttled for guest users as to be beyond useless. I might be tempted to try connecting again in if this wifi assist actually does what it says on the tin.

[Afasoas]

That fuss over wifi assist is hilarious. I have stopped connecting to the work wifi network because it's so throttled for guest users as to be beyond useless. I might be tempted to try connecting again in if this wifi assist actually does what it says on the tin.

Sounds like you work for us!
Seriously tho, 'dem bring your own devices have a hellish appetite for bandwidth.

[Gattopardo]

Anyone know of a safe place to download a 64bit win7?

[tiermat]

Anyone know of a safe place to download a 64bit win7?

DigitalRiver

[Mr Larrington]

Copying music, photos and videos from network drive to new PC is taking a Very Long Time.  I am not looking forward to the subsequent move of said music, photos and videos from network drive to new network drive.  At all.

[ian]

I'm now El Capitan. The mountain did truly come to Mohammed. Took about six hours to download. Installed fine and everything apparently peachy on my desktop. Less stupid font. For some reason it bought back some desktop backgrounds that I used about a year ago.

For some reason the Macbook failed to connect to iCloud on installation which meant the email settings were inactive. Unfortunately they then refused to believe my password was my password. Had to nuke and re-create. To be fair, I think that's BT's fault, it used to be Yahoo Mail and now it's not, but my Macs have trouble forgetting the old Yahoo details.

Anyhow, fairly painless. Not much to report, everything seems to work as before. New improved font, everything feels very spritely but neither computer was very slow to start with, and various bits and pieces. Incremental and no Windows 10 tale of woe. Have yet to check if it fixed the bluetooth audio that Yosemite so handsomely and thoroughly broke.

PS if you have multiple Macs and don't fancy multiple 6 GB downloads, grab a copy the installer file from applications before you install, it can then be copied to subsequent machines. Once you install, it deletes the installer.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Copying music, photos and videos from network drive to new PC is taking a Very Long Time.  I am not looking forward to the subsequent move of said music, photos and videos from network drive to new network drive.  At all.

Sometimes it can make a difference to encapsulate all the files in one zip file (no compression), copy that, then unzip.

[Mr Larrington]

Also, how the blazes did Chrome end up with Yahoo! as! its! default! search! engine!?  Even after I'd gone into the Settings wossname and binned every search engine except that of the Mega-Global Chocolate Manufactury Corporation of Mountain View, USAnia   I had to shoot the wretched thing down in flames and reinstall it.

[Ham]

Also, how the blazes did Chrome end up with Yahoo! as! its! default! search! engine!?  Even after I'd gone into the Settings wossname and binned every search engine except that of the Mega-Global Chocolate Manufactury Corporation of Mountain View, USAnia   I had to shoot the wretched thing down in flames and reinstall it.

That'll be you that did that, somehow. some install, some download.

Soz.

[Gattopardo]

Anyone know of a safe place to download a 64bit win7?

DigitalRiver

Not anymore