Computer question?

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I have a computer with intel core 2 duo and have windows vista 64-bit which cause problems for lots of games If I got 32-bit would it work.

Errr, let's see: Yes, it probably would. How much memory's in there? If there's more than 3Gb you're not going to be able to see it all, but that's probably no great loss.

If you have unusual hardware in there, you may have problems (solvable ones, though) getting the drivers together

Depends on other factors, like how much memory you have. I thought MS had finally worked out all the drivers for Vista x64?

With 32-bit, you would be unable to use your hardware to its full potential. However, until MS gets its act together and makes their drivers work properly, or Linux becomes a viable choice for games (which is not happening anytime soon), Windows 32 is probably your best choice for a gaming system,

if you have more than 3 GB of ram in your system you can still see it all with a 32 bit OS in your situation due to the Physical Address Extension in today's CPU's provided your memory controller supports addressing more than 3 GB of memory as well (Not just accepting the memory).

You can enable PAE on vista machines easily.

type cmd in your start menu and hit ctrl + shift + enter to make sure it is run in administrative rights.

issue the command BCDEdit /set PAE forceenable then reboot. You will have enabled PAE support and should see the full memory.

Keep in mind you are in alot of ways better off with 64, you are less prone to getting viruses and other malware because as a target you are simply not compatible with alot of it, not to mention the benefit of faster operations you get from running your CPU in it's native mode.

Anyhow let me know if this works out for you.

I have 4GB RAM I would love 64 bit if they supported or there was a way around there lack of support of 16-bit applications.Its really annoying when you pay for a game to find out vista wont let it run.Its not a problem for dos apps due to dosbox but windows apps there is no solution that I know off.

A lot of games still don't run smoothly on 64bit. 64-bit versions of windows needs to emulate in order to get 32-bit programs to work, which slows things down.

Exactly That why I probably move to 32 bit I understand cutting dos support because there is an alternitve but cutting support to windows native programs is BS they should have waited till there was way to run such programs.

Exactly That why I probably move to 32 bit I understand cutting dos support because there is an alternitve but cutting support to windows native programs is BS they should have waited till there was way to run such programs.

it works on the whole, there are always some pains with compatibility when there are major architecture shifts

That an Microsoft hates backwards compatibility look at Xbox360.

well, they went from a system based on a Pentium 3 essentially to a custom 3 core chip built around the Power architecture without out of order execution.

Sure, reverse compatibility could have been alot better if they bundled hardware in the 360 specifically for reverse compatibility, and you wanted to pay $100 more for your console. But theres only so much they can do with emulation. its hard enough using the same architecture and moving to the 64 bit version of it, its even harder when you change the architecture entirely ontop of it.

I just feel the 360 is a poor example, they have little options to work with to give you reverse compatibility. All things considered we are lucky it works as well as it does.

Yeah but they could have kept on working on it and some of the games they worked on are games that no one like like rouge ops.

Even compatibly in 32bit windows can be flakey. I have a game called Streets of Sim City from 1997 that will only run correctly on Windows 98SE or Below maybe Windows ME and Windows NT 4.0, but when run on Windows 2000 and above, the enemy vehicles bounce up and down so much and so fast that you can't hit them.
But Microsoft Office 97 from 1996 works perfectly fine on Windows Vista 32bit, probably because it can run on Windows NT. I'm running Vista Ultimate on Microsoft Virtual PC for Windows. I also have Windows 98SE on both a physical computer an Microsoft Virtual PC for Windows.

That's odd, pretty much all of my old games run fine on Vista. Had problems with fallout 1&2 but disabling mouse acceleration fixed that.

Its a bug in the game probably an obscure DOS dependancy removed in Windows NT base versions of Windows.

Bear in mind that if the product requirement doesnt include Windows Vista, its not likely going to work on it. A LOT of XP programs will never work on Vista, and Vista programs will never work on XP. So, unless the requirement says Windows XP/Vista, its not going to do you a lot of good.