For new PCs 32-bit is not something to get too worried over now as the transition into 64-bit has passed, there are no new computer systems being sold that are 32-bit and nearly all the big software players don't release for 32-bit any more.


The RAM a 32-bit operating systems can see is a number than can be nominally between 3GB to 3.6GB.  The hard limit is 4GB or 2^32, the problem is it it has to share that with the entire system, where the video card takes the biggest chunk.  There are also chunks of what could be used as RAM in varying sizes reserved due to design choices in the past.

Paging doesn't actually give you more ram, just gives the operating system a place to shove a program or programs when they are idle and gives gives the operating system room to recover when a program goes out of control and tries to use up all of the active memory.

Bank switching gives you more ram, it was the norm a long time ago but thankfully those days are long past and no sane person would ever implement it these days.

Good explanation Anorak

Just use 64 bit Windows.  As I said before I upgraded my Lenovo to 8GB and it does make a big difference to the performance.

Paddy

MS are offering all Win7 users ( and win 8/8.1) a free upgrade to Win10 later this year

id dvise getting as much RAM as you can afford (8Mb min) and win 7


NR

Quote from: Railwaygun on January 22, 2015, 11:27:18 AM
MS are offering all Win7 users ( and win 8/8.1) a free upgrade to Win10 later this year

id dvise getting as much RAM as you can afford (8Mb min) and win 7


NR

I thought it was just windows 8 users?

Nope, Win7 users as well.

No beware though, if you have to use Windows, you need to make sure your apps & hardware will work with the new OS. Don't worry, it is also the same, although to a far far lesser degree in the Linux world as well, so that problem isn't unique to Windows.

Quote from: linuxyeti on January 22, 2015, 12:05:49 PM
Nope, Win7 users as well.

No beware though, if you have to use Windows, you need to make sure your apps & hardware will work with the new OS. Don't worry, it is also the same, although to a far far lesser degree in the Linux world as well, so that problem isn't unique to Windows.

That's very interesting. Is there a release date yet?

I wonder what happened to Windows 9 - or do I need to know? 

All sorted now.
Got  an Acer Aspire Switch  11 with 500g HD for the price of a Switch 10 from my local PC shop.

Got half my software installed now, just need to sort out the printers and one of my datalogging programs.

:I wonder what happened to Windows 9 - or do I need to know? "

the story goes that windows 9 would have caused probs with older PCs running Win95 or Win98 when the OS checked to see what it was running on - hence the jump to Win10.

Quote from: austinbob on January 22, 2015, 01:02:28 PM
That's very interesting. Is there a release date yet?

To answer my own question it looks like release has moved from April this year to Q2 or Q3