I have 64bit Windows7.
Does it make any difference if I run 32 bit programs from a directory, say, at C:\myfolder ? Is there any advantage to keeping them in C:\Program Files (x86)\myfolder ?
No, there's no real difference other than organization. At least, there shouldn't be.
I've definitely had issues with programs that can't handle (
and )
in their path names, or otherwise are poorly programmed and only work from C:\Program Files\
, though. You can install the programs wherever you like, or wherever they have to be installed to work.
%PROGRAMFILES%
still points to the old location, but there's %PROGRAMFILES(X86)%
for the new one. There's no easy way to disable that, because when a 32-bit program launches, it's given the (x86) path whenever it asks for %PROGRAMFILES%
. I personally keep my programs separated, since I often have both 32- and 64-bit version of the same application installed (developmental purposes), and it usually doesn't matter after I install the program - I don't actually type the path anywhere.
Jun 21, 2012 at 18:49