Hi
My pc (Win XP 32 bit) died this week. It was past its time at eight years of age. I've been using Directory Opus 9 for a long while and been very happy with it. To install DO9 on my new pc (Windows 7 64 bit) can I simply download the 64 bit DO installer file and use my existing licence key? Or must I download the 32 bit file? And will the 32 bit version run under Windows 7 64 bit?
Thanks for your help
Robert
Melbourne, Australia
I just did what I should have done first: try it out and see what happens. I installed the 64 bit version of DO and activated it with my original key and it's fine. By the way what are the significant differences between the 64 and 32 bit versions?
thanks
Robert
Yes, the same key works with either version.
The installer won't let you install 32-bit Opus on 64-bit Windows (or vice versa).
The reason 64-bit Opus exists is for compatibility with 64-bit Windows and third-party components that expect the file manager to be 64-bit.
You shouldn't notice any significant differences between 64-bit Opus on 64-bit Windows and 32-bit Opus on 32-bit Windows. But if you ran 32-bit Opus on 64-bit Windows, then you would see differences.
32-bit processes on 64-bit Windows see a "virtualized" view of the filesystem, for compatibility reasons; they can try to work around it but the methods for doing so are very problematic, while the problem doesn't exist at all for 64-bit processes.
Shell extensions are also an issue. (e.g. Extra items added by programs in the right-click menus; thumbnail providers.) Windows Explorer will only show 64-bit shell extensions on 64-bit Windows, so some software packages only install 64-bit shell extensions. You need a 64-bit process to talk to those shell extensions, and a 32-bit file manager would not be able to talk to them (at least not directly).
There are some other similar compatibility cases, but those two are the main ones.
Thanks for the quick response Leo. Great program!
Robert