Win7 32 bit vs 64 bit in PD8?

[Kathleen R]

I've just made some major changes upgrading to Mountain Lion & then from Parallels 5 to Parallels 8.

I had previously had Windows7 installed in bootcamp & used that as my VM. got rid of Bootcamp before installing Mountain Lion. I can't remember whether I had 32 bit or 64 bit Windows installed.

I'm really not using Windows very much any more but since I have it & might want to occasionally use it I did the upgrade to Parallels 8.

Mostly I had been playing some of the basic Windows games & may need to use IE for certain websites. I guess I'll also install Outlook 2007 although haven't been using it.

I originally started using Parallels in April 2010 when I got my Mac & needed to run proprietary co software. Now they have gone web based.

So I'm guessing 64 bit gives more functionality & by now I"m guessing that most things should work ok w 64 bit so it would likely be the better choice.

Before I go ahead though, any comments pro or con on which to use?

 

[AlekseyM]

Honestly win doesn't really run any faster on x64 vs x86 and I haven't ran into software that will run ONLY in x64, but ran into a ton of software that run in x86 only. x64 requires more memory too.

If you are running apps that are extremely memory hungry in windows, I recommend x64. Otherwise no reason not to stay x86 for now (until you upgrade to 8 anyway, which requires x64)