Is Windows Vista 64 bit a Stable Operating System?

[Dharamsi]

hi there...
just wanted to know from you guys that Is Windows Vista 64 bit a Stable Operating System? i mean does it have stability in it's performance in office as well as gaming applications?

Please provide your reviews.......

[Devasis]

The Factor's that make Windows Vista 64 bit more stable..........

1. Greater stability - Windows Vista 64-bit requires that all device drivers be signed.
   
2. Access to more than 3.25 GB of RAM - if your computer has 4 GB of memory, you will be able to use all of it instead of being limited by the 32-bit memory addressing system.
   
3. Performance - running a 64-bit operating system on a 64-bit processor offers better performance than a 32-bit operating system could provide.
   
4. Backwards compatibility - most 32-bit applications work without an issue on 64-bit Windows, with the exception of Anti-Virus programs and some other system utilities that rely on drivers.

[Solomon]

My review on :

64-bit uses a wider data path than 32-bit. What this means is that
information inside the machine can move and be processed more quickly.

Unless an application is specifically written to take advantage of the
wider data paths, it will run in 32-bit mode, regardless of which operating
system is used. There are not many of these available on the consumer market at this time.

64-bit Vista requires the use of signed drivers, so you cannot force an
unsigned one to be used like you can in 32-bit Vista. Because of this, some
hardware is not supported fully, and some may never be as device makers
don't see a big need to pay for signed drivers for what is currently a niche
crowd.

Memory capacity. 32-bit operating systems, by their very nature, only have
4GB of address space available. So, that's the upper theoretical limit for
use in 32-bit Vista. The practical limit is closer to 3.2GB as some of those
addresses are reserved by the system for the hardware. In x64 this limit can
be much higher depends on the version you choose.

Use of memory however is still dependent on the application, regardless of
how much you can use. Many still run from the lower 4GB range unless
specifically written to take advantage of the upper. Meaning that even with
the extra memory you still may not see any advantages.

64-bit has the cool factor, but for the average consumer there is no real
advantage, and may even be some disadvantages. Computing will
continue to migrate in this direction, just as we moved from 16-bit to 32
during the Win95-98 era, and x64 will eventually become the normal.

[MrChris-]

The extra speed gain of x64 over x86 is tremendous for now, but that will soon change.

Although x64 programs are becoming more prevalent, the market still favours 32-Bit programs (x86). When the balance tips in favour of x64, then having switched now will give you a head start over those die-hards that stuck with x86.

The largest factor in my choosing Vista x64 over a year ago was the enforced requirement for digitally signed and certified x64 drivers. This is the largest contributing factor to the improved stability of Vista x64 over Vista x86.

Memory management is also vastly improved over x86, which in turn improved multi-tasking. More applications running at the same time translates into improved productivity.

My advice to you would be to stick with x64. In time, the advatages will become clearer as the market moves towards x64.

[Calvin K]

The basic Powerful Stability points regarding Windows Vista 64 Bit:

The Security Development Lifecycle:

Reputations are a tough thing to shake, particularly in the software industry. While Microsoft Windows has enjoyed great market share, particularly in the desktop OS space, their position in the industry has made them a target for hackers across the world. Years of attacks have exposed numerous holes in previously released operating systems, and ultimately fostered a reputation for being a less secure platform. Justified or not, the perception carries weight, and the leadership at Microsoft recognized the need to develop a new approach to security engineering that was built to withstand scrutiny across the Internet.

Data Execution Protection Support:

Along with the SDL enhancements, Windows Vista includes Data Execution Protection support, which allows you to "tag" portions of your data segment as *Do Not Execute*. Since hostile code often rears its head via instructions in the data segment, this support blocks that threat, making your code less vulnerable to these kinds of attacks. While also available in XP with Service Pack 2, it is enabled in Windows Vista out of the box, alleviating the potential additional setup requirements to take advantage of it.

