Windows Vista is a hot topic of geeky conversation currently mostly due to the paranoia that seems to be inherent when a new version of Microsoft's famous operating system is released. It never ceases to surprise me how many people in my life buy a new computer and pay a premium to have an old version of Windows installed simply because of ghost stories passed from person to person about horrific things that happened to someone they have never met.

If I can just clarify to my readership that Windows Vista is a good Operating System and in terms of bugs and security vulnerabilities it's light years ahead of how Windows XP was this far into its distribution cycle. I'm not saying that you should rush out and buy it tomorrow if you're happy with XP, but all I am saying is that if buying a new machine and you're given the choice then definitely go the Vista route.

An important consideration outside of which edition to purchase (Home Basic, Home Premium, Business or Ultimate) is whether would prefer the 64 bit or 32 bit version of Windows and regrettably it is a consideration that is ignored far too often.

Ultimately your choice may have already been made for you by the system manufacturer; if your system only has a 32-bit processor then you can only use the 32-bit version of Windows. Those lucky enough to be buying a 64-bit processor will have the choice of going for either the 64 or 32-bit version of Windows and as such this article will be focusing on these users. If you're not sure what on earth I'm talking about here I should probably explain a little more about what a processor is and how it works.

The processor could be considered the most central part of your computer and is responsible for performing the billions of calculations that are performed every time you use your machine. There are a number of measures that can be applied to a processor to determine how powerful it is but one of the primary considerations is how many bits of information it can handle at any one time. My old Commodore 64 could handle 8 bits of data at once, most current PC processors can handle 32 bits and the newer, more powerful models can often handle 64 bits.

I feel that this oversimplification could be misleading as there are of course a million other factors that play a part in the performance of the processor; another important consideration for example is how many thousands of times a second the processor can move these bits of information around. Suffice to say, a 64 bit processor should perform better than a 32-bit processor of similar specification as long as it's using software written to take advantage of the additional data handling capability.

Processors are inherently backwards compatible, meaning a 32bit Windows revision used with a 64bit processor will work but the result will be that the computer not being able to utilise the extra data bandwidth, in essence handicapping the speedy processor. Enter the 64bit edition of Windows Vista! Granted Microsoft did make public a 64bit Windows XP but it never really took off due to a lack of support and as such was never made a viable platform.

Now 64bit processors are fast becoming a standard, with massive support for them and even more potent Vista revisions about, it seems 64bit computing has officially arrived and as such we need to make some serious decisions. I have covered the obvious speed difference however there are other advantages of when making the change over and as you may have guessed some disadvantages.