In my opinion the time is not yet right to upgrade to a 64 bit operating system unless there is a specific need to do so. This opinion is probably contray to what most others in this forum think but is based on a recent attempt (last week) to install and use 64 bit W7.
Last week, when I upgraded XP Pro to W7 Professional, I decided to use the 64 bit version, thinking eventually I would have to go this way anyhow. For the most part, all my applications worked with one notable exception, an essential HP scanning application called ProcisionScan Pro. My wife and I frequently use this app to scan documents in conjunction with an application called Paperport.
PrecisionScan ran fine but it refused to recognize the USB HP scanner which was properly installed (per the Device Manager) and usable by other scanning apps including VueScan and the Paperport native scanning function. I tried running it under a virtual XP window but the problem remained. I tried to install a pre USB 2.0 Adaptec SCSI card but it to is not supported for 64 bit operating systems.
By the way, prior to upgrading to W7, the W7 upgrade advisor indicated the the HP scanner was not going to be an issue. In fact it was not an issue. It was the associated HP software that was not willing to play nice. This was missed, understandably, by the upgrade advisor.
A second problem reared its ugly head. For years I regulary use Ghost (DOS based) to make true clones of my main hard drive. I always have a simple plug and play recent backup available in case of a hard drive failure. Ghost still works from DOS but it no longer will produce a bootable cloned drive from a 64 bit system.
The Ghost issue was the final straw as my wife and I use this machine for our real estate business and cannot tolerate anything less than 100% reliability and availability. I bit the bullet last night, backed up everything again for the second time in a week, and clean installed the 32 bit version of W7. ProcisionScan Pro will still not see the scanner when run directly under W7 but it now works flawlessly under a virtual XP Window; not ideal but certainly an easy and acceptable work around. I am going to make a clone using Ghost this evening but I bet it will also produce a bootable drive.
In summary, except for two applications, everything else worked without issue under the 64 bit OS. This experience indicated to me that 64 bit operating systems, for general use, are not quite ready for prime time.
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