32 bit applications on windows7 64-bit

Usjes · 02 Feb 2012

Hi,

Does anyone know if running 32 bit applications on the 64 bit edition of windows 7 will impact performance. My new laptop is consistently slow and unresponsive yet the task manager shows memory usage of just over 50% (2.1Gigs out of 4Gigs) and the CPU usage is minimal (like 20->30%). One thing I do notice on the resource manager though is that a significant number of the processes running are post-fixed with *32 which I believes indicates that they are 32 bit applications. Could this explain why my machine is so slow? Or should there be no significant overhead to running 32 bit applications? Also, if there is a significant overhead why does it not show up as increased memory/CPU usage rather than just making the machine unresponsive and slow?

Thanks,

Usjes.

Layback Bear · 02 Feb 2012

I run 32 bit apps on my Home Premium 64. Some of the older 32 will not run because to my understanding the older ones have somethings in 16 bit which will not work on a 64 bit operating system. Example, 32 bit Internet Explorer. I would suggest you might have to many things running in the back ground that is causing this problem. First I would leave Windows Services alone. Go to start/msconfig/start up and see what is checked. I only have my security, keyboard, and mouse. While you are there check services. Lower left corner check hide all Microsoft Services and see what is left and weather you want them or not running. Many programs such as Adobe will have Auto Update running which is okay if you want it to run.
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Pete4 · 02 Feb 2012

32 bit applications in reality can run faster than many 64 bits and I don't believe there is much overhead here. It could be many reasons why it's slow:
1. fragmented HDD
2. A lot of garbage loaded at factory, for example some anti virus programs take over whole computer and bring it to their knees, worse than virus itself
3. check the power settings, you could have setting to conserve power, instead of high performance.