32-Bit and 64-Bit Explained: Some of The Common Questions People Have
32-Bit and 64-Bit Explained: Some of The Common Questions People Have
32-Bit and 64-Bit Explained: Some of The Common Questions People Have
More bits means that data can be processed in larger chunks which also means more
accurately.
More bits means our system can point to or address a larger number of locations in
physical memory.
32-bit systems were once desired because they could address (point to) 4 Gigabytes (GB) of
memory in one go. Some modern applications require more than 4 GB of memory to
complete their tasks so 64-bit systems are now becoming more attractive because they can
potentially address up to 4 billion times that many locations.
Since 1995, when Windows 95 was introduced with support for 32-bit applications, most of
the software and operating system code has been 32-bit compatible.
Here is the problem, while most of the software available today is 32-bit, the processors we
buy are almost all 64-bit.
So how long will the transition from 32-bit to 64-bit systems take?
The main issue is that your computer works from the hardware such as the processor (or
CPU, as it is called), through the operating system (OS), to the highest level which is your
applications. So the computer hardware is designed first, the matching operating systems
are developed, and finally the applications appear.
We can look back at the transition from 16-bit to 32-bit Windows on 32-bit processors. It
took 10 years (from 1985 to 1995) to get a 32-bit operating system and even now, more
than 15 years later, there are many people still using 16-bit Windows applications on older
versions of Windows.
The hardware and software vendors learnt from the previous transition, so the new
operating systems have been released at the same time as the new processors. The
problem this time is that there haven't been enough 64-bit applications. Ten years after the
PC's first 64-bit processors, installs of 64-bit Windows finally exceeded installs of 32-bit
Windows. Further evidence of this inertia is that you are probably reading this tutorial
because you are looking to install your first 64-bit software.
Your computer system in three parts
Now we'll look at those three components of your system. In simple terms they are three
layers with the processor or CPU as the central or lowest layer and the application as the
outermost or highest layer as shown below:
To run a 64-bit operating system you need support from the lower level: the 64-bit CPU.
To run a 64-bit application you need support from all lower levels: the 64-bit OS and the
64-bit CPU.
This simplification will be enough for us to look what happens when we mix the 32-bit and
64-bit parts. But if you want to understand the issue more deeply then you will also need to
consider the hardware that supports the CPU and the device drivers that allow the OS and
the applications to interface with the system hardware.
What 32-bit and 64-bit combinations are compatible and will work together?
This is where we get to the practicalities and can start answering common questions.
The general rule is that 32-bit will run on a lower level 64-bit component but 64-bit does
not run on a lower level 32-bit component:
Another question many people have is whether a 32-bit system can run 64-bit software. As
more people are looking to use 64-bit Windows they are wanting to try it out on their
existing systems. So we are getting more questions about whether they can run it on their
32-bit processor or under their 32-bit OS.
Following the general rule, we would expect that you cannot run 64-bit software on a 32-bit
system. Except that there is one exception called virtualization.
Virtualization creates a virtual system within the actual system. Virtualization can be
achieved in hardware or software but it works best if the virtual machine is created in the
system hardware. The guest operating system is not aware that there is a host operating
system already running. This is the way that a 64-bit operating system can think that it is
running on 64-bit hardware without being aware that there is a 32-bit operating system in
the mix.
Tables 3 and 4 illustrate the result. Provided that the virtual machine can actually be
created and isolated by the virtualizing software then the host OS is effectively removed
from the equation, so I've grayed it out. We can now apply the general rules for a non-
virtualized system to the three remaining layers.
All the feasible configurations that we have looked at so far have the processors (CPUs)
running software that use the instruction set that is native to that processor. Running 64-bit
software on a 32-bit processor doesn't work because the 64-bit instructions are not native
to a 32-bit processor. But what if I could emulate a 64-bit processor using 32-bit software?
It is theoretically possible but practically impossible to emulate a 64-bit processor while
running software on a 32-bit processor. Even if you can get non-native 64-bit emulation to
work, the virtual machine that duplicates a 64-bit CPU would run very slowly because every
64-bit instruction has to be trapped and handled by the emulator. 64-bit memory pointers
also have to be converted to work within the 32-bit address space.
