Need less than 4gb or ram or have an older system? Go 32bit.
Need 4gb or more of ram? Go 64bit.

PAE was good in theory but bad in practice. The only good thing that has come from having PAE on a home computer system is that PAE is what allows NX/XD bit to operate, which helps keep to prevent software nasties like buffer overflows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

Need less than 4gb or ram or have an older system? Go 32bit.
Need 4gb or more of ram? Go 64bit.

PAE was good in theory but bad in practice. The only good thing that has come from having PAE on a home computer system is that PAE is what allows NX/XD bit to operate, which helps keep to prevent software nasties like buffer overflows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

Need less than 4gb or ram or have an older system? Go 32bit.
Need 4gb or more of ram? Go 64bit.

PAE was good in theory but bad in practice. The only good thing that has come from having PAE on a home computer system is that PAE is what allows NX/XD bit to operate, which helps keep to prevent software nasties like buffer overflows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

Need less than 4gb or ram or have an older system? Go 32bit.
Need 4gb or more of ram? Go 64bit.

PAE was good in theory but bad in practice. The only good thing that has come from having PAE on a home computer system is that PAE is what allows NX/XD bit to operate, which helps keep to prevent software nasties like buffer overflows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

As for the 64bit ones… Microsoft probably thinks you should pay for the access to anything higher.

As for the 64bit ones… Microsoft probably thinks you should pay for the access to anything higher.

As for the 64bit ones… Microsoft probably thinks you should pay for the access to anything higher.

As for the 64bit ones… Microsoft probably thinks you should pay for the access to anything higher.

Additionally, who would likely be running basic/starter on a system with more than 8gb of ram? You’d need at least a Core i7 for that, if not some server hardware or extremely expensive memory modules.

Samba support is really unlikely to be required in the two most basic versions beyond simple home filesharing, which almost certainly will be under 10 people at the same time.

And finally, the virtual xp thing I think is a complete non-issue, most of the hardware running starter or home basic won’t have VT tech to run the hypervisor anyway.

From what I can tell, microsoft is simply slimming down the features least likely to actually be used in those builds, which I guess would make sense if the entire OS wasn’t installed my default and then feature-stripped to fit the version… The codec thing is a bit of a mystery though, unless microsoft removed it to allow them to reduce the cost of the os in the lower price segments, which of course would make sense. Especially since free alternative codecs are available.

Additionally, who would likely be running basic/starter on a system with more than 8gb of ram? You’d need at least a Core i7 for that, if not some server hardware or extremely expensive memory modules.

Samba support is really unlikely to be required in the two most basic versions beyond simple home filesharing, which almost certainly will be under 10 people at the same time.

And finally, the virtual xp thing I think is a complete non-issue, most of the hardware running starter or home basic won’t have VT tech to run the hypervisor anyway.

From what I can tell, microsoft is simply slimming down the features least likely to actually be used in those builds, which I guess would make sense if the entire OS wasn’t installed my default and then feature-stripped to fit the version… The codec thing is a bit of a mystery though, unless microsoft removed it to allow them to reduce the cost of the os in the lower price segments, which of course would make sense. Especially since free alternative codecs are available.

Additionally, who would likely be running basic/starter on a system with more than 8gb of ram? You’d need at least a Core i7 for that, if not some server hardware or extremely expensive memory modules.

Samba support is really unlikely to be required in the two most basic versions beyond simple home filesharing, which almost certainly will be under 10 people at the same time.

And finally, the virtual xp thing I think is a complete non-issue, most of the hardware running starter or home basic won’t have VT tech to run the hypervisor anyway.

From what I can tell, microsoft is simply slimming down the features least likely to actually be used in those builds, which I guess would make sense if the entire OS wasn’t installed my default and then feature-stripped to fit the version… The codec thing is a bit of a mystery though, unless microsoft removed it to allow them to reduce the cost of the os in the lower price segments, which of course would make sense. Especially since free alternative codecs are available.

Additionally, who would likely be running basic/starter on a system with more than 8gb of ram? You’d need at least a Core i7 for that, if not some server hardware or extremely expensive memory modules.

Samba support is really unlikely to be required in the two most basic versions beyond simple home filesharing, which almost certainly will be under 10 people at the same time.

And finally, the virtual xp thing I think is a complete non-issue, most of the hardware running starter or home basic won’t have VT tech to run the hypervisor anyway.

From what I can tell, microsoft is simply slimming down the features least likely to actually be used in those builds, which I guess would make sense if the entire OS wasn’t installed my default and then feature-stripped to fit the version… The codec thing is a bit of a mystery though, unless microsoft removed it to allow them to reduce the cost of the os in the lower price segments, which of course would make sense. Especially since free alternative codecs are available.

Additionally, who would likely be running basic/starter on a system with more than 8gb of ram? You’d need at least a Core i7 for that, if not some server hardware or extremely expensive memory modules.

Samba support is really unlikely to be required in the two most basic versions beyond simple home filesharing, which almost certainly will be under 10 people at the same time.

And finally, the virtual xp thing I think is a complete non-issue, most of the hardware running starter or home basic won’t have VT tech to run the hypervisor anyway.

From what I can tell, microsoft is simply slimming down the features least likely to actually be used in those builds, which I guess would make sense if the entire OS wasn’t installed my default and then feature-stripped to fit the version… The codec thing is a bit of a mystery though, unless microsoft removed it to allow them to reduce the cost of the os in the lower price segments, which of course would make sense. Especially since free alternative codecs are available.