32 bit explorer.exe on x64 Windows

[as0l0]

no doubt someone will say 'here it is stupid' and I'll learn to search properly...but anyway...

does anyone know how to run a 32 bit explorer.exe (e.g. syswow64\explorer.exe) on 64 bit Win7? Do you really know that whatever solution you post works? do you have "explorer.exe *32" in your task manager? thank you for any help offered.

 

[Darician]

You can try but all you'll really get out of it is the "Libraries" window (at least that's what happened in my case) and that's after you kill explorer.exe (64-bit process), therefore, this is probably not going to work. What are you looking to do that it would require that you run a 32-bit instance of explorer.exe?

 

[as0l0]

I have a 32 bit com object / dll / explorer extension that I need to run on 64 bit Windows. There's no 64 bit version and no alternate product...

 

[Darician]

I figured you'd say something like that. Unfortunately, there really aren't any workarounds for this limitation apart from running a 32-bit version of Windows. There is a sort of workaround but it's only recommended for testing purposes and the such. What you can do is bring up Task Manager, go to the Processes tab and end the explorer.exe process. After that, go to File --> New Task (Run) within the Task Manager. Then you can type in the following path (without quotes) "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\explorer.exe". This will effectively launch a window that is the 32-bit explorer.exe. Note that you will not have start menu access at this point but you should be able to use this for the explorer extension you need within this window and any windows launched from it.

 

[as0l0]

that's pretty much the only thing that works, similar to replacing the explorer shell with the syswow64 explorer...you obviously know I want to have my cake and eat it too

Thanks very much for at least confirming my dead end.

 

[as0l0]

i think there might be some hope for opening a file > open dialogue box and then customizing it to look like an explorer window...or similar

http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2009/09/01/hey-scripting-guy-september-1.aspx

 

[as0l0]

I've been able to get my 32 bit object to open its own 'explorer' like window..it's not bad, but it's not explorer and never will be.

i've been able to get an explorer.exe and and "explorer.exe *32" to exist at the same time in task manager, but to get there i basically destroyed both explorers to the point where the exe would run, but no window would be displayed. i do think this will be sorted with more time and research and people smarter than me working on the problem. i'm especially hopeful that this will be solved since I recently learned how to REALLY runas an explorer so that the permissions 'flow' properly.

this is very promising in the short term though, FolderBrowserDialog Class (System.Windows.Forms) and certainly does open a very convincing explorer like interface with access to 32 bit objects.

i'll let you know when there's a significant update or when the case is cracked.