program files 32 bit/ 64 bit question.

Dcully

Hi folks, i reinstalled windows 7 64 ultimate on my sons PC yesterday and installled and updated some of his games.
Im now noticing ive put the games into the program files (x86) which is 32bit folder instead of program files which is 64 bit as thats the default location when installing,is it because the games are 32 bit thus installed correctly?
Is there way fast way to move them to 64 bit program files or do i have to reinstall and update again?
Does it really matter, will he see better performance in 64 bit folder as opposed to 32 bit?

Hijpo

It shouldnt matter which folder they are in. You wont see any performance increase/decrease what ever folder they are in.
As far as i know they only install to the 64bit folder if they use a 64bit installer or something along those lines.

chin_grin

Hijpo wrote: »

It shouldnt matter which folder they are in. You wont see any performance increase/decrease what ever folder they are in.
As far as i know they only install to the 64bit folder if they use a 64bit installer or something along those lines.

Same for me. If I install a 64 bit program on my win 7 it'll go in to it's respective programs folder. It doesn't effect the compatibility\efficiency of the program

Dcully

Thanks guys its what i suspected but just wasnt 100% sure.

yoyo

Hijpo wrote: »

It shouldnt matter which folder they are in. You wont see any performance increase/decrease what ever folder they are in.
As far as i know they only install to the 64bit folder if they use a 64bit installer or something along those lines.

My understanding of it is that the Program Files (x86) directory is set in the registry in such a way so that the older installers will find it, the newer Program Files directory is set in a newer way which I think is for security reasons.

Nick

Hijpo

My understanding of it is that the Program Files (x86) directory is set in the registry in such a way so that the older installers will find it, the newer Program Files directory is set in a newer way which I think is for security reasons.

Nick

Ill have to read up on it a bit more but that would explain how 32bit installers know where to install to. I also didnt know it was for security reasons, i thought it was if you had a 32 bit and 64bit version of the programe like IE then it would suit to have two diffrent folders so that one install doesnt try over write the other.

Cheers for info yoyo

yoyo

Hijpo wrote: »

Ill have to read up on it a bit more but that would explain how 32bit installers know where to install to. I also didnt know it was for security reasons, i thought it was if you had a 32 bit and 64bit version of the programe like IE then it would suit to have two diffrent folders so that one install doesnt try over write the other.

Cheers for info yoyo

On 64-bit versions of Windows, there are two folders for application files; the %ProgramFiles% folder contains 64-bit programs, and the %ProgramFiles(x86)% folder (called '\Program Files (x86)' on US-English systems) contains 32-bit programs. On Windows NT-based operating systems (NT4, 2000, XP, Vista, etc.), the Program Files folders are protected, meaning that only Administrators can change their contents; while this is a more secure solution, it means that programs which were accustomed to running as administrator and creating logs or other files in the folder containing the application cannot do so when the user is not an administrator, which is increasingly common.

Some application installers reject spaces within the install path location. For 32-bit systems, the short name for the Program Files folder is Progra~1. For 64-bit systems, the short name for the 64-bit Program Files folder is Progra~1 (same as on 32-bit systems); while the short name for the 32-bit Program Files (x86) folder is now Progra~2.

From wiki but sounds plausible!

Nick