Why is Windows 7 64-bit not 64-bit?

Spock3 said:

Howdr, why does a (so-called) 64-bit operating system reference to a 32-bit folder? All I am saying is that Microsoft is fooling consumers (on purpose).

MS isn't fooling customers, LINUX, MacOS all have backwards compatibility and that's all it is.

If you want pure 64bit computing you will need to compile your own OS from source. There are limitations place on MS and other OS's by hardware that still need 32bit drivers etc.

32bit will die eventually as did 8 and 16, but not quite yet.

Here's an example I came across just now, installing a very popular program. It's the latest version of the software. Notice the path it chose by default.

The reason you are used to seeing only one Program Files directory, is because your previous versions were likely all 32 bit, and couldn't handle 64 bit applications...so there was never a need to separate out Program Files into two directories.

Please do not feed the trols.

I thought that, too, but I'm holding out hope that Spock3 would come back with some good ol' fashioned questions and turn this into a learning event.

It`s already there when you install windows. Has nothing to do with if you installed a 32 bit program or not.

Right click the folder to see what the size is.

It supports 64 bit. But not all of it is. Some things don't need to be.

What is your underlying concern? Are you taking a perfectionist tact of wanting to keep your installation "pure" 64 bit? There's no such thing, and it's pointless to feel like it's "not quite right." What matters most is efficient and reliable program execution. And that's what you're actually getting. I would just accept it and move on. There's far more compelling things to nitpick on.

cytherian, that is my "underlying" concern. Yes, I want it to be "perfect". Unfortunately Windows is far from being "perfect". Never mind "backwards compatibility". I do not intend to use any 32-bit programs. I also surely don't need 'Paint' or 'Wordpad', neither do I need 'Notepad' or MS 'Mail'. The least MS could do is give the consumer a choice to install what he wants. - I remember having had an Atari Falcon in 1993. The operating system (TOS 4) came on a 1.44 MB floppy, gave me multitasking, virtual memory management, 3d desktop, and the essential file operations. And then I could add whatever I wanted! Now I get more than a gigabyte of stuff and what I only want is a 64-bit operating system to run 64-bit applications, and only those!

Layback Bear, I always make "clean" installations of Operating Systems! But the installation itself is "unclean", as it doesn't let me choose what I want to install.