Hey everyone,

Quick question.  I'm not very familiar with the Win7 64bit OS.  My friend may be getting a Win 7 Home, 64 bit version, installed on his new pc he may be picking up.  He's never owned a PC but he does want to run old emulators and older games; because of what I've told him you can do (he's an old Amiga fan, so Amiga emulation is a must!).  Can anyone confirm if the issue of being 64bit means it's more about speed, or are there real compatibility issues with such an OS?

I know Win7 comes with its own compatibility issues and I know what my preference would be: WinXP 32bit.  But this comes with it, and there's a budget; installing winXP 32bit is probably not an option.

Your quick thoughts are appreciated, the PC may be bought tonight pending "compatibility".

I don't think the 64 bit will cause much of an issue from a compatibility standpoint, a 64 bit OS can run 32 bit applications.

i think you are going to have more problems with the software compatibility of windows 7 more then anything as it is still a relatively new OS and software hasn't really caught up with it yet.  

I agree with Adam. Win7 wouldn't have much of a market it it didn't handle 32 bit programs.

I have Vista 64 ultimate on my laptop and I haven't seen any issues. It handles x86 apps nicely (I was surprised)  it runs pinmame nicely.  I even run Starcraft.  Can’t comment on the emulators.  You can also do a duel boot later on (I have a quad boot.  XP, Vista, Win7 and Ubuntu).

Good to hear, I gather I may have been confused more with "taking advantage of" rather than "doesn't work well".  I understand with Windows 7, running apps in compatibility mode fixes a lot of the issues but nothing I've tested myself.

Anyone else know specifically if WinUAE works?

With the right motherboard you can run virtualization as well, so that would take care of any issues.  the biggest problem with Windows 7 x64 (which I run on a recent HTPC install) is driver compatibility but it gets better everyday.  And x64 is the way everything is going so it will supplant x86 within the next couple years and become king (after a long, long ramp up time).

P.S. I agree with the others, Win 7, x64 good combo.

My friend ended up picking up another pc; but thanks much for the info guys, appreciate the quick turn around.

Im running Win 7 64 bit, and am using mame, and all the console emulators, with Hyperspin, and CPWizard and it runs everything perfectly.  If you are going to be running higher end mame or emulator games, gotta go 64 bit, its sooo choice!