Windows XP and Windows XP Professional size?

T

Trio

New Member
Hello. I'm wondering what are the sizes for a plain Windows XP and Windows XP Professional? And also, which would you recommend?

I'm enrolled in a computer class at my college that lets me download Windows XP Professional for free, and I could really use a free OS because I honestly don't want to spend $100 on it. I can only download Windows XP Professional, 32-bit or 64-bit -- I got the 64-bit. It's a total of 558MB. Is this correct?

I read a thread a while ago saying 64-bit XP sucks. Should I go with 32-bit Windows XP Professional? Or just plain Windows XP 32-bit?
 
I'm a tab suspicious of your post, no offense but if you have a legitimate why are you asking about disc size? The above poster is correct without explanation. Windows XP 64 bit has very poor driver support and you may run into issues finding drivers. Many manufactures are shifting support to Vista and Windows 7 so new hardware may not have XP drivers at all let alone XP 64 bit drivers. The only real benfit of 64 bit XP over 32 bit XP is the ability to use more then 4 Gigs or RAM. That benifit is dubious at best since XP will never use more then 1 Gig or RAM unless your doing video editing or CAD work. As far as your question of XP Home or Pro unless your using it in a corporate network or simular setup it doesn't matter much. You do have more control when sharing files and drives over a network with XP Pro however so if you get it free go with XP Pro and stick with the 32 Bit edition.
 
lawson_jl said:
I'm a tab suspicious of your post, no offense but if you have a legitimate why are you asking about disc size? The above poster is correct without explanation. Windows XP 64 bit has very poor driver support and you may run into issues finding drivers. Many manufactures are shifting support to Vista and Windows 7 so new hardware may not have XP drivers at all let alone XP 64 bit drivers. The only real benfit of 64 bit XP over 32 bit XP is the ability to use more then 4 Gigs or RAM. That benifit is dubious at best since XP will never use more then 1 Gig or RAM unless your doing video editing or CAD work. As far as your question of XP Home or Pro unless your using it in a corporate network or simular setup it doesn't matter much. You do have more control when sharing files and drives over a network with XP Pro however so if you get it free go with XP Pro and stick with the 32 Bit edition.
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Well, I was just wondering if what I downloaded was really XP, because it seems small ( 558MB ) to be an OS. I googled it and couldn't find it, so I thought I'd ask on here. I'm not saying I think it's some sort of a virus, because I trust the website. It's where I downloaded the full package of Visual Studio 2008. On top of that, Microsoft emailed me the link, so it's safe.

Well, I also asked because I'll have to burn it on a cd, and if I can't I thought I might have to find a DVD burner to burn XP and install it onto the computer I just bought. And while we're on that note, I can use 4gigs of DDR2 for XP 32-bit? Because I bought 2x2gb, G.Skill.

I'm not doing any business stuff. Professional is all they offer, and I just want to save some cash.

So, I have to ask this important question: The file is .ISO. I remember reading somewhere that all I have to do is burn an ISO file onto a cd or dvd and it's useable. That's all I have to do, right? The way I went about installing Visual Studio was extracting the file with winrar, but I can't do that with this new comp.
 
You have to remember that some files on the install cd are compressed so when you install, then it uncompresses everything, thats why you have over 1gb of used space after installing XP. Xp 32bit will only see and use about 3.25 gb of memory, it has that llimitation. You must use a burning program such as nero or roxio to burn an iso image to disk. You just can't burn the file to disk.
 
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The only problem I have with Windows xp pro x64 bit, is the web cams, I only found 1 web cam that will work for it and it made by Creative Labs. I usually have a duel boot system of the x64 x32 of windows xp pro. If you already have the x64 bit, look for the drivers and run it in a duel boot way if you like and decide for yourself if Windows x64 sucks. To me, it's my main OS. And I don't think it sucks. I wonder if all the people out that says it sucks actually had ran the OS or just saying it because of of people saying it. The, reason why I am still in 32 bit wndows is that the webroot (spysweeper) company made a x64 bit software for vista64 and not x64 windows xp. And some burning software also.
 
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Yeah not much difference in the two i have both editions of the operating system windows xp home on my spare and xp pro on my main both 32 bit and work no trouble. The only thing you will find with installing a fresh copy of windows xp is the large amount of updates that will need to be downloaded. Although this does depend on what service pack you get.
 
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