Delegates at WinHEC in Seattle received a CD with the new Windows XP Professional x64 edition. So once I got home from Seattle, I popped in the CD.

I don't consider myself the type of person that overclocks his CPU or has water cooling, but I couldn’t resist and created a separate partition on my hard drive to install the software on the AMD 64 bits system that sits next to my Apple.

And that's when all hell broke loose.

The software didn't recognize the graphics card but tried to run at a high screen resolution nonetheless. The result: a black screen at the system boot.

The graphic card manufacturer offers a 64-bits driver for download on its website (you can't use your old 32 bits drivers in Win x64) and that took care of the problem. But next the computer also lacked the proper drivers for my scanner, webcam, audio card or SM Bus controller (some feature on the motherboard). The website of the computer manufacturer didn't help much, as it didn't offer ANY 64 bits drivers.

On to install my virus scanner? Forget it! An error message pointed me to a website that stated that: "Symantec currently does not sell any consumer products that are certified to be compatible with 64-bits processors and operating system."

Bear in mind that this just the personal experience of one user who isn't geeky enough to overclock his CPU, but I wouldn't be surprised when more users will run into problems.

Now I suddenly understand why HP won't ship Win XP x64 on its 64 bits computers. When the company told IDG News that the operating system was just for gamers and digital media enthusiasts, he just wanted to say politely that the operating systems doesn't work for regular users.

The gamers and media enthusiasts have to jump through so many hoops, that you'd have to be a true enthusiast to prevent you from giving up.

27 Apr 2005