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I was working for a company that wrote device drivers for OEMs during the Windows XP era.

XP X64 was no big deal, and OEMs often requested 64-bit drivers, but I'm not convinced there was ever any significant install base of actual 64-bit-using end users. Not until Windows 7.




As a younger and less experienced computer user, I remember buying 64 bit XP for my first self-built desktop, because it seemed like it had to be roughly 2x better than 32 bit. Imagine my surprise when iTunes failed to install: Apple had no supported install path for 64 bit XP. I had to do shenanigans with the installer file to trick it into thinking I was on 32 bit.


That's no uncommon. I've tested hundreds of apps on every Windows OS from 95 to 11 over the years. A bunch that required drivers or tied in more deeply to the OS just failed on Windows XP 64-bit. It does make sense due to Windows XP 64-bit using a different kernel version than 32-bit.




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