I really don't understand why some software developers are starting ignore Windows XP 64-Bit users. There are still quite a lot of people including me who are using the OS for one reason or the other. Personally, I have found it to be very stable and at least I am taking advantage of my 4GB RAM system without the need of having to upgrade to Vista. Not ready for that just yet. Like most people, I am waiting for results of the SP1 on Vista to be released first before upgrading.

Ever since I got my P1i, I have been enjoying its usefulness and enjoying everything about it. But having to dual-boot to xp 32-bit just to use the PC Suite because Sony could not be bothered to include XP 64-Bit systems just got a bit too much for me. I did download their latest software upate (1.3.33) but was disappointed to find out that once again XP 64-Bit users were frozen out.

However, with a little bit of work, I managed to install the software successfully on my XP 64-Bit system and to my surprise the SE PC Suite works extremely well.

These are the steps you need to get the SE PC Suite working in Windows XP Pro 64-bit.

1. First download the SE PC Suite (v1.3.33) from the Sony Ericsson website.
2. Download the P1i drivers for Windows XP 64-Bit here. (I managed to backup these drivers after successfully getting them to install on my system in Phone Mode). Extract the archive on your desktop.
3. Download the ORCA .msi file editor from here and install it on your system.
4. Extract the SE PC Suite file onto your desktop using WinRAR.
5. If you extracted .exe file into a folder or directly on your desktop, locate the file called Sony_Ericsson_PC_Suite_for_Smartphones.exe. Yes there is a 64-bit version of the file but dont bother with that just yet.
6. Double click on the on the Sony_Ericsson_PC_Suite_for_Smartphones.exe file to start the installation process. At this point, do not do anything else (No point anyway. Fire up your file manager or Windows Explorer and navigate to C:Windows\Downloaded Installations\. You should see some strangely named folders in here. Look through every single one of them until you find the file called Sony_Ericsson_PC_Suite_for_Smartphones.msi. Copy this file to the desktop if you wish. Click Cancel on the Installation process
7. Now start ORCA (Start > All Programs > Orca). Drag and drop the Sony_Ericsson_PC_Suite_for_Smartphones.msi into Orca and look for the LaunchCondition in the Tables list. Right on LaunchCondition and select Drop Table. What this should effectively do is prevent the installation process from crashing simply because we are installing the software on a 64-bit system instead of a 32-bit system. Save the changes back to the .msi file and double click on it to run it again. You should now be able to install the suite on your XP64 system with no problems. You will be required to reboot your system. Once this is done, simply plug in your P1i and if requested for drivers, simply point the Hardware Wizrad to where you extracted the P1i drivers you downloaded earlier.

Windows XP 64-Bit running SE PC Suite!

Caution: I have tried this and know its working on my PC properly. However, I am not responsible for any damage carrying oput the set of instructions above does to your system.