Speed matters. And when the world expects everything to be instant, speed is more than just important.
OneDrive is Microsoft's solution for a cloud storage. First released back in 2007, OneDrive competes with many others that include Dropbox, Box, Google Storage/Google Photos, and some others. OneDrive has no shortage of competition.
But when the world is infected with 'COVID-19' coronavirus, and more people are working remotely, the needs to store and share files through the web has become more common.
To appeal those users, Microsoft has made a major improvement to OneDrive.
Previously, OneDrive users should only access a 32-bit version of the app to store their files, photos and other documents, even if they were running a 64-bit version of Windows 10.
The problem with running 32-bit software on a 64-bit version of Windows is that, 32-bit programs can only utilize 4GB of memory even when the system is running on higher amounts of memory.
This time, Microsoft has updated OneDrive, making it available as a native 64-bit application. The result of this, performance should significantly improve on 64-bit machines.
The update has been confirmed on the Microsoft 365 roadmap, where the software giant explained that “OneDrive is now available as a 64-bit install for AMD64-based devices”.
Apart from the change in the native architecture, the 64-bit version of the app does not bring any further innovations.
The storage location in the AppData folder is not changed. An additional folder has been added with the name amd64 which contains the added 64-bit libraries. In other words, apart from those, Microsoft didn't introduce new features to the table.
And also, it should be noted that the 64-bit version of OneDrive is not delivered automatically, at least initially.
The new build is initially intended only for insiders and is only available for download via a special installer.
If users use a 32-bit system and is running the program, only the 32-bit version and not the new 64-bit application of OneDrive will be installed.
And also, if users run a system with an Intel chip, this update should also apply to them.
This is because AMD owns the 64-bit architecture and all AMD64 updates that are applicable to both AMD and Intel based systems, according to WindowsReport.
AMD64 is just a generic name for an instruction set used by AMD and Intel.
What this means, it should affect affect one or the other in any way because it’s used for 64-bit processors, regardless of the manufacturer of the chip.
'Bit' is the only way a computer can count.
In computer terms, 1-bit computing means that the computer can only show two possible values.
What this means, 2-bit computing means four values (2^2); and 3 bits is eight (2^3). And if we keep calculating that, we reach 32-bit (2^32) which is 4,294,967,296; and 64-bit (or 2^64) that is worth 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 values.
For example, a 32-bit processor is, by definition, capable of dealing with commands and referencing memory locations of 32-bits (4.29 billion memory locations, equate to 4GB).
Read more: Knowing The Differences Between 32-Bit And 64-Bit Computing Architecture