[geeks] Windows 64-bit insanity

[nate at portents.com]

So I didn't quite realize how screwed XP x64 customers are, because I
thought that because Microsoft let XP x64 users buy upgrade licenses of
Vista, that it would actually upgrade XP x64, like you can upgrade 32-bit
XP to Vista 32-bit.  I was wrong:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/get/upgrade-your-pc-options.aspx

Yeah, that's right, XP x64 users have to clean install any later Microsoft
OS.  (Yes there are some tools to migrate user data and settings, and
while they may work going XP x64 to Windows 7 x64, all applications will
have to be reinstalled.)

So I thought to myself, maybe there's a third party program that migrates
installed applications, and Laplink's PCmove looked really promising,
until I got to this page:

http://www.laplink.com/pcmover/64bitmigrate.html

Yeah, there you go, 32-bit to 64-bit sure, but 64-bit to 64-bit, no way!

I suppose considering that Microsoft is only supporting in-place upgrades
from Vista (not XP) to Windows 7, this shouldn't entirely surprise me, but
the degree to which XP x64 users are being left high-and-dry is somewhat
astounding, and really, for no good technical reason I can think of other
than someone just didn't want to bother.

- Nate