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I have a 32-bit app that I need to install and test on a Windows 2008 R2 server. This app has some dependencies on 3rd party 32-bit software (Oracle 10g client and TCL runtime -- a large portion of the app is TCL scripts). This app also creates Windows services to run.

The current version of the product requires that its binaries (.exes and .dlls) and scripts be installed to D:\App. This path is hard-coded in the scripts and config files. It also requires that the TCL runtime be installed to D:\TCL.

I'm concerned that if I try to install 32-bit binaries outside of %windir%\Program Files (x86), then weird things will happen; are my concerns warranted? Are there any side effects or issues with running 32-bit apps outside of %windir%\Program Files (x86) on Windows 2008 R2? Does our app have to do anything special with the binaries if they're running outside the %windir%\Program Files (x86) folder?

Patrick Cuff
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  • Please don't crosspost the same question on multiple sites. – Kara Marfia Oct 11 '10 at 12:57
  • If you're the developer of this app, please fix it so it works correctly -- living under %PROGRAMFILES%. It is often a source of complication/trouble, for sysadmins, when application developers choose to ignore a platform's standards. – jscott Oct 11 '10 at 21:12
  • @jscott; I am not a developer, but work for the company that develops this app. If you could site specific examples of how not installing to %PROGRAMFILES% causes problems, I can use that in my argument that we need to fix the app to really support 64-bit Windows environments. Right now it looks like our app works, so there's little incentive to fix it. – Patrick Cuff Oct 12 '10 at 00:39
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    From a quick search, here are two example questions from the SF community. I realize they do not address your *exact* situation, but you should be able to gauge the sorts of issues breaking standards/traditions can cause for sysadmins. [EXEs from a share](http://serverfault.com/questions/169534/why-do-some-admins-dislike-exes-being-executed-from-a-server-share) and [EXEs from %APPDATA%](http://serverfault.com/questions/178565/do-admins-mind-exes-being-copied-installed-to-the-users-application-data-folder). – jscott Oct 12 '10 at 10:30

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It will work fine. Windows will detect it's a 32-bit EXE, wrap it up in Wow64, and away you go.

I rarely use "Program Files" or its 32-bit equivalent, as I have a pet hate about directories names with spaces in. I've experienced no problems at all.

Simon Catlin
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