Perhaps it’s not worth saying that many users of modern PCs based on Windows operating systems often encounter problems when a message appears stating that some application is not a Win32 application when installing or running a program file. What to do? First of all, take it calmly. Nothing wrong with that.
What is Win32?
First, let’s explain the essence of the problem. The reasons for the occurrence of such a message can be quite a lot. Suppose we got an error message stating that the application is not a Win32 application. Windows 7, although it is a 64-bit system, still supports launching applications designed for 32-bit architecture.
Another thing is that this application, driver, or program file may simply not conform to this architecture due to damage or even the creation of the file initially in another OS. And this is not the only option when the system may display a message stating that the application is not a Win32 application. How to fix this situation, we now consider.
Incompatibility of applications of different OS
First you need to look at the file type. Indeed, it is often possible to meet situations where, say, the same archive has the extension .dmg or .tar, designed for use exclusively in Mac OS X operating systems.
It is clear that not one archiver, even if it is the most powerful, will not open such an archive in the Windows environment. Naturally, the system immediately displays a message that the application is not a Win32 application. What to do in this case? The easiest way is to download or search the World Wide Web for an archive file recognized by Windows. Note that no converters-converters will help here. Those simply do not exist.
By the way, in many cases the same situation is observed when working with disk images created in Linux or Mac OS X. As already clear, specific file types do not belong to the standard registered data that Windows can work with. Roughly speaking, the system simply does not know exactly what it is necessary to open files of this type. Even if you enter the registration data into the registry section responsible for initializing the extensions, the user will not achieve anything concrete. Yes, the extension will be registered, but the system cannot find a way to open the file.
Incompatible file systems and architectures
Quite often, the problem is that a PC user is trying to install a driver or a 64-bit program into a 32-bit system. Actually, even the compatibility of the NTFS (NTFS5) or ReFS file system for FAT32 disks and partitions when installing a newer or higher version is simply not provided.
On the contrary - please, no problem. Programs designed to work in FAT32 file systems easily work in NTFS. The only thing worth paying attention to is the moment when a message appears stating that the application is not a Win32 application. How to fix this situation, even if the file system is the same, for example, is NTFS in Windows 7 and Windows XP Vista? The fact is that 64-bit versions of programs for the 64-bit "seven" are not accepted by earlier versions like XP or Vista. Here you will have to look for the 32-bit version for NTFS file systems.
Problems with installation distributions and archives
In some cases, phenomena of this kind can also be observed in standard situations related to damage to the installation distribution package or the unpacked archive.
So, for example, when opening an archive created using the 64-bit version of WinRAR 5 in an archiver version lower than this, you can easily get an error and a message stating that the application is not a Win32 application. What to do in this case? Yes, everything is simple. You just need to find the corresponding file, packed using the same archiver, but the version is 32 bits.
What if the application is not a Win32 application?
But this, all, as they say, flowers. Quite often, you may encounter unpleasant situations, when the user is firmly convinced that the file of the program or driver is not damaged or underloaded, and the system still displays a message that the application is not a Win32 application. What to do in such a situation is easy to understand by the example of entering specialized data into the system registry. To do this, download the Win32.reg file and run it once. After that, the problem should disappear.
Sometimes this technique does not work. Most likely, the error problem is related to updating the Microsoft .NET Framework.
If, say, version 2.0 is installed on the computer terminal, it is highly recommended to update it either automatically or manually. To do this, you can use the same "Windows Update" or download the distribution kit on the official Microsoft update support site.
The same goes for platforms like JAVA or Microsoft Visual C ++ Distributable Package (x86 or x64). Updating is done in a similar way.