Anyone looking to use the XP-64 needs to check out Microsoft's website. Here's an excerpt on drivers:

"All drivers must be 64-bit. There are still quite a few gaps in the list of available drivers but the situation should improve dramatically now that Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is officially launched. If you're buying new hardware, you should definitely make sure that there are x64 drivers available before you buy. And if you're recycling older peripherals to use with your new x64 computer, you'll want to check with the peripheral manufacturer or vendor about available drivers. One site I've found that has been quite helpful in finding drivers for x64 is PlanetAMD."

In this case, it truly is "buyer beware".

I've known for a long time Canon loves money but hates customers. HP used to be pretty decent, but I trust them less and less. Epson isn't even considered; they've been downright nasty to me. I've told my clients and friends to avoid them and Canon, because I will not support them. Tell everyone you know.

At the same time, realize any printer below $300 is junk, anyway. All the manufacturers are turning out inkjet junk like fire-n-forget missiles. Product pride is fogotten. Get something worth having, then take them to court if they refuse to provide the service you demand. As I said before, 64-bit has been around too long for any business to act like it's not an industry standard.

Isn't it crazy? Some of the folks I serve have begun looking at dot-matrix again, because they see old machines with decent drivers, a readable output, and very low operating costs.

1). In business, upgrading to Windows X.X is driven by purchasing/budgeting cycles. It should be the businesses' choice when and how;

2). Yes, XP64 software is not terribly popular right now. However, the hardware is increasingly available and Longhorn is in Beta testing. It's coming, and coming soon;

3). Why go 64 bit? 4GB memory limit, that's why (among other reasons). Just wait until YOU try loading more than 4GB on a 32-bit OS. This is going to happen ever more often. Also, don't talk to me about PAE. It's a kludge, just like the bad old days of EMM/EMS/XMS/HiMem/???;

4). Where is Microsoft in all this? Shame on them for not supporting, at least in some limited way, 32-bit drivers. Certain drivers probably need to be 64-bit for performance and other reasons (video & disk come to mind). However, it's only print servers that print continuously. Printer drivers are not, as a rule, performance critical;

5). I rather doubt that 64-bit Windows is a "completely new" operating system, whether it's XP64 or Longhorn. That's just not realistic. Comparing Windows to another version of Windows is a reasonable thing to do, and everyone is going to do it;

So the original submitter didn't do all their homework and got a little burned. I don't blame them.

I wrote Ed about this back in 2000, but I thought I would post my story here for anyone considering Xerox:

For Christmas of 1999 my parents and my in-laws both purchased a multifuntion printer for my wife and I as gifts. Having a choice between an HP and a Xerox to return to the store, we decided to keep the Xerox because I have never been impressed with HP's bloated drivers and software.

At first, I was very pleased with the Xerox Workcentre Xi70c. The drivers for it worked quite well in Windows 95 and the resolution was decent. Then in April of 2000, only four months later, I ordered a laptop from Dell. Having used the recently released Windows 2000 at my office for a couple of months, I was very impressed with its stability, speed, and functionality. So, I ordered the laptop with Windows 2000 pre-installed.

This is when the problems began. We received the laptop within a week and gave our old desktop to a family member. I began setting up various peripherals and software that we used with the laptop with very few problems until I got to the Xerox Workcentre Xi70c. I could not find Windows 2000 drivers for the printer or scanner and the Windows 95 drivers definitely would not work.

I spent the next six months e-mailing and calling Xerox in anticipation of new drivers. Every representative promised that the drivers would be out soon, but nothing would happen. In June of 2000, one Xerox representative said that I could use the Windows 2000 printer drivers from one of their other multifunction printers to get the printing functionality to work on the Xi70c, but that the scan drivers did not work consistently. I started using the other drivers so that we could at least use the Xi70c as a printer and even the scanner drivers worked with some extra effort but only at 300 dpi.

Finally in August of 2000, I called Xerox again asking about new drivers. The support representative I got on the phone was clueless and I asked to talk to a manager. Instead she routed me to a 2nd level technical support person. I explained my problem and vented my frustration to the tech support person and he then told me the truth. It seems that Xerox had only sold about 5000 Xi70c units that Christmas and decided that it was not worth their time to support it anymore even though it was only eight months old. In fact, they had effectively stopped supporting the Xi70c within four months of introducing it on the market. They had released it in time for the Christmas shopping season and priced it to sell, but it did not sell as well as they had hoped. So, Xerox stopped making the Xi70c and decided that they didn't need to produce new drivers for any OS other than Windows 95. In other words, even though the printer was first sold in November of 1999, they had already moved it to extended support less than six months later as if it were a much older piece of equipment.

I tried several contact options at Xerox to seek a refund or a trade for a multifunction printer that did have Windows 2000 support, but it seems that Xerox already had my money and didn't care if I never bought their products again. I either did not receive a reply from their various representatives or they told me that I was just out of luck.