Simple shift from XP x64 to XP?

[nosoup4crr]

I have both xp x64 and xp home. I installed x64 not knowing that it's a bastard stepchild that has compatibility issues with everything. Is there a way to smoothly transition the two without having to reformat and lose everything on my hard drive?

Edit: just out of curiosity what are the benefits of using x64? And what problems will I commonly have if I stay with it? I've already had issues with itunes and windows live messenger.

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

it's a bastard stepchild that has compatibility issues with everything

This is most true...I can tell you XP 64 sucks.
There isn't much you can do except switch to Windows Vista 64, which is much better than the XP implementation, simply switch back to XP, or use Windows 7 64, or even some linux based OS.

just out of curiosity what are the benefits of using x64?

Well...generally the only benefit is being able to use 4+gb of RAM instead of being stuck at 3.5 or so.

 

[SNGX1275]

Benefits are ability to use all 4 gigs of RAM (or more), and to take advantage of 64bit apps, but there aren't too many apps (if any right now) that offer a huge advantage unless we are talking about very heavy on the RAM usage apps, like 4+ gigs just for the program.

Anyway, I wouldn't have guessed there were problems with Windows's own messenger app. iTunes is slightly less surprising but still a bit odd since I think it works fine in 64bit Vista..

But really, to answer your question, nope, not any way to smoothly transition. You can perhaps add another partition and move files to it that you want to keep, then format and install the partition to the one that had XP64. But programs are all going to have to be reinstalled regardless of whether you move them or not.

If you don't have too much invested in that installation yet, its probably easier to just wipe and go with 32bit xp. But if you do have a lot of stuff installed and most of it works, it may be worth trying to find work arounds for your problems. Like a clean install of iTunes, because I don't know why that wouldn't work. Then maybe use another messenger app that covers what Windows Live Messenger does (such as Trillian or Pidgin).

 

[CapnYousef]

iTunes offers an x64 version:

iTunes 8.2.1 for Windows XP or Vista
iTunes 8.2.1 for Windows (64-bit)

http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

But iTunes is the devil incarnate anyway.

 

[SNGX1275]

iTunes for Windows isn't very nice, I'll admit. But in OS X land its pretty acceptable.