32 Bit on 64 System

[Cope This 719]

I am in the process of buying a brand spanking new computer. It will run under Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit.

I was under the impression that I will still be able to Run Elements 7 (and in the future Elements 9 or later) and other 32 Bit programs.

Is this correct

Regards John

[Peru]

I know that W7 Pro (but no other versions lower) will run CS4, a 32 bit application.

[Bob]

I was under the impression that I will still be able to Run Elements 7 (and in the future Elements 9 or later) and other 32 Bit programs.

Is this correct

Yes. Windows 7 64-bit will run 32-bit programs in 32-bit emulation mode automatically. I'm running Premiere Elements 7 on Windows 7 64-bit with no problems. Not every 32-bit program will work. But, most of the programs I've tried did. There is no support for 16-bit programs.

The 32-bit emulation is done by means of an intermediate set of system modules (called WOW -- Windows on Windows) that intercept the 32-bit system calls and converts them back and forth between 32-bit and 64-bit so the operating system can process them. Poorly written programs that bypass the standard system calls and use a backdoor into the OS will fail. Also, system conventions for where files are located have changed. Programs that don't ask the system for where it's ok to write file and hard code in the old Windows XP locations can also fail or operate incorrectly. There are other things that could cause it to fail also.

In general, if the 32-bit program was written to be compatible with Vista 32-bit, it will most likely work in Windows 7 64-bit. And, you can still set the OS compatibility option for the program. For those older XP programs that don't, Windows 7 Professional does have the XP Mode installable module. That runs Windows XP as a virtual OS under Windows 7. However, you still may not be able run some programs as they require access to features not availble in a virtualized environment.

[Dave McElderry]

I've run both PrEl 7 and 9 on my Win7-64 system with no problems. In fact, every 32 bit program that I've tried has run fine. The only thing that doesn't work is that Adobe Flash doesn't have a version for the 64 bit version of Internet Explorer, but it also comes with the 32 bit version of IE, so I run that instead. Some peripherals such as printers may or may not have 64 bit drivers available, depending on their age and support from the manufacturer.

[Cope This 719]

Thank you all for the helpful advice

John

[momoffduty]

My nephew suggested this site to see what is compatible. He said that it isn't the software, but the drivers. Anyone try this out?

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... visor.aspx

[Bob]

He said that it isn't the software, but the drivers. Anyone try this out?

It's the software AND the drivers.

The lack of a suitable compatible driver can certainly prevent an otherwise compatible 32-bit application from running (or running correctly) on Windows 7 64-bit. And, that's probably one of the most frequent problems encountered. But, the application itself needs to be well behaved and not cause problems and use documented system interfaces which are supported under WOW. Remember, not all applications require a driver. Another problem that you sometimes run into is that the program may be capable of running in 32-bit compatibility mode under Windows 7 64-bit, but you can't install it because it uses an older 16-bit installer (16-bit programs won't run under Windows 7 64-bit).

I agree with your nephew about using that Microsoft site. The upgrade advisor is a must do if you plan on upgrading an older Windows XP or Vista system to Windows 7. I ran it on my system prior to upgrading and it identified a few issues that I already knew about, but I was looking for things I didn't know about and was glad none were identified. The upgrade went smoothly. It doesn't necessarily catch every incompatibility, but it's pretty good.

[Dave McElderry]

When I went from XP to Win7 I remember running the advisor. It found several programs that it said were incompatible with Win7. Just for the sake of trying, I went ahead and installed them anyway and every one of them has been running without issues.

[demalibu]

. Interesting about PE7, but what about PE4. I'm running 64 bit 7 pro with CS5 and have my old PC running PE4 on XP.
Thing is, the PE4 DVD authoring system is so easy to use that I want to install PE4 on my 64 bit for those small quick jobs. Will PE4 work as well ?

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Yes. Probably. (That's called hedging your bets. ) Try it and see if it works. I recollect that the PrEl licence allows installation on two PCs owned by you provided that you are not using them both at the same time.

[stanatou]

I'm running Premier Elements v4 and Photoshop Elements v6 (the bundled set) on 64 bit Win 7 Enterprise Edition....works just fine.

Stan

[Chuck Engels]

That's good to know Stan, thanks for the info

[Chris B]

Just to muddy the waters. I installed Win7 64bit trial on my old computer before I got a new one. PE4 was fine. I went to install PE4 on my new machine and it wouldn't run (Can't remember the problems). I therefore had to get PE8 which has (surprisingly) been running fine. I'm also running Vegas Movie Studio 10 fine.

Things that have cause me problems are protection systems - since they do "interesting" things. I heard that some older 32bit programs still had 16bit installers which are not supported.

By the way - PE8 (And I presume PE9 - don't know about 7 and below) is Large Address Space Aware so will be allocated 4GB of ram on a 64bit OS (If you've got it). - At least the executable is tagged as such.