Vista - [VISTA]Duplicated Programs

Hi,
I've got Vista Ultimate 64bit on my Turion64 PC and I have a question: The folder "Program Files (x86)" is an exact copy of "Program files" (64bit) and a lot of system associations (i.e. MP3, HTM, Images..) are done with 32bit version of vista softwares (mediaplayer, explorer..). Why if I've installed the operating system at 64bit there's still the 32bit folder? And why the o.s. don't prefer the 64bit version of his own programs?
I've read about "extremes" solutions like to delete the x86 folder and to duplicate the 64bit folder using the name of 32bit one, but this means a duplicate space used on hdd... do u have any suggest or info?

Thanks.


[ITALIAN VERSION]
Salve,
ho vista ultimate 64bit sul mio PC ed ho 1 dubbio: la cartella Programmi (x86) è un esatto duplicato della cartella Programmi a 64 bit (almeno all'origine), e molte associazioni (es. mp3, visualizzatore immagini) sono fatte con le versioni 32 bit... ma perchè se installo il s.o. a 64bit c'è ancora la cartella a 32? E perchè non vengono "preferiti" i programmi a 64bit?
Ho letto di soluzioni "estreme" (cancellare la cartella x86 e duplicare la "programmi" con nome "programmi (x86) ) ma sarebbe un grande spreco di memoria... sapete qualcosa a riguardo? Perchè questi duplicati? Posso farli fuori?

Grazie...

Hi Magonicola,

Welcome to the forum.

The C:\Program Files folder are 64 bit applications, and the C:\Program Files (x86) folder are 32 bit applications as you discovered. There are two versions in the 64 bit Vista for backwards compatibility with 32 bit programs. Plus, there are not very many 64 bit add-ons for programs like Windows Media Player (WMP) or Internet Explorer (EX: Flash Player).

To use IE7 64 bit, there is a shortcut for it in the Start Menu under All Programs.

To switch to the 64 bit WMP as the default, you can see this link for how:

Windows Media Player (WMP)

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hi,
sorry but I haven't followed your suggest.. I hated the x86 folder, in particular I hated that this was an "Imposition" and not a free choice of the user... so I've done this:
- ) Regedit -> changed the default path "CommonFilesDir (X86)" and "ProgramFilesDir (x86)" making equals to 64bit version;
- ) modifing all the references to x86 folders in registry in 64bit references;
- ) copy and NOT substitute all the progsx86 folder in the progs folder.

Now I'm free to decide in what place of my progs dir the program will be installed (for default it's in progs dir, and I think i'll install all in it, using the appropriate suffix, in case of necessity, to indicate the architecture). With this change I've got also the benefit that all the defaults programs are in 64bit version (IE, WMP...).
I've got no problem for "hardly search of plugin" because IE and WMP are not my prefered sw.. (for example firefox and vlc are much better).

I hope my hours for modifing vista are useful to somebody else...

There's still just another 2 problems:
- ) It's possible to "unlock" totally the register? (There are some keys that I can't change because of some limitations-file in use-some other reasons... like some keys refered to IE);
- ) it's possible to "totally unlock" the progsx86 folder to delete it permanently (now in my pc is still there..), i.e. some software like "xp-lite" that disable the control on system files deletion ecc... that permit me to del this folder?


Thanks

(PS: If there's someone that want to do the same as me, I suggest to do a backup of all the registry and, at the end ow work, to run some programs to optimize, clean and defrag registry)



[ADD]
to delete folders andfiles, I used "rm -R" command of CygWin... now there's only some keys in registry and will be perfect (i must disable Windows Resource Protection)

Hi Magonicola,

To modify those registry keys that will not let you, you will need to take ownership of them. You can see how here in method two (Step 3):

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67717-take-ownership-file.html

When you get done and if you have the time, you should write a tutorial on this. I'm sure a lot of people would appreciate it.

Shawn