Furthermore, my understanding is that the x86 (32-bit) processors used in PCs and Apple
Macs are not able to completely emulate the x64 (64-bit) instruction set. Some 64-bit
instructions cannot be trapped by the emulator. This causes the system to crash when the
x86 processor tried to run those x64 instructions.
Yes it will. 64-bit systems are backward-compatible with their 32-bit counterparts.
Will a 64-bit OS run a 32-bit application on a 64-bit processor?
Yes, many times 64-bit software will contain portions of 32-bit code.
Similarly 32-bit software (usually very old programs) can have some code in 16-bit which is
why those 32-bit applications will usually fail to run properly on a 64-bit OS.
Can 16-bit applications or code run on 64-bit systems?
No, as we said previously. 16-bit code will NOT run on 64-bit OS because the designers did
not provide backward-compatibility. This is one reason why some 32-bit programs will not
work on 64-bit operating systems.
Can a 64-bit CPU with a 32-bit host OS run a virtual machine (VM) for a 64-bit
guest OS?
Yes, a 32-bit OS (Windows 2000 or XP) will run on a 64-bit processor.You should also be
able to run older 32-bit software on a 64-bit OS.
Is a Windows Vista or Windows 7 license key valid for both 32-bit and 64-bit
versions?
Yes, unless you have an OEM version. If it was installed on your computer when you bought
it and you only have one Windows disk then it is almost certainly an OEM version and you
will have to buy the other bit version if you want it. If you have two disks, one for 32-bit
Windows and one for 64-bit Windows, then you have a non-OEM version so you get to
choose which bit version you will use without having to buy another license. See Microsoft
Answers for a discussion of these issues.
Remember, if you have only bought one license then, even if you have both bit versions on
disk, you are only licensed to install and run one version on one computer.
How do find out if my system is 64-bit?
Microsoft provide resources to help you find out such as FAQ on 32-bit and 64-bit
Windows and Taking the mystery our of 64-bit Windows.
I recommend that you look at downloading SecurAble from Gibson Research Corporation
(GRC) which will tell you if you have a 64-bit processor with the useful features of hardware
DEP and hardware virtualization.
How do I migrate my 32-bit system to 64-bit Windows?
There is no upgrade path from 32-bit to 64-bit Windows only from 64-bit Windows. You will
almost certainly have to do a clean install of your 64-bit operating system, copy back your
data files, and reinstall your 32-bit applications.
If you want to keep your old install then you can try dual booting or virtualization.
How do I run 32-bit software once I have installed 64-bit Windows?
Windows 7 64-bit provides a 32-bit compatibility mode called WOW32 (Windows 32-bit on
Windows 64-bit) that should run most if not all your applications. See How Windows 64-bit
supports 32-bit Applications.
If you have 32-bit application you want to run from the Command Prompt then you need to
use the WOW64 version of cmd.exe. At the Start Menu select Run and enter the following
command. Note that the %systemroot% variable points to your Windows folder so this will
work even if Windows is not installed on C: drive:
%systemroot%\SysWOW64\cmd.exe
If your application won't run under Windows 64-bit then try XP Mode, Windows Virtual PC,
or othervirtualization solution. Be aware that XP Mode reduces your system security and so
it should be used as a last resort.
How can I tell if my application is 32-bit or 64-bit?
There are a number of indicators of the bit type for your program but they are not definitive
as you will see if you use guidelines like the following.
Run a system information or audit tool such as Belarc Adviser. Just be aware that
most of these types of applications are helpful but not definitive e.g. SIW, MSINFO.
PS C:\Users\Me> $PSVersionTable.PSVersion
I've chosen to highlight the physical and logical differences between each version of desktop
Windows as shown in Table 5. This table illustrates the progressive improvement of
Windows 64-bit and indicates that Windows has a long way to go before it exhausts the
capabilities of 64-bit processors.
Many of the limits in the 64-bit versions of Windows are design choices rather than
limitations of the 64-bit CPUs. The number of physical processors is the most obvious as
Windows Server editions support many more.
Hardware is also limited by design. For example, while 64-bit AMD and Intel CPUs use 64-
bit memory pointers, the supporting chipsets only use a 52-bit physical address space (4
Petabytes) and a 48-bit virtual memory space (256 Terabytes). This is presently more than
sufficient because Windows 7 64-bit only allows 192 GB of physical memory and 16
Terabytes (44-bits) of virtual memory.