I want to upgrade Win XP media Center to XP Professional x64..?

Question

[1] I've read that XP media center can access max 3.25 GB. *IF* this is true, I'd like to upgrade to XP Professional x64 which, again, I'm told can handle it.
[2] Is this easy to do? (Or is 64 bits a hassle & incompatible?)
[3] I'm using XP rather than Vista as I read Google has a dispute with Windows over desktop searching. I must have varied desktop searching & don't want to risk being locked into microsoft - but again this may be an unjustified fear.

Thanks notably to Joe Palooka & Tall Paul.

I'll try the AMD site.

I take it 4GB RAM (which is what I meant) is the maximum for XP media center.

I have lots of reference books, notes, website info, and other material which is quite disk-intensive. Search engines vary quite a bit and I'm doing careful comparisons; eg I think only of them allows you do instantly delete irrelevant answers. One allows searching by synonyms and thus may catch stuff others don't. One suggests similar sources, based on some algorithm. When I've found the one that suits me I'll stick with it! It's not exactly obsessive!

Answer 1

(1) Access "max 3.25GB" of what? File size? You've lost me on that one.

(2) You can't upgrade 32bit XP to 64bit XP. You'd need to do a fresh install. And you'd need to make sure 64bit device drivers exist for all your hardware.

(3) Do you really care who provides the tool to search from your desktop? That sounds slightly obsessive to me.

Answer 2

Any 32 bit OS well be limited to around 3.2 gb of RAM. 64 bit can go up to like 16gb or ram I think.
I don't know if you can do a straight upgrade from 32 bit to 64 bit (with out really starting over). Maybe somebody else knows.
The only problem with 64 bit is some programs (mostly drivers) have to be written for 64bit. This is mostly a problem with older programs, that never considered being run on 64-bit. If you have older programs, or Hardware the 64-bit XP might not work. Vista 64 usally does work, because most companies that are doing software for Vista take into consideration the 64 bit OS.
I have Windows Pro 32 bit.
and Vista Ultim 64 on the same machine. I don't use Vista much, but its going to get more and more.

Answer 3

[1] 32 bit XP has an addressable max of 4GB. 64 bit XP has an addressable max of 128GB.
[2] You can't just upgrade to Xp64, you have to start from scratch installation-wise. You will need 64 bit drivers written for your hardware. Make sure you know exactly what hardware you have (e.g. sound, video, network) and check to make sure that x64 drivers are available for that hardware. The old drivers for Media Center will no longer work at all because they are 32 bit. You will no longer be able to run any 16 bit programs which usually isn't a problem (most of them died with Windows 98). Almost all Windows 32 bit software runs flawlessly (in my experience). Finding actual x64 software isn't hard, but a lot of isn't as good as the 32 bit software available...
[3] There is no real benefit to waiting until Microsoft is out of dispute w/ another software provider. They will always be in dispute with someone. The dispute you mention is over the actual desktop search, not the browser search engine and has been settled with a Service Pack due in early 2008.

Answer 4

Before you upgrade to Vista make sure you have Vista drivers for ALL your hardware including your printer and external devices. Download them onto a CD. Also put your "F6" SATA drivers on a CD(Vista uses CDs and DVDs) if you have enhanced Sata drivers. If you do an "over-the-top" installation Vista will save your XP in a "windows.old" folder on your C drive but that will take up about 30 GBs of space so you'll want to yank it after you're up and running with Vista. After you install Vista turn that annoying UAC off and go into power options and click on "high performance" in the power schemes. Windows Updates helps a lot to get Vista to run good. I suggest you add another 1GB of ram. Some people buy a new hard drive and either dual boot or yank the XP drive out and install Vista on the new drive so, if they don't like Vista, they can put the XP drive back in. A trip to the Vista upgrade advisor is recommended too. I have a lot of computers-- a bunch of XP machines, a Mac and a Vista rig and I like Vista a lot. Biggest problem with Vista is that there are too many clueless "experts" putting it in and not knowing how to get it to run right or are too cheap to buy the extra ram an operating system that does as much as Vista does needs. All that paragraph is telling you is that all the vids pics tunes etc will be lost when it formats your hard drive so you should have the stuff you don't want to lose saved on a Disc before you format the hard drive. Also, during the install you will have an option to validate Vista right then. DON'T. Wait until you are sure you like Vista and its running smooth and you've added any new hardware you want to add before you go online and validate it(you have 30 days).

Answer 5

XP 64 has a lot of issues. Are you using any of the actual media center funtions?

XP 64 is actually Server 2003 with some pieces of XP thrown in.

It's not completely compatible with many of the programs written for 32 bit XP. Check your software to make sure it's supported.

Why do you need more than 4GB of RAM? Many programs, i.e. Photoshop CS2 and earlier, only address up to 3GB of RAM anyway. Don't get me wrong, I have 4GB in the machine I'm writing this on, but I usually only use it all when I'm running Linux.

Answer 6

i think you could use what seach for your desktop you want. to upgrade to xp pro, an upgrade disk would it, very little diff anyway. but to a 64bit system i believe you would need the full disk . i would look on ms site at there upgrade lists. far as i know both xp 32bit can handle 4gigs of ram if thats what yer talking about. not sure why you would need it. might be better off buying a new pc with 64bit xp installed, see a local tech.

Answer 7

Unless you have a real need for accessing large amount of memory, 64bit is not a great idea, manufactures has more or less stopped developing XP64 drivers since Vista, not to mention that there werent that many supported to start with.

You cant upgrade, has to be fresh install.

How you search is upto the way you work.

Answer 8

There has never been a consumer version of Windows since Windows 95 that is difficult to install. I'm sure you'll be fine if you are somewhat "computer comfortable."

This is of course assuming that you've done your homework and actually have a 64-bit processor etc. Listen to TallPaul, his answer is best so far.

Answer 9

you can do this but remember most progs and software has been written for 32bit windows some will run on a 64bit o/s but some wont