As Yoda might say, “Done am I with Vista 64-bit.  Sucks it does.  Mmmm, yes.  Sucks.”

1. Driver support is a catastrophe.  After all this time and with 64-bit rapidly becoming the norm I’m not sure how this is possible …but it is.
2. 64-bit apps are few and far between.  80-90% of apps run in emulation mode (WoW64).  This constrains them to their native 32-bit processing.  Visions of thunking and NTVDM’s come rushing back into my mind…
3. And on that note:  What good is a 64-bit OS that can read a full 4GB of installed RAM when everything is running in emulation mode and limited to 2GB of RAM anyway?  It’s all a joke.
4. Stability?  I’m not a superstitious man by nature but ever since I went 64-bit my bazillion dollar computer locks up for no reason …and it does so often.
5. This is so sad to admit but after 5 months I still can’t print to the main printer at my company.  I have to save files to PDF and email them to someone else in the office with a note that says something to the effect of, “Dude, my computer sucks.  Can you print this for me?”
6. Steam is pretty much broken (e.g. Half-Life, Bioshock, etc.).  Steam crashes every time I launch a game and most of the games I have purchased don’t even show up in the My Games tab.  What good is a computer if you can’t play Half-Life?  Seriously.  Yes, seriously…!
7. I’m harping on the driver thing but in this brave new world of no serial ports on PC’s I need to be able to connect USB-to-Serial adapters to my junk.  Cisco is printing T-shirts that say, “Long Live The Console Port”, and seem to be unwilling to move to a native USB port for console access (at least not for any devices I’ve seen).  I have four USB-to-Serial adapters, each from different vendors.  None work on Vista 64-bit because there is no driver support.
8. More than a few of the wireless cards (USB in particular) don’t work on 64-bit Vista.  My hacking mojo is no-go with 64-bit Vista running a block on my game.  Yeah, it’s the suck.  I know, I know, what kind of noob uses Windows for hacking stuff, right?

If I gave it some more thought I’d remember other things that annoy me about this whole 64-bit Vista thing but I’m done worrying about it.  If you’re thinking of going 64-bit, reconsider.  After I finish this post I’m slicking this rig and going back to cool comfort and relative stability of a 32-bit world.

Cheers,

Colin Weaver