http://www.bootdisk.com/ 003 April 2007
HouseCall
Welcome to the 3rd Edition of HouseCall
INDEX
1) 64 Bit Windows Over 32 Bit
2) Alternative Windows Media Players
3) Is Heat Sink Compound Needed?
4) Odd HDD Free Space Data Points
5) Nero Follow-Up
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1) 64 Bit Windows Over 32 Bit
Zygy asked - Will someone please explain in plain language of the uninitiated what are the advantages of 64 bits Windows over 32 bits Windows.
Will it be possible to upgrade from 32 to 64 once all the drivers for Windows Vista 64 bits are available?
Will the upgrade be only possible with the purchase of new 64 bits Windows, or is there another way?
William R. responds:
Two of the most obvious things:
A fully 64-bit capable processor will be able to address more memory than a 32-bit processor can. This means that programs can do larger amounts of work. Due to the 64-bit processor, with a 64-bit program running on it, the program may also transfer data more quickly because it can shuffle larger chunks of information around in one processor cycle.
With a 64-bit processor running 64-bit Windows, there are also said to be more security features available. I think most of them have to do with protection of the operating system kernel from external subversion, but I am not sure about that.
Lang M. also notes:
William hit the nail on the head with two of the main differences.
Another difference, from an end users Point Of View, is that x64 Vista needs x64 drivers, period. One cannot use x86 (32 bit) drivers on an x64 OS. x64 Vista will run x86 apps but there are x86 apps out there with 16bit installers and that wont fly on an x64 system, i.e., those apps wont install. IMHO, unless you've got an x64 app that you absolutely must use, stick with x86 Vista. There will never be as many drivers for x64 as there will be for x86.
As to upgrading. I know Vista Ultimate ships with both DVD's. One can only install one or the other, not both. I'm pretty sure that with other versions of Vista one can request an x64 DVD from MS. Maybe someone else will post a link with info on that.
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2) Alternative Windows Media Players
Alternative Windows Media Players:
http://www.pcjudge.com/Audio-Video/Media-Players/
http://www.foobar2000.org/index.html
meerkat said:
Media player Classic:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=84358
or 1by1:
http://mpesch3.de1.cc/1by1.html
CoMa adds:
Gom Player
http://www.gomplayer.com/
KMPlayer
http://www.kmplayer.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=25
MPlayer for Windows
http://mulder.dummwiedeutsch.de/home/?page=projects#mplayer
CoMa added:
VLC, MPlayer for Windows, Gom Player & KMPlayer have many of the
most common "codecs" libraries already in it's installation directory.
So most of the time you don't need anything more.
To find out what codec you need on a particular media file you can use the program GSpot.
http://www.headbands.com/gspot/
Rosee said:
jetAudio is flawlass. Just the Basic Free version works for me.
http://www.cowonamerica.com/download/
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3) Is Heat Sink Compound Needed?
Talal Itani wrote - I want to replace the Intel stock fan on my 478 Pentium 4, because I need to overclock heavily. Is heat sink compound needed, recommended?
Paul said:
You need a good thermal path from the top of the CPU, into the heatsink. So, yes, thermal compound or a thermal pad should be used. The thermal compound displaces air, and air is a good insulator. Only a thin layer is required, and you don't want to use so much, that major quantities squirt out the side of the joint.
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4) Odd HDD Free Space Data Points
k1190 posted - One day my Local Disk hard drive read the free space as 12gb. A few days later it decreased to about 8gb. Today i added a few more files, but instead of decreasing as it usually would, it now said i had 9gb. This constantly fluctuating hard drive space has been happening a lot to my OS drive, but never to my storage drive. Other times it read about 6gb, then later about 11gb, and i didn't even delete anything. Is this a sign that my hard drive is failing? Or has this something to do with Vista?
JohnB answered:
This could be due to c:\pagefile.sys or c:\hiberfil.sys that can take up several GB depending on your size of RAM and other parameters. Crash Dumps can take various amount of space too.
I think it is perfectly normal, but you could run a disk check and a disk clean for performance reasons.
MICHAEL said:
More than likely, it's System Restore creating restore points. Every time you get a Windows Update, even if it's just an update for Windows Defender (those restore points can be stopped) a restore point is created. Most of the time, when you install or even uninstall a program, a restore point is created. When the restore points get to a certain size, some of them are deleted. If this is a new installation or new computer and you are setting it up, installing software, you are going to see those type of free space fluctuations. You can use Disk Cleanup to manually delete all but the last restore point.
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5) Nero Follow-Up
Cec B. wrote back in response to the Nero article in issue 002 ie http://www.bootdisk.com/housecall/002.htm#1:
I just read the problem submitted by reader Mahmadi regarding not being able to install Nero 7 on a Vista computer. I too ran into a problem that made me think my installation of Nero 7 Ultimate had failed. I quickly found that the problem was that I didn't read the installation instructions. They clearly say that you must have the desktop fonts set to 96dpi and I left mine at 120dpi. The desktop controls will not render at the larger font size so it appears that the installation didn't take place correctly. Naturally the fix is very simple, set the font size to 96dpi.
*** Why do I spend so much effort on Nero? Well, I've found it to be the best for most cases, and, it ships in an OEM form in most new CD reader/writers so many people use it. I even use [Nero | Nero OEM | Nero Express | Disk Image or Saved Project] to burn ISO's. My second most used CD utility is UltraISO. If you repair PCs around town like I do you want to keep a recent copy of Nero with you as it "sees" most every new CDrom Drive no problem.
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