I am currently wondering about upgrading my machine to 64 bit Windows 7 OS, are 64 bit OS less prone to Virus/Malware? Will it offer much more security that 32 bit OS, if I install Antivirus/Anti-Malware applications?
Both versions of Windows 7 have equal security protection, and there is no extra power in 64 bit version against viruses and Malware. Actually 64 bit version only runs fast on high processors because it processes 64 bits of data at a time whereas 32 bit version of and operating system processes 32 bits of data at a time.
Giving an example from programming:
int a = 0, b = 0, c = 0;
for(int n = 0; n<50; n++)
{
a = b;
b = c;
c = a;
}
If a processor can hold only two values in register, then it must move values between register and memory again and again, and this will consume a lot of CPU cycles and is just a wastage of CPU resources, instead if your processor can hold 10 values, then it will just loop through this and as it will not move data between memory and registers, so it will be fast.
Windows 7 32 bit in comparison to Windows 7 64 bit do not have that much difference because it only varies from the way your computer handles information.
Windows 7 64 bit version can effectively handle large amounts of Random Access Memory or commonly known as “RAM” than a Windows 7 32 bit system. So if you have 4 Gigabit of RAM installed, it would be more effective, if you have Windows 7 64 bit installed in your system.
Talking about security, there will be no difference at all, if you are installing the same Antivirus on your Windows 7 64 bit system.