The new User Account Control (UAC):

Typical PC users in today's world do a variety of tasks on their machines during any given day. While not all of the tasks would be deemed critical, many of them require administrative privileges on the local computer in order to execute. It's a well known security principle (Principle of Least Privilege) that applications should run at the least possible privilege level, in order to limit the harm that any malicious, or even well-intentioned but exploitable, application can achieve. However, many applications in use today were designed at a time when the industry as a whole was less security conscious, and thus are built to require full Administrator privilege to run. System administrators are forced to make some tough decisions about the privileges they allow for their users.

On one hand, they can let local users have administrator privileges, and hope they don't do something bad to their own machine. In a larger organization, it is inevitable that users will make some unapproved changes, and ultimately drive up the total cost of ownership. They must also hope that the users don't stumble into malware, which can do very bad things with their administrator privileges.

File System and Registry Virtualization:

Another feature designed to let applications run at standard user privilege is File System and Registry Virtualization. The purpose of this feature is to allow legacy applications that request write access to protected resources to continue working under the new reduced privileges in Windows Vista. With this feature, when applications do not have sufficient privileges to write to protected areas of the File System and/or Registry, instead of failing, Windows creates a private copy of the resource, and writes to the private copy. This copy is stored under the user's local profile on the machine. Then, subsequent requests are routed to the private copy if a newer value has been written.

This provides an excellent workaround for applications that attempt to perform file and registry writes above their privilege level. Early testing with legacy applications has been promising. It is not a cure-all solution, as some developers may be tempted to continue to write applications that behave in a non-ideal way (after all, it still works). Also, file/registry writes that used to apply to all users will now only apply to the individual user. So, while it is not a miracle solution, it does provide an alternative to keep legacy applications working, even when they behave in ways that are not considered ideal.

Mandatory Integrity Control Infrastructure:

Another strong security addition with Windows Vista is the Mandatory Integrity Control (MIC) Infrastructure, which assigns integrity levels to users and securable objects, allowing an additional security distinction beyond privilege level. When any resource reaches out to a securable object, the integrity level of the caller is compared to the integrity level of the object. If the caller's level is lower than the object's level, no writing or deleting is allowed. This check occurs prior to the Access Control List (ACL) checks, which are enforced normally, and in addition to the MIC limitations placed on the interaction. Even if the ACL policy would allow higher privileges, the MIC check will prohibit the action if the MIC integrity levels show that the caller is lower than the object. It is merely another layer of enforcement around the Principle of Least Privilege, and will better protect solutions deployed to the platform.

MIC defines four levels of Integrity: low, medium, high, and system. The default for most applications is medium. There are exceptions, though. For example, an application that is an email attachment is given an integrity level of low, as it came from an un-trusted source.

Crypto Next Generation (CNG) Services:

For developers wishing to create and exchange documents and other data in a secure fashion using Windows Vista, the Crypto Next Generation (CNG) services provide new power and flexibility for cryptography. CNG is highly flexible, enabling new algorithms to be added to Windows Vista for use in Secure Socket Layer/Transport Layer Security SSL/TLS and Internet Protocol Security IPSec. CNG will also include Elliptic Curve Cryptography, an emerging standard among cryptographic algorithms.

Windows Vista will also include a Base Smart Card Cryptographic Service Provider (Base CSP) in the platform. This will make smart cards more accessible, as vendors will no longer have to deal with writing complex CSPs. There will also be a smart card Key Storage Provider in the new CNG infrastructure.

The Windows Process Activation Service (WAS):

Windows Process Activation Service (WAS—note that the P is both silent and invisible) is a request-to-process broker that manages the routing and activation of requests to services/applications. An HTTP-only version of a listener was originally part of IIS with Windows Server 2003, as a way to take HTTP requests and spin up worker processes as needed to service the calls. That concept has been generalized to service additional request types and baked into the Vista platform as WAS.

