SOLVED Identifying 32bit/64bit programs

[BSomers]

Microsoft what "the" standard and site developers wrote to IE6 if they wanted their sites to stand out..

I think you mean Microsoft WAS "the" standard? Hardly. Microsoft enjoys the confidence of very many who have no idea what is involved. Microsoft repeatedly foists proprietary 'features' upon users and upon programmers who then program explicitly for IE, "this site requires IEn", and due to Microsoft's mass, they are able to convince many users that this is the way to go.

The standards-compliant browsers are the standard, the way to go.

I have been running WIN7 for only two weeks. Anything is an improvement over Vista.

If IE9 turns out to be an improvement, that will be good. We'll be watching Microsoft's long overdue "serious efforts".

 

[TrainableMan]

If the program is compiled as 32-bit it will be recognized as such; if it is compiled as 64-bit then it will be also be detected if you have a machine that supports 64-bit and is running a 64-bit OS. Many programs come with an installer that can detect which OS you support and can install the right one or both. I do not know the exact code which allows the system to know but only 64-bit programs use the WOW.

Many browsers are now available in both 32 & 64-bit but 32-bit is still the norm because of limited add-ins including, until recently, flash. So even if both are installed you will most likely use the 32-bit version.

This is not a courtroom and we aren't lawyers that need to pick over each and every word. With some contributors it is best to take any value you can and ignore the rest so as not to get in a nitpicking contest.

I believe you have gotten your answer and I will close this Thread and mark it Solved. If you are looking for more detailed information you might try reading up on compilers and maybe consider joining Microsoft's Technet program to access all their manuals/documentation.

This is a site for Microsoft W7. Microsoft is far and away the most popular OS provider. With that power, it is true, they often force their own views and standards on the world. Everyone has their own views on whether this is right or not and no discussion here will change it.

As this thread seems to be degrading I will now close it.

 

[clifford_cooley]

Start the Run box and type "set" for a list that looks like the following.

ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\ProgramData
APPDATA=C:\Users\****\AppData\Roaming
CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files\Common Files
CommonProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
CommonProgramW6432=C:\Program Files\Common Files
COMPUTERNAME=****
ComSpec=C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe
FP_NO_HOST_CHECK=NO
HOMEDRIVE=C:
HOMEPATH=\Users\****
LOCALAPPDATA=C:\Users\****\AppData\Local
LOGONSERVER=\\****
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS=4
OS=Windows_NT
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Shared;C:\Program Files (x86)\FAHClient
PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=AMD64
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER=Intel64 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10, GenuineIntel
PROCESSOR_LEVEL=6
PROCESSOR_REVISION=170a
ProgramData=C:\ProgramData
ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files
ProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)
ProgramW6432=C:\Program Files
PROMPT=$P$G
PSModulePath=C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\
PUBLIC=C:\Users\Public
SESSIONNAME=Console
SystemDrive=C:
SystemRoot=C:\Windows
TEMP=C:\Users\****\AppData\Local\Temp
TMP=C:\Users\****\AppData\Local\Temp
USERDOMAIN=****
USERNAME=****
USERPROFILE=C:\Users\****
windir=C:\Windows
windows_tracing_flags=3
windows_tracing_logfile=C:\BVTBin\Tests\installpackage\csilogfile.log

Notice the following lines are in the list above.

• ProgramData=C:\ProgramData
• ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files
• ProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)
• ProgramW6432=C:\Program Files

Environment variables are there so applications will know where to look for files or where to place files. I'm not suggesting to know this is the answer to your question because I don't know for sure what the answer to your question is. I do know that any application programmed to look at these variables can be controlled by the values of the variables.