Companies looking to become early adopters of Microsoft’s (Profile, Products, Articles) Windows x64 Edition OSes encountered a reason to postpone the decision: They may find their favorite anti-virus software no longer works on their new desktops.
Microsoft maintains that most software written for older, 32-bit versions of Windows is compatible with the 64-bit version of the operating system, released in April. Due to changes to the kernel component of Windows, however, certain types of software must be rewritten for the company’s 64-bit versions of Windows.
“Every time that we do a major shift in the kernel, …any software that runs in kernel mode needs to be rewritten,” said Brian Marr, senior product manager in the Windows client group at Microsoft.
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