WAS has support for health-monitoring and failure recycling, as well as poison-queues for messages that cannot be processed. By having an activation service in place, there is less need for custom activation services. This yields fewer high privilege services on a box, which ultimately reduces the attack surface on the machine.

64-bit Security Features:

Among the security features in Windows Vista, there are a couple of new items that are specific to 64-bit systems. Included in that list are some of the security enhancements around kernel patch protection and mandatory driver signing.

Of all the malicious software attacks, few are more dangerous than those that manipulate the kernel. These kinds of attacks can leave malicious software running unnoticed on a system, and then serve as a cloaking agent for bots and spyware. In addition to the obvious issues with this scenario, it can damage the stability and performance of the entire system, including every running program on the computer. Because drivers have not traditionally been signed, it can be hard to deal with this issue. Microsoft is working with security vendors to come up with alternative solutions, but this is a difficult problem in the 32-bit space, due to both historical precedence and sheer number of vendors.

In the 64-bit space, however, the solution is more achievable. The historical precedence and number of vendors are both less than the 32-bit world, and this makes it much easier to enforce the more secure practices around drivers. With Windows Vista, the 64-bit world has two additional protections: Driver signing, and PatchGuard.

Trusted Platform Module chips and BitLocker:

In addition to all the previously mentioned security features of Windows Vista, there are a handful of items of note that don't really fall into a specific category, but are relevant to any security discussion around Windows Vista. One such item is the support for dedicated Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chips.

The technology that takes advantage of TPM chips is called BitLocker. BitLocker offers security for the information on your computer in the case of theft. TPM chips are smart chips that are soldered to the motherboard, and contain keys that are used to encrypt/decrypt data on the hard drives. Using the BitLocker technology, all the data on your hard drive is completely encrypted, and if someone steals the hard drive, they will still be left with the sizable task of decrypting the data before being able to use it. The TPM chip can be guarded with a PIN on boot, so that without the PIN, the TPM chip is unusable.


Windows Firewall with Advanced Security:

One of the best ways to keep harmful code from accessing to your data is to keep them from getting into your machine at all. While this is not always possible, a well-configured firewall is a vital tool in protecting your machine from unwanted visitors.

Microsoft has learned many lessons about firewalls over the years. When Windows XP was approaching release, customer feedback was largely in favor of turning off the firewall by default, for fear of existing applications no longer working. Microsoft relented, but after living through a variety of worms, viruses, and Trojan horses, public opinion about firewalls has changed strongly.

With Windows Vista, the firewall is on by default, and includes both inbound and outbound filtering. One nice feature in the Windows Vista firewall is a restriction on operating system resources when they abruptly begin to behave in abnormal ways. This kind of behavior is almost always the sign of newly-arrived malware. There is also support to block peer-to-peer sharing or instant messaging applications, if needed.

Network Access Protection:

Network administrators have an unenviable job at times. Among all their daily tasks of setting up and tearing down networks, administering systems, and sending out updates, they also have to deal with new machines showing up in the network that are not up to date. While it is not possible to completely control someone bringing a new machine into the office, Windows Vista provides a network access control system called Network Access Protection (NAP), which lets administrators ensure that only healthy machines can connect to the network (the term healthy refers to machines that have daily virus updates, enabled firewall, no malware, etc.). It also allows unhealthy machines to get updated before they gain access to the rest of the network.

The NAP client in Windows Vista makes this easy to enforce. Organizations can set requirements for machines to be updated, and move them to quarantined areas, or automatically update them if they are found to be out of date. It is also an extensible platform, with an API and infrastructure for policy enforcement. NAP will allow your applications to run in a more protected state on Windows Vista then they would on previous operating systems.

Optimized next generation user interface:

One of the great new performance enhancements in Windows Vista is the support for the new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM). WDDM is specifically optimized for next generation user interfaces. Previous operating systems have been based on code written for hardware that is long since outdated. In many cases today, the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) sits idly by as business applications run without taking advantage of it.