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Jon - 24 Dec 2007 14:41 GMT

I would like to try out this edition of Windows XP to take advantage of dual
processing and threading.

The problem is that the hardware drivers seem to be built for Windows XP
(i.e. there is no specific mention of support for the x64 edition). Are
drivers that run on Win XP 32 Bit compatible with the 64 bit edition?

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Colin Barnhorst - 24 Dec 2007 14:48 GMT

XP Pro x86 handles two cpu's and multithreading exactly the same way as the
x64 edition so you don't need x64 for that. Only XP Home (and perhaps MCE)
is limited to one cpu. They all handle multicore processors and
hyperthreading just fine.

You need to find 64-bit drivers if you are going to use x64. 32-bit drivers
will NOT work.

>I would like to try out this edition of Windows XP to take advantage of
>dual
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> (i.e. there is no specific mention of support for the x64 edition). Are
> drivers that run on Win XP 32 Bit compatible with the 64 bit edition?

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Steve Foster [SBS MVP] - 24 Dec 2007 16:05 GMT

>I would like to try out this edition of Windows XP to take advantage of
>dual
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>(i.e. there is no specific mention of support for the x64 edition). Are
>drivers that run on Win XP 32 Bit compatible with the 64 bit edition?

No. Drivers must be specifically 64-bit to be usable with XP x64. If the
hardware in question is supported on Windows Server 2003 x64, it will
likely work on XP x64 too, since both are built from the same common
codebase.

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Steve Foster [SBS MVP]
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MVPs do not work for Microsoft. Please reply only to the newsgroups.

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