MS Offers Advancement Program

newstech · Post by **newstech** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 7:40 am

At first, I was raving mad (OK, maybe only just a little ticked off) that you could only upgrade to the 64-bit version if you had a Windows XP Pro version (I have XP Home Edition on my laptop and Win 2000 on my desktop). Now I'm questioning whether I would have wanted to go through all this hassle to upgrade to a version that's not even fully supported as yet. Are any of you planning to upgrade to the 64-bit version? If you do or already have, please share your experience. Thanks.

Techtree News Staff

64-bit technology seems to have created a sudden rush among software developers and hardware manufacturers, with everybody wanting to contribute to the next generation computing. In a bid to allow users to keep up with the transition process, Microsoft is offering the Technology Advancement program, which allows users to replace a previously licensed 32-bit version of Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Microsoft Windows Professional Reduced Media Edition with the new version of Windows XP Professional 64-bit Edition.

However, for users to be eligible for the technology advancement program the users should have purchased a computer between 31 March 2003 and July 2005 with 32-bit Microsoft Windows XP Professional preinstalled.

Users participating will be required to agree to certain terms and condition placed by the company, which, states that the previous 32-bit version of Windows Professional will no longer be licensed.

The new installation of the 64-bit edition will require users to format their hard drive.

The user may require 64-bit hardware drivers for the new OS, which the user may need to procure from the hardware manufacturer.

In order to abide end-user license agreement for the existing operating system, the installation of the 64-bit Operating System will be an 'Upgrade'.

The installation of the new OS will lead to cancel existing support provided by the PC manufacturer and only one free support call will be provided by the company for installation-related issues. Any further calls to the companies support line will be charged to the user.

Microsoft is charging $12 USD for US based shipment and handling of the upgrade and $22 USD for International shipment excluding any other applicable taxes.

http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/sh ... oryid=3456

Post by **Illuminati** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:11 am

I plan on going 64-bit this summer... right now I'm still using a 32-bit P4 in my main system. So if anyone is, or will be soon, going to XP64, share your experiences, as I'm very interested.

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:58 am

As soon as i get it i will install on a spare HD and see what i think

Sovereign · Post by **Sovereign** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 4:14 pm

I've heard 64-bit driver support is bad, but that was months ago, so it's probably better now. I'm gonna go x64 sometime in the next year if I see real-world gains from it (I've heard XP64 uses more memory than XP....grrrr

)

Post by **dicecca112** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 8:20 pm

yeah the driver support is terrible. Once it has the same degree of driver support I will change to it, but I want an OS that works out of the box, I don't want to have to search for drivers. I mean Windows 32bit doens't work that well as it is, I don't need any more headaches.