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Provide added security to protect your data from prying eyes or to keep your notebook’s data safe even if it’s stolen. Start by determining whether you need Encrypting File System (EFS), BitLocker, or both (see the “Encrypting File System and BitLocker” sidebar). Win10 Pro has EFS and BitLocker — with BitLocker To Go tossed in for a bit o’ lagniappe.
Run Hyper-V. Some people can benefit from running virtual machines inside Windows 10. If you absolutely must get an old Windows XP program to cooperate, for example, running Hyper-V with a licensed copy of Windows XP may be the best choice. For most people, VMs are an interesting toy, but not much more.
Postpone Windows 10 updates up to a year. Unfortunately, Microsoft has dropped the ball on quality when it comes to Windows 10 updates. Each month there’s news of a buggy update that wrecks people’s computers. Windows 10 Pro gives people the option to postpone and control updates in a way that Windows 10 Home doesn’t.
Choosing 32 Bit versus 64 Bit
If you’ve settled on, oh, Windows 10 as your operating system of choice, you aren’t off the hook yet. You need to decide whether you want the 32-bit flavor or the 64-bit flavor of Windows 10 Home. Similarly, Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise are available in a 32-bit model and a 64-bit model.
Although the 32-bit and 64-bit flavors of Windows look and act the same on the surface, down in the bowels of Windows, they work quite differently. Which should you get? The question no doubt seems a bit esoteric, but just about every new PC nowadays uses the 64-bit version of Windows 10 for good reasons:
Performance: The 32-bit flavor of Windows — the flavor that everyone was using a few years ago— has a limit on the amount of memory that Windows can use. Give or take a nip here and a tuck there, 32-bit Windows machines can see, at most, 3.4 or 3.5 gigabytes (GB) of memory. You can stick 4GB of memory into your computer, but in the 32-bit world, anything beyond 3.5GB is simply out of reach. It just sits there, unused. That’s why you see 32-bit Windows only on tiny, cheap tablets and mobile devices. The 64-bit flavor of Windows opens your computer’s memory, so Windows can see and use more than 4GB — much more, in fact. With many desktop apps, such as the Google Chrome browser, acting like resource hogs, you'll want 4GB or more on any PC. Although lots of technical mumbo jumbo is involved, the simple fact is that programs are getting too big, and Windows as we know it is running out of room. Although Windows 10 can fake it by shuffling data on and off your hard drive, doing so slows your computer significantly.
Security: Security is one more good reason for running a 64-bit flavor of Windows. Microsoft enforced strict security constraints on drivers that support hardware in 64-bit machines — constraints that just couldn’t be enforced in the older, more lax (and more compatible!) 32-bit environment.
Application programs are a different story altogether. The 64-bit version of Office 2010 was notorious for causing all sorts of headaches. You were better off running 32-bit Office 2010, even on a 64-bit system (yes, 32-bit programs run just fine on a 64-bit system, by and large). Office 2016 and 2019 don’t have the 64-bit shakes; they work fine on either 32-bit or 64-bit Windows. Some programs can’t take advantage of the 64-bit breathing room. It's not all sweetness and light.
Now that you know the pros and cons, you have one more thing to take into consideration: What does your PC support? To run 64-bit Windows 10, your computer must support 64-bit operations. If you bought your computer any time after 2005 or so, you’re fine — virtually all the PCs sold since then can handle 64-bit. But if you have an older PC, here’s an easy way to see whether your current computer can handle 64 bits: Go to Steve Gibson’s SecurAble site, at www.grc.com/securable.htm. Follow the instructions to download and run the SecurAble program. If your computer can handle 64-bit operations, SecurAble tells you.
Which Version of Windows Are You Running?
You may be curious to know which version of Windows you’re running on your current machine. Here’s the easy way to tell:
If your Start screen resembles the one in Figure 3-1, you have some version of Windows 8, 8.1, RT, or RT 8.1. Swipe from the right or hover your mouse cursor in the lower-right corner, and then choose Change PC Settings. Click or tap PC and Devices, then PC Info. You get a report like the one in Figure 3-2.FIGURE 3-1: A Start screen like this is a dead giveaway for 8, 8.1, or RT.
If you have a desktop like the one in Figure 3-3, you're running some version of Windows 7. Click the Start icon in the lower-left corner, then Control Panel ⇒ System ⇒ Security. Under System, click View Amount of RAM and Processor Speed. You see a report like the one in Figure 3-4.
If your desktop doesn't look like Figure 3-1 or Figure 3-3, you're running Windows Vista or XP. Click the Start icon in the lower-left corner, then click Control Panel ⇒ System ⇒ Security. Under System, click View Amount of RAM and Processor Speed.
FIGURE 3-2: This machine runs 64-bit Windows 8.1 Pro.
FIGURE 3-3: Here’s a telltale desktop in Windows 7.
FIGURE 3-4: This is Windows 7 Pro Service Pack 1, 64-bit.
If you have a 64-bit system installed already, you should upgrade to a 64-bit version of Windows 10. If you currently have a 32-bit system, check Steve Gibson’s site, as mentioned in the preceding section.
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