Is it Possible to run Win 7 64-bit in 32-bit Mode?

Hello I was wondering if maybe there was some sort of fix out there? or a registry edit that will allow me to run windows 7 in 32 bit mode from 64 bit. I want to be able to install a program.

What is the error you are getting when trying to install your 32-bit application in your 64-bit system?

By default, there are two program files folders, ‘Program Files’ and ‘Program Files (x86)’. By default, 32-bit applications will install to ‘Program Files (x86)’, and 64-bit applications will install to ‘Program Files’.

It may be that your application is not compatible with Windows 7 and not that it is a problem with your 64-bit versus 32-bit.
If the program is not compatible, then you may try to install and run the program in compatibility mode.

Use the following steps:

1) Right click on the Program

2) Click on Properties

3) Click on Compatibility tab

4) Select Run this program in compatibility mode and select Windows Vista or whatever operating system the program was running successfully.

Refer to the link here: Make older programs run in this version of Windows

If the compatibility is not successful, then try and run the Program Compatibility troubleshooter:

1. Open the Program Compatibility troubleshooter by clicking the Start button.

Then click Control Panel . In the search box, type troubleshooter , and then click Troubleshooting . Under Programs , click Run programs made for previous versions of Windows .

2. Follow the instructions in the troubleshooter.

If you cannot install a program, insert the installation disc for the program and, using the troubleshooter, browse to the program’s setup file, usually called Setup.exe, Install.exe, or something similar. The troubleshooter is not designed to work on programs that have an .msi file name extension.

Please reply back and let us know if this helps or if your issue is resolved.

Marilyn
Microsoft Answers Support Engineer
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Windows 10 64-bit but almost every program is running 32-bit

I just upgraded to windows 10 from windows 7 both 64-bit. while closing background applications i happen to notice that most programs are running in their 32-bit mode now i know that my operating system is 64-bit along with my processor i have no idea how to change this i don’t want to blame it on the windows 10 install but it is quite possible. please get back to me on this if you have any questions or hopefully an answer thank you.

Replies (10) 

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

As you have a query on why the programs run in 32 bit when you have a 64 bit of Windows 10 installed. We need to install 64 bit application to run those in 64 bit processing set. If you install 32 bit applications it will run on 32 bit mode even if you have a 64 bit Operating system installed.

Let us know if you have installed any 64 bit program and it doesn’t show in c:\Program Files folder.

Try installing 64 bit applications and let us know if it runs in 32 bit mode.

Hope I have answered your query, if not please let us know to assist you better.

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My Skype is running in 32bit mode. Update says I have the latest, Skype download site won’t let you pick 64bit, just for desktop. It’s a little fuzzy looking.

Task Manager says Chrome and Office 2007 are also both running in 32bit.

64-bit OS Win 10

Nvidia GTX 750Ti

When do I get my hololens?

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32-bit programs will run in 32-bit mode whether or not the OS is 32-bit or 64-bit.

Very few programs are 64-bit. And, 64-bit programs will run in 64-bit mode on a 64-bit OS.

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How can I run an exe in 32-bit mode on a 64-bit machine?

I have an executable that works fine when run on 32-bit windows but breaks when run on 64-bit windows.

Is there some way I can force it to run in 32-bit mode on a 64-bit machine?

I don’t have access to the source code.

4 Answers 4

How technical an answer do you want? You can probably force the exe to always run 32bit with a few SDK tools, but it does require a little work.

The easy answer is to launch from a 32bit process (eg. use %SystemRoot%\SYSWOW64\cmd.exe to launch).

The more complex is to check what kind of exe it is, then modify it yourself. Background here is to understand that compiled code from languages that directly work with the Windows APIs are created as 32bit or 64bit at compile time by the developer. This cannot then be changed without going back to the source code.

However increasingly applications are written via a virtualisation layer that makes writing applications easier. There are two common ones: .NET and Java. I’m not sure about Java except knowing that forcing the right Java runtime install with solve the problem.

For .NET you can use SDK tools to:

• Validate that the application is «AnyCPU»: corflags myExe.exe . Using a utility from the .NET SDK to read the headers of a .NET assembly, for an exe will return something like:

the 32BITREQ tells me this is AnyCPU because 32bit is not required.

