Dword or Qword?

When performing registry tweaks of an OS the author of tweak does not always specify 32bit or 64bit....(does it even matter?) Or if they do specify to create a new Dword (32bit) value but maybe you are running a 64bit system - Do you still follow the 32bit instructions, or do you need to modify the instructions and create a new Qword (64bit) with the same data in the decimal value instead?

Of course you should always back up your registry before making changes, but I am just trying to understand what is proper and still safe to achieve the desired results of the tweak - no matter what system you have.

DWORD and QWORD is tied to the application that is using the value not the OS.

I would only be guessing when I say:

DWORD should work for all values unless using a value larger than what a DWORD can store. If you need to store a value larger than a what DWORD can store, the use of QWORD would then be required.

The OS (Any 32bit OS) can only address 2^32 bits (4,294,967,295) of memory-mapped I/O (MMIO, henceforth). Damn near anything on your computer has an MMIO address; the BIOS, the buses, your VRAM (Which supersedes your DRAM addressing). The computer reserves blocks of MMIO addresses for VRAM, then buses/bridges/BIOS, then DRAM. Your RAM gets all the addressing space left, which is usually 2.5-3.12GB.

That's why.

Let me see if I can break this down....What originally brought me to this line of thinking was a article in PC world about tweaking Windows Aero effects -This article said to create a new DWORD to achieve the effect, so i got to thinking (i know bad idea) - But I am running 64bit, so do i still follow the instructions exactly or can the same thing be achieved by choosing QWORD instead with the same data or would the 32bit tweak not work on a 64bit system.....Now I could not find the same article online as in print, so i referred to a similar article I found online in which it is mentioning to use 32bit or 64bit when tweaking windows check out this link i mentioned in my 1st post http://www.wincert.net/forum/index.php?/topic/8781-how-to-speed-up-aero-peek-thumbnail-preview/

Like i said this one is just an example, so when i find future Windows tweaks - you mention it is just the value data that matters, but is that literally like how many characters you put into the value to decide to use a DWORD or QWORD? Or is there more to it than that?

How does one tell DWORD or QWORD when making tweaks to windows which to choose?

To use the link i mentioned to be more clear - at the bottom of the linked page, it talks about if you wanted to delay the aero peek preview (dont know why someone would want to do that) but still you could enter many characters to achieve this delay and you would need many, many characters before you reach that 32bit limit - so that doesnt make sense...Do you see where I am going? where do you get your data from to know which type of key you need?

Or can you take the simple route, If I have a 32bit system then choose DWORD, but if I have a 64bit system and I am tweaking a 64bit application then choose QWORD?

Am I making sense - just hit me in the head if the answer is no!

It's almost always dword. 99% of the time. Qword is rare as hell. It's that simple.

To put it another way, if you're tweaking a Windows setting, it's always going to be dword.

Thanks i think that is what i am looking for....can you mention some examples where someone would need to use QWORD then?

I cannot honestly think of any examples. To show you how rare qword is actually used, this thread is already on the first page of Google for using qword in Windows--which means nobody has ever found a use for it.

I've been trying to say it's the data being stored and the application calling the data that dictates which is used. But I have no idea how accurate that statement would be.

It would be kind of silly for a programmer to use only DWORD values but store them as a QWORD's.

Thrax, when exactly do you think a QWORD would be needed, that is a huge value.

Maybe if a particularly large value needs to be stored in the registry. I don't know. It seems useless for the foreseeable future.

So the answer is NO, never substitute QWORD instead of DWORD even if you have a 64-bit system. In fact, in the article you listed brock, it seems like some words are missing but I'm not sure why the poster even mentions it at all in that context.

Now I can tell you this. There is often a different or sometimes a second registry location that needs tweaked on 64-bit systems, but still the entry is typically DWORD. People who offer such tweaks generally specify any differences in 32 or 64 bit; just use what is posted.