32-bit and 64-bit XP?

[Jameson]

at school i use a 64 bit system. so we can utilize the full 4 gigs. at home i have xp pro also, but its 32-bit. id liek to sue the 512mb without making a ram drive and so on, id rather go 64 bit. but before i run head first into a brick wall, id like some of your expertise on the subject.
the one at school
seems to accept every program i have installed on it, that i had used on my 32 bit. i use video converters, editing programs, etc. so do all 32 bit programs work on 64 bit? its just 64 bit programs cant go 32? or did i just get lucky and get some 32/64 bit programs?

if theres anything else majorly or even minorly different between 32-bit and 64-bit systems, please list them. they will definitely stand out as a best answer to me.
thank you

 

[omnicoder]

Drivers will be your main problem. Your home computer may have different hardware. As long as you have no speacil peripharals (MIDI keyboards, etc), then you will be okay.

Mice and Keyboards are fine BTW.

Anyway, unless you have 4+gb of RAM or 64bit programs, you have no need too switch. Some programs that require 16bit stuff won't even work on x64.

 

[QueenofAllTrades]

I thought that 32-bit and 64-bit had to do with the color/resolution of a computer.

 

[ivegotaquestion]

you can go either one - developers seem to be working on 32-bit programs still ... also, 64-bit works differently, so you just got lucky in that the programs were correctly emulated. most of your programs will run, but there will always be that time when you really just needed that program to work but it didnt

stick with 32. I would also like to suggest Ubuntu as an alternative. i only still use Vista because of Solidworks and Starcraft (which won't run on Linux)