• Use corflags with its /32BITREQ+ option to modify the exe to be 32bit only.

Check if a process is running in 64 or 32-bit mode?

I’d like to check if a process is running in 64-bit or 32-bit mode. How can I do this? Process Explorer will tell me if the Image is 32-bit or 64-bit, is this what I should be looking at?

4 Answers 4

Can we assume this is a Windows question? XP x64, Vista, 7?

In Windows 7 I believe a 32-bit application running in a 64-bit OS has a *32 after its name in the Task Manager.

NO NEED EXTERNAL PROGRAMS!

Open Task Manager > Details , right click on columns bar Select Columns and check Platform :

(Windows 10 and 8)

Just to add to this old answer, yes use Process Explorer. You can right click on the columns and select Image Type to show which processes are 32 bit and which are 64 bit. Run Process as Administrator to see some services.

Unlike in Windows 7 task manager where 32-bit processes are shown with *32 , in Windows 8 and 10 they’ll be shown with (32 bit) at the end. No need to go to the Details tab and add another column!

In compact mode they’re shown in the same way, but in less detail compared to the Processes tab and Details tab

Not the answer you’re looking for? Browse other questions tagged windows 64-bit process or ask your own question.

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How to run a batch file in 64 bit mode from a batch file in 32 bit mode

I want my program to run in 32 bit mode if in a 32 bit OS or in 64 bit mode if it’s in a 64 bit OS.

That program is created with Bat To Exe Converter v2.1.4, so it’s basically a batch file. Normally, when I run a batch file on a 32 bit OS it runs in 32 bit mode and when I run it on a 64 bit OS it runs in 64 bit mode, isn’t it?

The problem is, using Bat To Exe Converter v2.1.4, I can choose if the program is 32 or 64 bit. So I have to choose 32 or else, I don’t think it will run on a 32 bit OS.

I tried using .vbs files to re-launch the program using .Run and .ShellExecute, but the result was the architecture being the same as the one set in the converter.

I also tried cmd /c and %WINDIR%\System32\cmd.exe /c and also %WINDIR%\SysWOW64\cmd.exe /c , but I couldn’t find a way to do it.

I use Windows 8.0 x64 and my VM is Windows 8.1 x64.

3 Answers 3

You could use following at top of your batch file:

Next you need to call every console application in System32 directory of Windows with %SystemPath% in your batch file, for example %SystemPath%\findstr.exe . Of course you could also start cmd with %SystemPath%\cmd.exe to run always 64-bit command line interpreter from within the batch file.

The environment variable SystemPath is set first to System32 directory of Windows.

The batch file packed into a 32-bit executable runs now all console applications indeed from System32 directory on 32-bit Windows, but from %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64 directory on 64-bit Windows.

Therefore the batch file checks next if environment variable ProgramFiles(x86) exists which is the case only on Windows x64. Therefore the condition on third line is false on Windows x86 and SystemPath is not changed. But SystemPath is modified to %SystemRoot%\Sysnative on 64-bit Windows to call the applications in %SystemRoot%\System32 from 32-bit executable respectively cmd.exe without redirection to %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64 .

For more details see the Microsoft documentation page File System Redirector.

But better would be to do that all inside the 32-bit executable which extracts the batch file to %TEMP% and run it either with

for 32-bit Windows where environment variable ProgramFiles(x86) does not exist or with

on 64-bit Windows.

Here is one more code which can be used at top of a batch file to run always 64-bit console applications independent on being started on Windows x64 with 32-bit or with 64-bit cmd.exe .

On Windows x64 it is additionally checked if there are files in %SystemRoot%\Sysnative . In this case the batch file is executed with 32-bit cmd.exe and only in this case %SystemRoot%\Sysnative needs to be used at all. Otherwise %SystemRoot%\System32 can be used also on Windows x64 as when the batch file is started with 64-bit cmd.exe , this is the directory containing the 64-bit console applications.

Note: %SystemRoot%\Sysnative is not a directory. It is not possible to cd to %SystemRoot%\Sysnative or use if exist %SystemRoot%\Sysnative .